Re: using AUI port of 3c529 (MCA) network card
At 11:16 PM 7/29/99 -0400, I wrote:
>I've been unsuccessful in getting my 3Com 3c529 MCA Ethernet card to
>communicate with the network using the AUI port, although the 10baseT
>(twisted pair) connection with the card works fine. The 3c529 is the MCA
I've now been able to answer my own question, so I will post what I learned
in the hopes that it may save the souls of countless others.
After numerous hours of compiling kernels with various modifications to the
3c509.c source, we (most of the time was put in by a good friend) finally
realized that we are utterly unable to make the card use its AUI port by
making modifications in the Linux drivers or running other software. We
tried using the 3Com Etherdisk for the 3c529, but even that is unable to
set the card's state as either 10baseT or AUI. Further research and
reading on 3Com's site finally reveals that there is no software that can
modify these settings, but instead the configuration must be changed at the
top level of the MCA bus, using the IBM Reference Disk. From the Reference
Disk menu, we were able to "Set Configuration" and change the 3c529 card in
the correct slot to use the External (AUI) transceiver instead of the
default RJ45 (TP). Subsequently, the 3c509 driver automatically detected
the card in AUI mode, and all worked correctly.
May that be a lesson to all of you with MCA hardware out there! It must be
configured from the Reference Disk, not with software.
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