Intel Pro100B under SCO OpenServer 5

Several problem will be encountered when configuring this interface under OpenServer 5.0.4. No testing has been carried out under earlier releases of OpenServer 5, but it is expected that similar problems will occur.

The procedure has been summarised in IPB3220 for the Pentium II FT1200 and is also relevant for any system with an on-board or add-in card Pro100B.

The following order should be used to configure a Pro100B:

1. During the installation of OpenServer 5.0.4 select the "defer" option for the auto-detection of the ethernet interface. This means that the interface is to be configured after installation by using the Network Configuration Manager (command line – netconfig). This is because the pcislot program fails to auto-detect the Pro100B. The Network Configuration Manager presents a list of all ethernet cards rather than identifying only the Pro100B. To cure this problem install the SCO "erg500402" patch from the Software Manager (custom). This patch is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online or the 1998 Quarter 1 Insight Classic CD as PCISCAN.Z. This file can be copied to a floppy or copied to the system as a Media Image filename VOL.000.000 for installation from the Software Manager (custom).
   
   
2. The Pro100B driver as shipped with OpenServer 5.0.4 is version 5.0.4d and whilst it is possible that it could be configured satisfactorily once the "erg500402" patch is installed we advise updating to version 5.0.4f as the slow performance problems identified below have still sometimes been seen. The SCO 5.0.4f Pro100B patch is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online and the next release of Insight Classic CD as PRO100BF.DSK. This patch can also be installed from floppy or a Media Image as above. Note that the earlier version 5.0.4e driver exists on the 1998 Quarter 1 Insight Classic CD; we do not now recommend its use – indeed it could cause panics.
   
   
3. At this stage we recommend installing two further SCO updates. The first being the Release Supplement 5.0.4c. This patches TCP/IP and other networking software as well as other parts of the operating system. This supplement has to be installed in two stages – firstly a new Software Manager (custom) is installed, then the Release Supplement 5.0.4c proper is installed. The documentation supplied with the supplement should be reviewed for precise installation instructions. The supplement and SCO documentation are in area39 of Apricot Insight Online and the next release of Insight Classic CD as RS504CV1.DSK, RS504CV2.DSK, RS504CV3.DSK, RS504CV4.DSK, and RS504C.TXT. It is quickest to copy the .DSK files to Media Images (VOL.000.000, VOL.001.000 etc.) in a temporary directory for installation. Select the "Expand Fully" option during installation and highlight everything except the eeE driver – Pro100B. This is because the Release Supplement 5.0.4c contains a Pro100B driver that is an earlier version than 5.0.4f that was installed in 2 above. Once again, this earlier driver should not be installed. It will be normal to get one verification error message from the Software Manager indicating that the pcislot program found has an unexpected checksum. This is because pcislot is replaced when the "erg500402" patch is installed in 1 above – the Software Manager will not replace it with the version contained in the Release Supplement 5.0.4c which is another incorrect version that would also fail to auto-detect a Pro100B card.
   
   
4. The second update that should now be installed is OSS469A. This has several TCP/IP fixes and can only be installed onto OpenServer 5.0.4 systems running with the Release Supplement 5.0.4c. OSS469A will also make the TCP/IP system immune to various "out of band data" packets that can be caused by programs such as winnuke, land, and latierra. This patch and the SCO documentation is available from area39 of Apricot Insight Online and the next release of Insight Classic CD as OSS469A.Z add OSS469A.LTR. The documentation file contains full installation instructions and background information as to the fixes, but the installation from the Software Manager (custom) is quite straight forward – uncompress OSS469A.Z and copy to a floppy, or save as a Media Image.
   
   
5. Configure the Pro100B for TCP/IP use by running the Network Configuration Manager (netconfig). As already mentioned, the Pro100B should be auto-detected – the PCI "bus", "device", and "function" being identified. Note that should the PCI settings ever change for the Pro100B (eg. card moved to another slot or IRQ changed with system configuration utility) the adapter will need to be removed and re-added with netconfig so that the new settings are detected. The Pro100B driver must have the interface speed set to Auto_Auto (Auto prior to 504f) (netconfig - Hardware --> Modify/View hardware configuration) because the settings of 10 or 100 configures the card for synchronous operation and most ethernet LAN’s use an asynchronous mode of operation.

Once the Pro100B is configured under TCP/IP it should be tested for example by copying some large files into and out of the system. Time the transfer speed and confirm that a transfer rate appropriate for the LAN concerned is achieved. This is likely to be between 500 and 900 Kbytes/sec for a 10Mbit LAN.

For example use the command below to time a "remote copy" from the local system to another Unix host called "barney". (Note that user equivalence will be required - /.rhosts file entry for the root user):

time rcp /tmp/bigfile barney:/tmp

This will give an output as below – the real value being the one of interest, showing in this case 4.3 seconds:

real 0m4.30s
user 0m0.04s
sys 0m2.49s

Another method to identify the transfer rate is to use ftp. The ftp program will directly give the transfer speed in Kbyte/sec.

Use the netstat utility to show the total numbers of input and output packets and packets with checksum errors. After copying large files in and out of the system run the command netstat -i and view the output as below:

Name	Mtu	Network	Address	Ipkts	Ierrs	Opkts	Oerrs	Coll
net1	1500	10.226	jade	920255	7	194338	0	137
lo0	8232	loopback	localhost.0.0.1	76	0	76	0	0

There should be none or very few Ierrs or Oerrs produced. If there are almost as many error packets as good packets then the Pro100B driver (eeE) is probably not working correctly with the Pro100B hardware and it is likely that the transfer speed will also be poor. If there are errors make certain that for earlier Pro100B drivers than 5.0.4f the speed is set to Auto as above. Note that netstat -i will show errors if other protocols such as NETBIOS are configured on the adapter - the netstat utility is picking up non-TCP/IP packets and the errors can be ignored. NETBIOS will be configured if SCO VisionFS is being used.

The checksum (sum -r) values for the various files concerned that will be in-place after installation as above are as follows:

/etc/conf/pack.d/eeE/Driver.o /etc/conf/pack.d/eeE/eeE.h		06174 64098
/opt/K/SCO/lli/5.0.4d/bin/pcislot /usr/lib/custom/save/erg500402/pcislot		58759 24038

 

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