Adding 3COM Etherlink Fast Ethernet 10/100 Mbps PCI card

[otocac01]

Hi All,

I tried to add this card to an RS6000 F40 server ( model 7024 E20 server ) running AIX 4.3.3.0 - I used the following procedure:

1) smitty chinet - selected interface et0 and tried to add IP Address and netmask )

2) The message below was displayed :

Command: failed stdout: yes stderr: no
Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.
Method error (/usr/lib/methods/chgif): 0514-068 Cause not known.
0821-510 ifconfig: error calling entry point for /usr/lib/drivers/if_en: specified device does not exist.
0821-223 chgif: Cannot get records from CuAt.
0821-229 chgif: ifconfig command failed.
The status of"et0" Interface in the current running system is uncertain.

3) repeated 1 and 2 for interface en0 and had the same result.

Our support area has been working on it for days ( I think its a driver issue ) but can anyone help with this.Any hints will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Oto

 

[bjverzal]

Which card are you adding ? There are several cards in the family you have mentioned.

Bill.

 

[MoshiachNow]

What are results of "cfgmgr -v" for this en0 ? "Long live king Moshiach !"

 

[JSiva]

Hi
Remove this en0, and try cfgmgr -v. See the result, if it comes back to the prompt means try smitty tcpip or smitty mktcpip or just smitty.

Also see whether it is in Defined state or in available state.

JSiva

 

[samizdat]

List the interface characteristcs (netstat -v). If the Device type is 'not':

Device Type: 3Com 3C905-TX-IBM Fast EtherLink XL NIC

you do not have the IBM version of the NIC. These have a special PROM in them that is different or absent from the P.C version and allows them to work with the RS/6000s. As I remember, the device will come up as defined but it cannot be made available. Good Luck.

 

[aixqueen]

7025-F40 RETAIN tip H161079
MUST BE INSTALLED IN SLOT 1-3 for 3 Com card

AIX 4.1 / 4.2 / 4.3 Files --> /usr/lpp/devices.pci.b7105090.rte
/usr/lpp/devices.pci.b7105090.diag
/etc/drivers/pci/v3boomdd

Drivers:
ftp://service.software.ibm.com/devices/rs6000/oemadapters/


I know you got the readme for this?
.but if not here it is...maybe it will have
some insight?

README:
COM 3C595 10/100 PCI Ethernet Adapter 3c595.dd.bin
This file is the InstallP format of the AIX DD
'devices.pci.b7105059'. This adapter and its associated DD is ONLY
supported on the 43P-7248 (100, 120 & 132) class of RS/6000 systems
using AIX Version 4.1.3 or later. The latest supported level of
this device driver is "2.4.0.0".

--------------------------------------------
On the Other type of 3 COM card:

3 Com 3C905-TX-IBM FAST Etherlink XL PCI 10/100 Ethernet FC 2986
3c905.dd.bin
This file is the installable format of the AIX DD
'devices.pci.b7105090' 3COM 3C905-TX-IBM Fast Etherlink XL PCI 10/100
PCI Ethernet card. The driver requires the Operating System to be at
a pre-5.1 AIX level. The user must be at this level of operating
system to get support from IBM.

AIX Supported Levels:

The ethernet card previously supported in pre-5.1 levels by fileset
devices.pci.b7105090 is not supported in AIX 5.1. After a migration
to 5.1 or if the user installs AIX 5.1 with the card in the machine,
the following messages may occur either to console or to log files:

Method error (/usr/lib/methods/cfgv3boom -l ent1 ):
0514-068 Cause not known.

cfgmgr: 0514-621 WARNING: The following device packages are required
for device support but are not currently installed.

devices.pci.b7105090 Not found on the installation media

This is not a software error. The user is advised to remove the
non-supported card as it will no longer configure under AIX 5.1.

Driver Supported Levels:

To find out the level of this driver on a system, search for
strings "devices.pci.b7105090.rte" and "devices.pci.b7105090.diag"
in the output of command 'lslpp -ah'


The latest supported level of this driver and its diagnostics are as
follows -

devices.pci.b7105090.rte 1.4.6.0
devices.pci.b7105090.diag 1.3.4.0

To find out the level of this driver on a system, search
for these strings in the output of 'lslpp -ah'
"devices.pci.b7105090.rte" and "devices.pci.b7105090.diag"

Normally, when a newer version of device driver is installed on an AIX
system as an update to an older version, the older version
automatically gets uninstalled. But for this driver if the older
version is of the form '0.xx.x.x', the uninstall DOES NOT happen
automatically and MUST BE UNINSTALLED MANUALLY. If this step is
overlooked, multiple entries will appear when running the command
'lsattr' on this device.

Please note that once a '1.x.x.x' version has been installed,
subsequent installs of the driver will ensure automatic uninstall of
the previous version.


Supported Systems:

The IBM version of this adapter and its associated device driver
is NOT SUPPORTED on RS/6000 system models 43P-7248 (100, 120 and
132). It is supported on all other PCI based RS/6000 systems.

For your awareness:

This device driver will work only if the adapter is the IBM
fulfilled version of 3C905. You can ensure that you have this
adapter by checking for a white sticker on the back of the card
which has two lines of text saying "IBM FRU P/N 94H0385"

WARNING: Please note that 3 Com also distributes a version of
3c905 card using the same root name ('3C905-TX') but
without the '-IBM'. Although the diagnostics runs on
this card and the card shows as '3C905-TX-IBM' in the
output of the command 'lsdev -C', THIS IS NOT AN IBM
SUPPORTED CARD and the driver will give the following
error -

Error 0514-040 "error initializing device into kernel"

10/100 Auto-Negotiation:

The adapter automatically determines the appropriate speed, and/or
duplex settings of a network,depending on the hub or device to
which it is connected. It does this using a 3COM developed
approach called NWAY. All components in the network need to
support the NWAY approach in order for autonegotiation and/or
autosense to work. There have been reported instances in which
some Cabletron (Ex.MM Mac+ 9C300-1) and Hitachi Hubs were not
compatible with the 3COM 3C905 card. This is because they did not
support the NWAY approach. Other hubs and adapter cards may not
support NWAY also.

All components in the network need to support the same
autonegotiation and autosense approach, if you want to be able to
specify autonegotiation and/or autosense as part of the adapter
configurations. Othewise, you must explicitly set the media mode
to be either half or full duplex and the speed to 10 or 100 Mbps,
depending on how the network is setup.

This is one of the key reasons, the 3COM warranty located in the
"Fast Etherlink XL PCI 10/100 Ethernet Guide" states: "3COM makes
no warranty that its software products will work in combination
with any hardware or applications software products provided by
third parties, that the operation of the software products will be
uninterrupted or error free, or that all defects in the software
products will be correct."

We strongly recommend that if your network hardware will be
provided by multiple vendors, you should fully test the
compatibilty of all hardware involved using real world scenerios.
There are no guarantees that multiple vendor hardware products will
be compatible and follow the same standards in the
autonegotiation/auto sense area.

----------------------------

 

[otocac01]

Hi Bill,levw,JSiva,samizdat,aixqueen et al,

Thanks for all the replies and for the useful information folks.It appers that the E20 server will be taken out of production and so I will now have to repeat this exercise and add this Model 3C905C-TX-M card to an F40 7025 server running an even older server runiing AIX 4.2.1.0 and so I will try out all these usefull hints.I will update the thread with all the details.

Cheers ,

Oto