Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 08:54:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Obtaining 3Com programming documentation Message-ID: <199807171254.IAA06263@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Anybody know the right place/person from which to obtain programming documentation for 3Com ethernet chips? We recently received two Dell GX1 systems as donations from Intel as part of a testbed system that some people in the EE department will be using in cooperation with a researcher from Intel. The systems actually have the Dell markings replaced with big 'Donated by Intel' signs but you can still tell they're Dells. Anyway, the machines have integrated 3Com 3c905B 'Cyclone' chips in them which, of course, don't work right in FreeBSD. My experiments so far indicate that the problem is that the first time a packet is received, the chip generates an interrupt flood. After the interrupt routine is invoked, there's a function that's supposed to remove the received frame from the chip: this function is supposed to read a status register from the window 1 register set so that it can learn the size of the packet, but the value read is always 0. This means the packet is never taken off the chip and the chip keeps interrupting forever, which wedges the system pretty tightly. I have the source for a Linux driver which claims to support this chip, but an actual programming manual would be better. Of course, 3Com doesn't seem to have any such info on their web servers. Any other driver programmers know the right trees to shake at 3Com? I really need to get this stupid thing working to make the Intel guy happy (to say nothing of certain Columbia EE faculty). -Bill PS: These systems also came with Adaptec 2940 U/UW controllers with the 7895 chip. This forced me to download the CAM snapshot in order to even get the machines running. The CAM stuff seems to work fine so far, though at the moment we only have the one SCSI disk attached. Please tell me there will be driver support for these bastiches in FreeBSD 3.0-RELEASE. PPS: Amusingly, whoever assembled the systems at Dell used the wrong pre-loaded LoseNT 4.0 disk image which did not have the correct driver loaded to support this controller: the machines blue-screened immediately after we first turned the systems on, with the Intel researcher looking on. I got a good laugh. Well, for a little while. Then I had to re-load LoseNT. PPPS: This is the second time I've had to do FreeBSD development work as part of my job. (The first time was writing the ThunderLAN driver.) Maybe the world isn't so screwed up after all. -- ============================================================================= -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ============================================================================= "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness" ============================================================================= To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199807171254.IAA06263>