Re: NI6510: LANCE time out on transmit

[Klaus Espenlaub <espenlaub@informatik.uni-ulm.de>]

Frank Mehnert wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, you wrote:
> 
> > If the detected values are wrong the detection code needs to be fixed,
> > otherwise the card initialisation is most likely to be buggy.  Any
> > volunteers?  I don't own one of these cards, not even a PCI one - just a
> > virtual card provided by a VMware 2.0 evaluation which is about to expire.
> 
> Does etherboot 4.5.6 work correct with VMware 2 now? I use GNU GRUB which
> includes etherboot 4.4.3, I think. So I don't testet etherboot 4.5.6.

Yes, Etherboot 4.5.6 works with VMware 2.0.  At least it works for me.
I fixed it and I even fixed the relevant docs.  VMware writes two log entries
which I don't understand.  Maybe someone from VMware can check their sources
to find out in what situation these log entries are written and give us a hint
on what to change to get rid of the last strange bits.

Oh - as a user of GRUB you might be also interested that Etherboot not supports
rudimentary Multiboot loading, too.  The current code is nowhere near GRUB, but
it works for me :).  Also Etherboot 4.5.6 supports NFS, so one less protocol to
support on your server.

But don't be too enthusiastic - VMware doesn't support boot ROMs and it also
emulates a 10Mbps card.  And they emulate the speed VERY well, even in a system
with a 100Mbps card :(

Someone with a full VMware license should nag them into a few detail improvements
like full speed support (which might mean to emulate a newer PCnet card) and
to support boot ROMs).  I doubt they have the manpower to listen to an evaluation
license owner's complaints (at least they showed no reaction to any of my
incident reports or suggestions).

I will eventually get a license (as soon as my boss is back and he gets the
administration to pay the bill), but my current evaluation license expires in
a few days...

Klaus
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