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Date:      Mon, 2 Oct 1995 15:09:15 -0700 (MST)
From:      Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
To:        jagnew@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Howland Jared Agnew)
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: ethernet
Message-ID:  <199510022209.PAA22622@phaeton.artisoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.OSF.3.91.951002174431.24390A-100000@csugrad.cs.vt.edu> from "Howland Jared Agnew" at Oct 2, 95 05:46:55 pm

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> 
> I have the 3com ethernet card 10 base T
> The default kernel will probe and find the card only if I have rebooted 
> the machine from freebsd
> If I ctrl alt del from a c:(msdos0 prompt and use the default boot manager
> freebsd must be booted and then rebooted to find the card.
> If anyone knows of a fix for this would you please write


Turn off "plug n play" on the card and statically configure the address
and interrupt for the card in your DOS software.

The problem is that in "plug n play" mode, DOS can relocate the card.

Once relocated, BSD can't find it because it can't do the "plug n play"
probe for the card.


Typically, DOS can do the "plug n play" probe for the card because you
loaded a driver off the disk and thus DOS knows there's a card of that
type there.  Therefore it's safe to destructively probe for the card.

Typically BSD can not because BSD comes with drivers for lots of cards,
and if it assumed there were cards there, it could mess up other cards
or CMOS settings by probing for something that isn't there.  One cards
probe is another cards CMOS settings.

Typically, Win95 comes with lots of drivers (like BSD) but can do the
"plug n play" proble (like DOS) because Win95, during initial install
or during "add hardware" will destructively probe for all the cards
for which it has drivers.  It keeps a log of what it was probing, and
if it crashes, you have to manually reboot it, and it will restart
after the unsuccessful probe that cause the crash.  You may have to
reboot as many as 10 or 12 times, if you are "lucky" enough to have a
CDROM on a soundblaster or similar card that isn't very robust in the
face of other (nonexistant) cards being probed.

BSD does not currently implement this type of install-time probing, but
because of this, BSD probes tend to be less destructive than Win95 probes.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.



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