[CUWiN-Dev] server update: new ethernets and bios

[David Young]

I added two 4-port 100Mbps ethernet cards to our server.  This adds
interfaces sip0, ..., sip7.  I took out the 3Com ethernet card (ex0)
and the two Realtek cards (ne2, ne3).  Counting the Intel gigabit NIC on
the motherboard (wm0), there are now nine ethernets.  wm0 is configured
the same as always.  sip0 takes the place of ex0, sip1 takes the place
of ne2, and sip2 takes the place of ne3.

Now we can plug each testbed node into a port independently, for
remote-control (independent of wireless), fast upgrades, and for building
"interesting" topologies.  We will have some ports left over to plug in
more nodes---maybe those Mac clones?

Just FYI, the 4-port ethernet cards are Soekris lan1641.  The server
(a Dell PowerEdge 400sc) would not boot with both lan1641 plugged in.
Instead, the computer hung before showing the BIOS "splash."  Diagnostic
lights on the back lit green (A), green (B), green (C), amber (D).
The docs unhelpfully told me 3 x green, amber is the catch-all for
"other errors".  The problem went away (yay!) when I updated the BIOS
from version A02 to A09.

Incidentally, the "ChangeLog" for BIOS version A08 mentions some USB
bug-fixes that may make a difference to us.

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at ojctech.com      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933