3c905b-tx not working on fresh install of FreeBSD 5.0

Mon Sep 8 00:01:26 PDT 2003

To all:

I have just installed FreeBSD 5.0 on a Pent. 200 MMX w/192 MB RAM and 3-8 GB
HDs (SCSI-using AHA-2940U).  My NIC is a 3c905b-tx.  The motherboard is set
to non-plug-and-play.  While booting the NIC shows link on my hub, but no
activity (duh), but as soon as the kernel sends configuration parameters to
the NIC it goes offline...no link lights or anything.  I know the NIC works
fine as I was using it with Win98SE just minutes before loading FreeBSD 5.0.
I use the NICs config prog to check all the settings and they all appear to
be fine.  This is only my fourth install of FreeBSD so I am quite the
novice, but I have never ran in to an issue with the NIC doing this
before...

The NIC does state (hw-loopback) in ifconfig, but I can not find a way to
get this changed.  I have tried to set the mediaopt setting to 100baseTX or
even 10baseT/UTP, but neither fix the issue.  "ifconfig" sees the card fine
before I send the IP settings to the NIC, but once I set the IP the link
lights disappear.  The ifconfig command still shows my card, but I can't
ping outside the box.  I can ping the IP that I set to the NIC and the local
loopback.

Please help!!

V/R,
Wilson Steiger