Hello everybody.
I'm going to hide a non-linux-specific arcnet question inside of a
possibly linux-specific arcnet question. Hope no one minds. :)
First of all, the linux-specific (possibly) one:
I have a few old SMC Arcnet PC 1xx cards (110, 120, & 130). 8-bit
beauties. I can get the arcnet.o module loaded and the com90xx.o module
runs wonderfully as well - BUT... whenever I do an 'ifconfig arc0', here's
what happens...
#modprobe arcnet (the com90xx driver will load it automatically,
too)
#modprobe com90xx io=0x2e0 irq=2 shmem=0xd0000
#ifconfig arc0
arc0 Link encap:UNSPECHWaddrFE-00-00-00-00-00-00-F9-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
-00
unspec addr:[NONE SET] Bcast:[NONE SET] Mask:[NONE SET]
BROADCAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:30
Interrupt:9 Base address:0x2e0 Memory:d0000-d07ff
Now, the thing that bugs me is the first line - "Link encap:UNSPEC"
The thing that also sort of bugs me is the HWaddr line, and why? Because
when I take the same card and plunk it in another machine, same thing,
except that now...
arc0 Link encap:ARCNet HWaddr FD
unspec addr:[NONE SET] Bcast:[NONE SET] Mask:[NONE SET]
BROADCAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:30
Interrupt:9 Base address:0x2e0 Memory:d0000-d07ff
hmmm... I don't know a damn thing about arcnet, so i don't know if this
matters or not. But it happens the same way with the other three cards (2
120's, a 110, and a 130 altogether). Same thing with different io
addresses, base memory points, and irq's. Maybe it's my kernel
configuration? I'm pretty sure it is my kernel configuration, but I don't
know what about my kernel config it is... If it would help to have the
.config, then I'll post it.
Like I said, I don't know a damn thing about arcnet - and this leads me to
the bonus question... Cabling, etc. Well, questions...
sub arcnet_question { # see - one question!
How picky are old arcnet cards?
I just want to do point-to-point - what do I need?
I have an RG 58/U coax cable. Everywhere I go I see RG 63, I think -
where do I find this (I believe that 63 is 93 ohms, and that the 58 is
50 ohms...)
Do I still need T-connectors for point-to-point?
If so, I need terminators - if I need terminators, do THEY have to be
93-ohms as well, or can they be 50?
Can I build my own terminators/t-connectors? If so, where can I get specs
for making a coax terminator?
If I can't build terminators, how much do they cost? Where can I get
them?
Do ALL Arcnet cards support both bus AND star topology?
Somewhere I saw that the SMC PC-1xx cards are only for star topology,
and that the PC-2xx cards were only for bus topology. Seeing as how
this is a bus topology, does this make it impossible?
I don't mean to sound like an idiot -ahem- but it's hard to find
arcnet-related stuff anywhere. I don't even know much about networking,
but I've pored over the HOWTO's, arcnet.txt and arcnet-hardware.txt, as
well as news archives, etc... ugh.
Finally - (okay, 2 unrelated questions. I lied) - assuming I can't build
the things I need (terminators, t-connectors - I'm very resourceful ;) )
does anyone know where I can find arcnet equipment? Used, preferably.
Cheap - even more preferably. Possibly in the Houston area? I have these
4 8-bit cards, and, in the future, I want to put them to use by making an
arcnet cluster at home here, then bridging it to the rest of my lan.
Any help is appreciated!!!
Sincerely thankful regards,
Michael Kroh
Arcnet Idiot
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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