Frank,

You are not supposed to statically configure hubs and switches. I don't know
what the problem is - however, please be sure that the hub/switch is set to
auto-sense. If you cannot get a connection established that way, please try
the cable etc. I would also recommend following the other suggestion of
emerging the later tools.

thanks,
joshua

p.s. A fellow at Cisco last year wrote an article about NIC negotiation.
Apparently the only setting that consistently works is auto.



On 10/25/05, kashani <kashani-list@badapple.net> wrote:
>
> Frank.Pikelner@blue-dot.ca wrote:
> >
> > I'm trying to use "mii-tool" to configure the NIC speed and duplex on a
> > Dell 2850 server (currently auto negotiates and has negotiated
> > 100/half). The switch port is configured for 100/full. The Dell 2850
> > server uses the Broadcom chipset for the NIC and is a 10/100/1000 port.
> > Every time I try to force the port using mii-tool, the server port stops
> > responding and I have to reboot the box. Someone mentioned that mii-tool
> > may not be the correct tool and to try ethtool. My question is will
> > mii-tool work with a 10/100/1000 port? Should I be using ethtool under
> > Gentoo and if so where do I get it/install it?
>
> I've found that ethtool support more cards than mii-tool. In order to
> install it I'd do the following
>
> echo "sys-apps/ethtool ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
> emerge ethtool
>
> Using the unstable version will install ethtool3 rather than 2. 3 is a
> year or two newer than 2.
>
> kashani
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>
>