Re: ASDG EB920 with no MAC Address PROM

[John Schuncke <jlschuncke%cox.net@localhost>]

Lance Tagliapietra wrote:

> John,
>
> I was under the impression that NetBSD supported the ASDG ethernet
> card. I have a couple of these cards, and the one with the PROM
> did work correctly with NetBSD.  
>  
"support": yes, it basically works, if you can resolve interrupt issues 
and find a way to provide a MAC address. I'm personally hopeful.

> The PROM is a 32x8-bit 74S288.  I found these listed in the Jameco
> catalog.
>  
True, at about $7 apiece. I'm thinking about buying one, I haven't a 
compatible programmer, and they aren't cheap. (Cheapest I can find is > 
$300 US.)

> I have not pulled the programmed prom I have to determine how the
> ethernet address is encoded to program a prom for my other card,
> so I am also interested if you get this problem solved.
>  
I'd be darn curious myself. Looking at the relevant chunk of 
/usr/src/sys/arch/amiga/dev/if_ed.c, it seems that the device driver 
reads 6 consecutive bytes from the bottom of the PROM. (If I'm 
understanding the address offset #define statements correctly.) I'm 
halfway tempted to whack up an emulator board and play with addressing 
and formatting. I'd certainly be cheaper than buying a programmer and a 
fistful of PROMS for trial-and-error. (An emulator would make 
trial-and-error cheaper, anyways.)

> Note that this card was not completely supported during the install.  It
> seems that its interrupt may be left on an unhandled.  I had to install
> with the card plugged in, but not connected to my LAN, or the install
> would lock up.  It took me a few weeks of trial and error before I
> determined what the problem was.
>  
I've read reports of unhandled interrupts trashing the system during 
install. More importantly, though, I believe you have to jumper the 
board for interrupt 2. The (often hardwired) default is int 6, which 
apparently can interfere with disk and serial handling. Also, I think 
the kernel is hardcoded for interrupt 2. I had to rework the circuit 
board of my EB920, replacing the hardwire jumper for int 6 with a real 
jumper pin block and a jumper (selected to int 2). I didn't have any 
problems with the NIC during my setup. YMMV.

> --Lance
> Lance Tagliapietra <lancetag%luminet.net@localhost>
>  
--

John L. Schuncke, Jr.   <jlschuncke%cox.net@localhost>
Bithead, nethopper, computer archaeologist
-- I'm into SOFTWARE! -- Zippy the Programmer --