==================================================================== BSDwall Network Card Support Disk ==================================================================== I. What this Disk Is This disk is a bootable OpenDOS floppy obtained via free download from the drdos.org site. It includes DR-DOS utilities that may be of use in managing hard drives (FORMAT, UNFORMAT, SYS), and a more reliable (and GPL'd) FDISK than DR-DOS's, from Brian E. Reifsnyder (reifsnyderb@mindspring.com) but primarily contains configuration programs for various network cards found to work with OpenBSD in firewalls. These programs may be used to set the Plug&Play (PNP) status of the network cards, their Interrupt (IRQ) number, port memory location, and whether their "Boot PROM" is on and if so, to what memory location. II. What this disk Is NOT This disk does NOT contain any drivers for these NICs. It cannot be used to get them working with DOS, Windows, or anything else. It can only be used to change settings on the cards. III. Copyright Everything on this disk, except the batch files, is copyright by DR-DOS or by the manufacturers of the various cards. I have taken the liberty of assuming that, since they all provide this content freely on the Net, they will not object strenuously to my passing it along in this integrated form, as part of a free software project. The intent of this material is to make the hardware in question MORE USEFUL to owners of that hardware. If any hardware manufacturers would rather make the buying public more reluctant to use their products, they have only to ask me to remove the offending material. BSDwall will get along with the other products. The amazing 4K program, EZedit, has been released for free distribution by its author, Craig Hessel, who is a freaking genius and a generous gentleman. ============================= THE BEEF ============================== 3COM Network Cards ------------------- This disk has config programs for every (ISA) 3COM NIC I could locate, as well as the internal help file for the 3COM Etherlink III configure program, and some helpful advice for 3COM users in "3comINFO.txt". 3COM cards are to be preferred if you can afford them; they are plentiful at 1/3 of their new price in used parts shops, and are still available new...unlike just about every other ISA NIC on the market. The IRQ, memory, and Boot Prom settings needed to make 3COM cards work with OpenBSD vary between models: MODEL IRQ Memory Boot PROM OpenBSD Name for NIC Etherlink Plus 5 310 n/a eg0 Etherlink II (3c503) 9 250 D8000 ec0 Etherlink III (3c509) any any ep0 ...but I myself had trouble with Etherlink III cards set to 11/210. I have tested: 11/300, 11/320, 10/210, 7/210, 7/360, 12/360 and found them all fine. For three of these, I've supplied batch files that set an Etherlink III directly without going through the menus in the config program. For Etherlink III (all models) Batch Command Settings 3COM11 IRQ=11, memory=220 ** PREFERRED 3COM7 IRQ=7, memory=360 ** Conflicts with Printer if any Normally, just run "3com11" and you're done - but if it doesn't work for some reason, try 3com7. I can't see somebody using their firewall also for printing. "3C509" should really read "3C5x9x". Any card with any character where I've put "x" should work: 3c509B's are the most common, but the program will also set 3c579 cards that fit in the EISA bus. WARNING: Do NOT use TWO 3COM cards in one firewall!! They will work, but you will see a dramatic slowing of throughput on long file downloads. Reason unknown -- may relate to buffers used by the driver. I have not verified whether this problem occurs with one ISA 3COM card and one PCI 3COM card, or with two PCI cards; but it is a strong effect with two ISA cards - up to 75% speed loss. And two 3COM EISA cards (3c579) cannot even work in one machine - they both get handed IRQ 11 automatically. All configure programs on this disk are for ISA cards; I have never had to do any configuration on a PCI network card for OpenBSD or Linux, so there should be no need. NE2000 Clone Network Cards -------------------------- All the other NIC cards supported on this disk are NE2000 clones. These have a bad reputation, mostly deserved. But with only a few concerns, all of the cards mentioned here seem to work quite well with OpenBSD. One card not mentioned, but recommended, is the A/Open ALN-101. A/Open seems to have discontinued them in favour of the AON-101, but the earlier card worked better with BSD. It ran as a true "Plug&Play" card, as ne3 (or ne4 for the second one if you use two), completely automatically configured by BSD itself. THERE IS NO NEED FOR A CONFIGURE PROGRAM. The AON-101 says it is Plug&Play, but OpenBSD doesn't agree - you must turn off Plug&Play and manually configure it with the SETUP.EXE program included on this disk. (Use the AON101 batch command.) There are only 3 acceptable settings for non-PNP NE2000 clone network cards for BSD: IRQ Memory Boot PROM OpenBSD Name for NIC 9 240 D8000 ne0 10 300 n/a ne1 9 280 n/a ne2 NOTES: For ne1 and ne2, be sure that "boot prom" is turned OFF by the configure program you use. Also be sure Plug&Play, if any, is turned OFF. For ne0, note that the memory location for the Boot PROM, "D8000" may be shown only as "D800" with the last zero missing. Don't be fooled. Some of the configure programs here allow settings to be done from the command line. Where possible, a batch file is supplied to just directly set the card to No PNP, IRQ 10, memory 300 (the "ne1" setting) and save you finding your way through the menus. When you have to set things yourself, note that often settings don't take effect until after a full turn-off, turn-on cycle. Do a complete "cold boot" before starting OpenBSD. Here are the cards so far tested, their config programs, and the batch files that start them on this disk: CARD BRAND & MODEL Config Program Batch file Batch file to set ne1 A/Open ALN-101 (not needed) A/Open AON-101 Setup.exe AON-101 GVC-2005 Setup.exe GVC2005 GVC-2003 NicSet.exe GVC2003 AT/LANtic AutoNic.exe Atlantic Atlanten AT-2000 Diag.exe AT2K AT2K10 D-Link 220 DLink220.exe NB: I gather the DLink220.exe program works on other D-Link models as well. In fact, if you have any kind of NE2000 clone, one of these programs may configure it. I found by pure chance that the GVC-2005 card, which can NOT be configured by the NicSet.exe program used by the GVC-2003, can be perfectly configured by the "setup.exe" program provided by A/Open for the AON-101. NE2000 clone cards of many brands probably use only a few different chip sets, so you may well be able to use one card's program to configure another. Needless to say, NO WARRANTY is provided on that last statement...or anything else provided by the BSDwall project. NOTES: 1) The file AT2000.txt is also provided, it has considerable help for the DIAG.EXE program provided with the AT-2000 card. 2) A batch file called FIX.BAT is also provided to automatically run the command: FDISK /MBR If you get OpenBSD to install, but it will not boot beyond one line saying "partition 3", then try running FIX. This command rewrites the starting block on your hard disk that may not be right for running OpenBSD.