I've had the same problem.. Aside from Cooker not wanting to mount my local
CD-rom drives. I figured I had a bad image and made it work, but when I
tried a network install I received the same error about not being able to
connect to the DHCP server. I'm afraid I didn't write down the information
found in the other terminals.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond S. Swaim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 6:06 PM
Subject: [Cooker] Problems with 3Com 3c905C-TX
>
> I just bought a new PC: a Dell Dimension 4100 which came
> with a 3com 3C905C-TX Fast Etherlink).
>
> I can't get the 3com NIC to initialize and retrieve my
> IP address via DHCP on bootup. During bootup, when it
> tries to initialize the NIC, it hangs, and eventually
> times out with a error that DHCP retrieval failed. The
> NIC is connected to a cable modem and I use the Austin
> Roadrunner service.
>
> HardDrake identifies my NIC as a 3c905 NIC (which is
> correct), but it installs the 3c59x module instead of the
> 3c90x module. From what I've gathered from the newsgroups,
> it appears that the 3c59x module works for *some* 3c905
> NICs, but not all of them. Perhaps it works with earlier
> kernel revisions, or with earlier 3c905 NICs. All I know
> is that it definitely does not work with mine.
>
> If I unload the 3c59x module, and install the 3c90x module,
> I can get the NIC to work after two ifup attempts. In other
> words, I type the following:
>
> rmmod 3c59x
> modprobe 3c90x
>
> and then type:
>
> ifup eth0
>
> The first time I use the ifup command, it hangs when it
> tries to retrieve my IP address. I Cntl-Z to stop it,
> then try again, and it works on the 2nd attempt.
>
> I then replaced the line in modules.conf that read:
> "alias eth0 3c59x" with "alias eth0 3c90x." The module
> loads when I boot up, but I still hang on bootup when
> the NIC tries to retrieve my IP address.
>
> The only way I've managed to get on the net with the
> card is to manually load the module and manully
> "ifup eth0" each time I boot up, which is a pain.
>
> I have a multi-boot setup in which I was running
> Linux-Mandrake on one partition and use another partition
> as a test-bed. I decided to see if any of the other
> distributions had the same results, so I decided to reformat
> my test-bed partition and try the other distros . So far,
> Suse Linux 6.4 and 7.0 is the only ones I've had success
> with. Suse loads the 3c90x module instead of the 3c59x,
> and works on bootup without any problems. I've also tried
> Storm and Debian, but neither one of them worked because
> they both loaded the 3c59x module and don't even include a
> 3c90x module at all.
>
> I've tried the drivers from http://www.scyld.com/ but have
> had no success in compiling them, and the drivers from
> supplied from 3Com were developed for kernel rev 2.2.12 and
> earlier.
>
> Anyway, I think this might be something you'll want to
> address before the next release of Linux-Mandrake. These
> 3Com NICs are very common.
>
> Raymond S. Swaim
>
