[lug] Network card errors due to Windoze

[D. Stimits]

You can use lspci to view pci settings, and setpci to set them. On
redhat, package pciutils provides this. What you can do is power off
completely, such that it will work upon boot, then use lspci to view
settings. Now do this in windows, and reboot such that it fails. Use
lspci, and compare the results. Use setpci to force values required.
However, the driver might or might not be able to work with this, the
initial boot might tell it things are not right, and it could refuse to
work even after setpci. On the other hand, if you put that into an
earlier part of booting, it will probably be ok. Alternatively, if it
fails after setpci, you might be able to remove/insert any modules if
done in module format, and have the reinsert of modules act to
reactivate the driver under the new settings.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

Glenn Murray wrote:
> 
> Dan and George, thanks!
> 
> There seems to be consensus that the card needs to be reinitialized
> when Linux boots.  This makes a lot of sense as the LED's on the back
> of the card keep flashing even when the computer is "off", and I have
> to turn off the power strip to make them stop (and reset the card).
> See the relevant quote below.  As it does not seem to be possible to
> reset the card from the BIOS, is it possible to reset it by the
> driver?  I understand that the tulip driver works as well as the
> manufacturer-supplied dmfe driver.  The latter takes no parameters.
> 
> Relevant quote from http://www.scyld.com/expert/modules.html
> **************************************************
> Quick summary: restore operation by unplugging the machine after
> running an OS that disables the card. Merely using the "soft-off"
> pushbutton on a ATX case is not sufficient.
> 
> Many modern PCI chips have ACPI power management capability. Some
> include a mode known as "D3-cold", where the chip can power itself
> off. When in this mode the chip uses only the tiny amount of stand-by
> power always available when an ATX power supply is plugged in. In the
> D3-cold mode the chip can be turned on only by writing a PCI
> configuration space register. This works great if you have a
> ACPI-aware BIOS that knows how to re-enable the chip on a warm boot,
> but older BIOS don't know that the chip cannot retain configuration
> information. When the machine is warm booted the chip has only invalid
> configuration information.
> 
> The PnP OS problem occurs because Microsoft has convinced BIOS makers
> to modify their PCI device configuration from the previous rational
> standard, to one that works well only with Microsoft operating
> systems. Where previously the BIOS allocated resources for and enabled
> the PCI device by default, it now does so only for boot devices and
> audio devices. (Why are audio devices specifically an exception?
> Because MS-Windows can't handle the resource allocation for them!)
> 
> The solution is to either update to the latest driver, (the drivers
> are being re-worked to enable the devices) or to disable the "PnP OS"
> setting in the machine's BIOS setup.
> 
> The reason Microsoft had to have this change implemented for them was
> that MS-Windows still handles some devices with "real-mode" drivers,
> and this change makes it easier to mix real-mode and protected-mode
> device drivers. This is an excellent example of Microsoft using its
> dominant position in the software industry force a technical change
> that is detrimental to other operating systems.
> **************************************************** end of quote
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