DOCUMENT ID: 1495-02

SYNOPSIS:    Adding a PCMCIA Ethernet card

OS RELEASE:  Solaris x86 2.4, with Driver Update 6 and above

PRODUCT:     PCMCIA device drivers

KEYWORDS:    Solaris PCMCIA PC-Card Ethernet 3C589 3C589B Configuration


SYMPTOMS: 

The card is not recognized or does not seem to work.


DESCRIPTION:

See the problem descriptions below for the 3COM Etherlink III PCMCIA
card (the 3C589 and 3C589B).  These steps can also help with other
PCMCIA ethernet cards, as well as ethernet cards in general. 


SOLUTION:

When using an Etherlink III PCMCIA (3C589 or 3C589B), you *must* set up
the interface correctly for the cable type you are using.  If it is set
in Auto-Select, it will *only* work with the 10Base-T cable. 

Also note that when coax is set as the interface type, the LED on the
card edge is *always* lit - regardless of whether you have a valid
connection to a "live" network cable. 

Using a combination of 'prtconf' and 'ifconfig' you can generally figure
out what is wrong and fix it. 

Here are the various likely methods that can mess up the installation,
along with some ways you can tell what is going wrong. 

Scenario Number One
===================

Problem: After installing the Distribution and PCMCIA Driver Update
disks editing the files as described in the Driver Update Guide, your
'prtconf' only shows the 'pcmcia, instance #0' driver. 

Cause: You have installed the Driver Update correctly and the system
recognizes your PCMCIA chipset, but your card is not being seen during
the reconfiguration (either via 'b -r' or 'touch /reconfigure'.  During
the boot you should see the message 'ifconfig: plumb: pcelx0: no such
interface'.  You can verify this yourself by entering 'ifconfig pcelx0
plumb'. 

Solution: Your card is probably not plugged in or is not in the correct
slot.  It is *highly* recommended that you use slot 0 (sometimes marked
slot 1) for any PCMCIA ethernet card. 

Note: If you plug in your card at this point, try doing a 'prtconf'
again.  You should now see 'pcelx0, instance #0' showing up, indented
under the 'pcmcia, instance #0' line.  If you 'ping' at this point you
will get "ICMP Host Unreachable ..." errors.  You must do an 'ifconfig
pcelx0 plumb x.x.x.x netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast x.x.x.0 up'
(assuming a class C address, of course).  You should now see it up and
running when you do an 'ifconfig -a' and 'ping' should work.  If it
still isn't working, check into Scenario Number Two, below. 


Scenario Number Two
===================

Problem: You have done the installation, as in Scenario Number One, but
in this case 'prtconf' shows that both 'pcmcia, instance #0' and
(indented) 'pcelx0, instance #0' are loaded.  No error messages show up
during the boot and an 'ifconfig pcelx0 plumb' also completes with no
error.  Yet you can not ping any machine but yours. 

Cause #1:     You are not connected to the network.

Solution #1:  Check your cable.  Try another cable that you know is good 
              or try another card.  The connector in the card and the cable 
              can be damaged where you can not see it. 


Cause #2:     You have not configured the card for the type of cable you 
              are using. 

Solution #2:  Using the configuration disk, boot up under MS-DOS and run 
              the 3C589CFG.EXE program.  Configure the interface type for 
              either 'TP' (10Base-T / Twisted Pair) or 'Coax' (Thin-Net).  
              If you have 'Auto' selected the Solaris driver will only work 
              with a 10Base-T connection. 


Summary
=======

When using a 10Base-T cable, you will see the LED on the edge of the
card light up when it is connected to a "live" network connection *and*
power to the PCMCIA socket is on (handled by the driver being loaded for
PCMCIA).  When the card is configured for a coax cable the LED will
*always* be lit as soon as power is supplied to the PCMCIA socket, a
good connection can not be determined from the LED for coax cables. 

For many other cards you have to use a configuration program to set them
up properly.  For this reason it is often best to have a small DOS
partition that has all the configuration software you need for your
machine.  If you also keep drivers and testing programs there you will
have an independent means of checking your hardware when it does seem to
work under Solaris.  This can be good for Video cards, Mice, Ethernet
cards, SCSI cards, and anything else you add to an x86 system.  I
typically create a 32MB partition, which is more than enough. 


DATE APPROVED: 09/05/95