[Soekris] comBIOS issues with miniPCI card

[Frank Cole]

All,

We are having an intermittent but frequent issue with the comBIOS 
initialization on several 100 of our net4521 and net4511 boards.

We just changed to a different Atheros based card in our units.  The 
units are based on the net4511 and net4521.

The problem appears to be with the comBIOS 1.26a, 1.27 and 1.28 with 
version 1.28 being the most problematic.  As for beyond 1.26, we didnt 
regress any farther back in the comBIOS versions.  comBIOS 1.28 is 
definitely the displaying this behavior far more than the earlier 
comBIOS versions.

Ok now for the issue:

At POST when comBIOS sometimes recognizes our newer Atheros card as two 
devices rather than just one and assigns IRQ 11 to both.  Upon booting, 
Linux or *BSD then recognizes the card as an Ethernet controller and a 
Serial Controller but doesnt initialize the card nor properly load 
drivers for it.

The Atheros cards are from a Taiwanese OEM, Askey Computer and are based 
on the 5212 chipset.

Strangely enough the same problem doesnt happen on the net 4501, net4526 
or either of the net48xx boards with exactly the same Atheros cards.  We 
were thinking it maybe some wierdness with the way the TI CardBus 
controller is initialized maybe but who knows.

And YES we know it is a comBIOS issue specific to the net4521 and 
net4511. What we dont know is why and how to fix/work around it other 
than to reboot the board when it is seen?

As we buy boards in batches of 100 or more at a time, you can see how 
this becomes a major issue for us very quickly.

Also, I know its a long shot, but any possibility of opening up the 
source for comBIOS??


Frank


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 3269 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Url : http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/attachments/20070201/695e68d9/smime.bin