Hello,
Anders Topper <topper@link.no> wrote:
> The script wants me to specify a hardware IRQ-address,
> and I can't find any setting that works.
>
> Indeed, I can't see that this card really should need a
> hardware IRQ specification.
The 3C503 uses a National 8390 chip, which is the same as on NE2000 cards
and which indeed uses an interrupt line. As far as I understand the packet
driver sources, this IRQ line is automatically set to 2 at power up, and
will be set to a value in the range 2 to 5 by the packet driver according
to it's command line arguments. That means, you have to give an interrupt
number on the command line which is not yet used by your system, and the
packet driver will care for setting the hardware accordingly.
> >From the Linux "Ethernet-HOWTO"
>
> "Usually, specifying an interrupt value for the 3c503 is not
> necessary. The 3c503 will autoIRQ when it gets ifconfig'ed, and pick
> one of IRQ{5, 2/9, 3, 4}."
>
> The card works fine with the Linux driver without any
> IRQ specifications at all.
The Linux kernel knows about the interrupts the other ISA cards in the system
are using, and can therefore select a line which is not yet in use when con-
figuring the network card. It then tries to set the 3C503 to use one of those
free interrupts and checks if the card is able to respond on that line. Un-
fortunately, the packet driver has no such knowledge about already used inter-
rupt lines, and can therefore not provide such an autodetect feature. You have
to tell it which interrupt line is available.
> What should I specify for IRQ when making bootrom with Netboot?
You can take a look at what the Linux kernel found as a working interrupt
line for the 3C503 (cat /proc/interrupts) and use that interrupt number for
the packet driver.
gero.
--
The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand
what he finds. - Claude Bernard
--
Gero Kuhlmann, Hannover 0511/6497525 (Voice) gero@gkminix.han.de
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