Problem with a NIC in FBSD 6.2

[PU]

Thank you all, for your replies. After messing around and trying a few
things (including messing with the BIOS settings by disabling serial and
parallel ports as well as manually setting IRQs), I ended up taking out one
of the Netgear cards and putting in an old 3com 3c905 that I had sitting
around. Once I did that, I was able to install with no problem and all the
cards are recognized with no conflicts.

And, to answer Iams question: It's for a firewall. :)

Thanks much,

Peter

On 7/2/07, Norberto Meijome <freebsd at meijome.net> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:24:47 -0500
> Tim Daneliuk <tundra at tundraware.com> wrote:
>
> > PU wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I have a bit of a problem I'm hoping someone here can help with. I
> built a
> > > 6.2 FBSD box and wound up with a bad NIC out of 3 and what I thought
> might
> > > have been a bad pci slot. I replaced the NIC with a new one, and moved
> the
> > > card to another slot just to make sure I took care of the problem.
> > > However, now when I boot up, my rl0 interface is recognized, but isn't
> > > 'initialized'. What I mean by that is that I see entries in dmesg, but
> an
> > > ifconfig does not show that interface. I can't even plumb the thing as
> the
> > > OS says it doesn't exist. What really throws me is that the other two
> NICs
> > > and a video card that were also moved are recognized with no problems
> at
> > > all. Problems just seem to follow the rl0 interface.
> >
>
> [....]
> > b) All NICs work in some slots but fail on others.  This would hint
> >     to one of two possibilities:  A bad PCI slot or a motherboard
> >     that does strange and perverse things by hardwiring certain
> >     interrupts to certain slot positions (yes, I've seen this and
> >     it's maddening).  Remedy:  Run over the motherboard with a large
> >     tank.
>
> Before heading to your local military surplus shop for a second hand tank,
> you
> may want to have a play with the PCI IRQ settings in your motherboard :
> - Change them from auto to one different IRQ to each slot.
>
> - DISABLE devices you dont need. Do you need 2 COM ports + LPT + who knows
> what
> else? This is usually the problem - you're NIC, in a certain pci slot,
> conflicts with other devices.
>
> In most motherboards, the IRQ assignment is shown just after POST and just
> before the OS boots (best way to see it is to remove all bootable devices
> so
> it's stuck after POST). You *really* want to have individual IRQs for each
> NIC.\
>
> I've had this problem with some ASUS motherboards, Award bios + 3+  fxp
> cards.
>
> [....]
> _________________________
> {Beto|Norberto|Numard} Meijome
>
> Law of Conservation of Perversity:
>   we can't make something simpler without making something else more
> complex
>
> I speak for myself, not my employer. Contents may be hot. Slippery when
> wet.
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> been
> Warned.
>