Help building a driver for 3CR990B-LB-97

[Rick Meyer]

Update on 3COM Network Driver for Linux 2.6.x - I spoke to 3COM today and
the only way get Linux support is only through the 3COM knowledge base or to
call them.  The email address for Linux support bounces and they no longer
accept requests for Linux drivers via e-mail.

So I asked for a 2.6 Kernel Driver for the 3CR990 to be built.  However I
was not given any response at all other than the request has been passed on.
3Com will not keep me informed about the request, whether it was accepted or
not.  

I can only check the knowledge base from time to time to see if a driver was
built.  Other than that (I'm told) there is no other way to check the driver
status for the 3CR990B network card. 

What kind of support is that?

Arrrrg!
Rick Meyer



-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com]
On Behalf Of Rick Meyer
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 5:59 AM
To: 'Fritz Whittington'
Cc: fedora-list at redhat.com
Subject: Help building a driver for 3CR990B-LB-97

Thanks Fritz for taking a look at this.  I'll ask 3Com to provide the source
for the 2.6 Kernel and see what they say.  

Thanks again!

-----Original Message-----
From: Fritz Whittington [mailto:f.whittington at att.net] 
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 9:49 PM
To: rick at workcity.ca
Subject: Re: Help building a driver for 3CR990B-LB-97

On or about 2004-09-13 13:00, Rick Meyer whipped out a trusty #2 pencil 
and scribbled:

>Fritz,
>
>	Thanks for taking a look at this for me.  I have included the tar
>file and also some instructions from 3Com that I got off their website.  I
>tried to compile it - however - just got a pile of errors.  
>
>Thanks for the help!
>Rick
>  
>
Well, there's no help for this one, I guess.  I first put it on my 
newer, faster machine and got a HUGE pile of errors.  Thought I had it 
figured out, because if you just install the kernel source but never 
actually configure it and compile the kernel, there are a lot of include 
files that aren't there.  So I moved over to my older machine, on which 
I had compiled the kernel before, and tried it there.  That got me down 
to only about one screenful of warnings and errors, but some are 
showstoppers, especially a couple of assembly language IRQ files that 
don't match up with what the driver source expects.

So, you can go back to the 2.4 kernel (FC1, I don't think you're going 
to get FC2 to run on a 2.4 kernel, but it might be worth asking the 
list).  Or you could ask 3Com to fix it for the 2.6 kernel (which they 
really SHOULD be doing, since 2.4 is semi-obsolete already).  Or maybe 
there's a generic 3Com driver that would make the board function as a 
plain-vanilla NIC without using its super-duper features.   Of course, 
if the source is truly Open then perhaps some of the driver-writer gurus 
could tweak it to work under 2.6.  You may just have to put up with a 
plain ol' regular NIC for a little while, if that's possible.

-- 
Fritz Whittington
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who
dream only by night. (Edgar Allan Poe, "Eleonora")





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