Novell Cool Solutions Tip
By Neil Ritchie

I have discovered that Intel Pro 100 cards default to 10mb/half duplex during imaging if switch is hard-set to 100/full.

SOLUTION: Instead of changing the switch to autodetect, you can hard-set the card to 100/full with a few parameters in driver.conf in Linux.2

You need to modify the LINUX.2 file in SYS\\tftp. There is a TID outlining the procedure below, but I've included it anyway with my fix.

Here's what to do:

1. Copy the file to a linux box. I just set up FTP on the linux box and got it onto it that way.
2. Go to the directory you copied the file to on the linux box. Do the following:

   mv linux.2 linux.gz 
   (renames it to a gzipped file)
   
   gzip -d linux.gz 
   (extracts the zipped file)
   
   mount -o loop linux /mnt/-mountpoint- 
   (-mountpoint- being where you're mounting it to, 
   you can just use 'cdrom' if you like, 
   it's just directory)

3. Ensure the pwd (present working dir) is your mountpoint. Move to the /bin directory. Now you need to modify 'driver.conf'. Use the following if you're not familiar with vi:

   pico driver.conf
   (pico is a text editor)
   
   Insert the following line:
   
   insmod -f eepro100 options=0x30,0x30,0x30,0x30
   (load driver forced with all interfaces 
   set to 100/full duplex, no 
   autodetect)

4. Now exit, and save changes. Use the following to unmount and rezip the file with changes:

   umount /mnt/-mountpoint-
   
   gzip -9c linux > linux.gz
   
   mv linux.gz linux.2

5. Now copy the file back to SYS\\TFTP.

Assuming everything worked, it should fly now.

If you have any questions you may contact Neil at nritchie1@hotmail.com

Other Suggestions

Jeremy Mlazovsky

Feedback: Right before I found this Cool Solution, I found the following on Google. http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/2002-November/054135.html

If you run "/sbin/mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth0" this forces eth0 to use 100 Full Duplex (assuming it can do that). I am going to try adding that code to my boot CD.