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In article <slrn7iste3.fao.hughesr@nrpc.dnr.qld.gov.au>,
hughesr@nrpc.dnr.qld.gov.au (Rowan Hughes) wrote:
>I have two RTL8139A clone NICs (brand=Spirit Modems) that don't
>work very well with 2.0.X or 2.2.X drivers. Both drivers recognize
>the cards and give no error messages, and Becker's RTL8139 diagnostic
>test says the card is OK. The card sends/receives a few hundred
>bytes and then locks up for several mins. Both cards have been tried
>on 100B and 10B, full and half-duplex, lines and in several machines,
>all with the same result--it's not a H/W problem.  Spirit have told me
>that they've not modified the chipset in any way, except for the PCI ID.
>
>Any ideas?

Output of 'ifconfig'?

The  http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/rtl8139.html states:

    If you encounter Rx overflow errors and transmit timeouts you
    likely have the card in a non-bus-master slot.  Other possible
    problems are older PCI implementations, especially i486-class
    motherboards, that have bugs when using long PCI burst transfers.

I have a Accton Cheetah with a Realtek 8139, and the Accton driverdisk
A:\setup\set1207d.txt


    Hardware Configuration
    ======================

    *******************************
    *  1.  Adapter Configuration  *
    *******************************

    The adapter is configured using the host PCI computer's BIOS setup
    program.  This is done by changing the computer's BIOS setting to
    enable bus master mode, and then setting up the IRQ. The procedure
    to implement this and the terminology used depend on the BIOS you
    are using.

    Some BIOS have Bus Master mode enabled for all the motherboard's
    PCI expansion slots; others provide you the option of turning this
    feature on or off.  For example, if your computer uses the Phoenix
    BIOS, there is a "Device Select" field where you should input the
    slot number of the PCI slot where the adapter is installed, say
    "Slot 3 Device".  Then for the fields that read as "Enable Device"
    and "Enable Master" you should change the settings to "Enable".
    The same is true for the adapter's IRQ setting, which is mapped to
    the BIOS IRQ setup of the host PCI computer.

    Finally, you need to set the Trigger/Routing field to select the
    Trigger method by which the IRQ is assigned or routed to the PCI
    slot. There are three types of settings to choose from:

    *  Level/Auto - This is usually the default.  Choosing this option
       leaves the assigned IRQ free for other use if the installed
       card does not use it.

    *  Level/Forced - If you are not able get the PCI card to work
       properly, choose this option.  This will assign the specified
       IRQ permanently to the card.

    *  Edge/Auto - Some PCI boards support this option. Do not use it.


And; http://www.realtek.com.tw/cn/doc/8139A.htm

               PCI local bus single-chip Fast Ethernet controller
               Compliant to PCI Revision 2.2
               Supports PCI clock 16.75MHz-40MHz

What is the speed of the PCI-bus?  (dont know if that is a problem,
but curious.  I have 32MHz on a (couple of) motherboard from 1994.  Is
66MHz more common on new machines, dont know.)


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