Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

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Lumby
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Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2011 2:50 pm

Re: Error: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Lumby »

Slayer wrote:Cool Bananas

Time to update your title to solved as opposed to error :)
Done ;-)
Lumby
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Lumby »

@Cyborg

Sorry for the late reply!
But have checked the second network card "Micronet RTL8029as"
It has The following VENDORID 0x8029 and DEVICEID 0x10EC

Sincerely
Lumby
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Cyborg
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Cyborg »

Lumby wrote:@Cyborg

Sorry for the late reply!
But have checked the second network card "Micronet RTL8029as"
It has The following VENDORID 0x8029 and DEVICEID 0x10EC

Sincerely
Lumby

Hmm.. This card has the default IDs, so it should work out of the box without any environment variable. Make sure you deleted or renamed the environment variable when you try this card. Otherwise the wrong IDs would be used.
Please contact support@hyperion-entertainment.com rather than trying to send PMs to me. Thanks! :)
Neil_P
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Location: Manchester, Britain (United Kingdom)

Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Neil_P »

I am in the same difficulty, as I know my RTL8029AS PCI NIC works under OS3.9, so why is it not opening correctly.

I have an A1200 in a tower with a Voodoo 3 3000 in the top slot of my Mediator SX - converted to a TX (6 slots), then the NIC situated in either the 2nd slot, as recommended, or in the bottom slot where I usually have it in my OS3.9 setup.

I have removed all the other PCI cards, so there is just my Blizzard 060/PPC 240MHz/SCSI (unused), and the FastATA MkIV in the tower, with my HyperCOM 3+ not enabled, just connected to my Clockport, as I believe it is possible to get it to work, but I need the PCI NIC working before I move onto trying to get that to work.

I get the error: Could not open "rtl8029.device", unit 0 (Device/unit failed to open).

I have tried to setup the card using the Internet Wizard, but after it goes through the automatic attempt to detect the card the GUI then locks up at about 45%, and then I have to do a reset as I can't get it to close, and the GUI stays constantly busy (mouse), this is extremely frustrating.

I also find that the HDD 1st partition which is formatted to DOS/7 FFS, has successfully installed OS4.1.2 and is about 2GB in size is not recognised from a switch off/cold boot, but if I put the install floppy disk and boot from that with the CD, I can after the CD has loaded some of the initial stage setting up, and got to the Red/Blue/Purple screen flashes that I can remove the floppy disk, and CD, and the HDD is recognised and boots, so what's going on there?
SAM 440ep-flex 733MHz 1GB RAM, Radeon 9250 PCI, OS4.1FE Upd 1, Amiga A1200 Blizzard SCSi PPC G3 240Mhz/060-50Mhz, 256MB + 200MB -> Radeon 9200 256MB in Mediator TX, + Voodoo 3 3000 16MB, Sound Blaster Live + TT-SOLO-1 soundcards, Spider USB, Ethernet RTL8139 + RTL8029AS, Adaptec 2940UW SCSI.
Neil_P
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Re: Error: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Neil_P »

Cyborg wrote:
Lumby wrote: My problem is I can not get my RTL8029AS to function at all.
The reason is that rtl8029.device (and also rtl8139 and rtl8169) only check for the default realtek PCI IDs. Back when I wrote those drivers, I only had cards with default Realtek IDs and the same for the betatesters. So I never had a chance to add more cards to the list of supported cards. BUT luckily I gave the user the ability to overwrite those default IDs ;)
Then why wasn't there a script created to extract the VendorID, and the DeviceID, and fill that into the found hardware solving these problems for people spending about £100 (GBP) for an Amiga Operating System that won't let you get online to be able to ask the questions ONLINE in this forum.

I have registered MorphOS for a MacMini, and had no problems installing it - and that's Apple hardware, not an original piece of Amiga hardware, which this OS4.1 doesn't currently work properly on.

MorphOS also seems to support more legacy software than OS4, and I can use it with USB hardware, which with OS4 on my A1200 I can't because there's no support for USB hardware using the PCI ports, only for no longer produced/unobtainable USB 1.1 clockport Subway or Deneb Zorro port - unusable in my Mediator A1200 which are also not manufactured any more.

Either you provide the solution WITH the OS or it's not a proper solution, and Hyperion and all the other betatesters should have asked via Amiga websites for people intending to upgrade to OS4.x what hardware they had so it could be checked that there were not going to be these problems with drivers, or any other hardware nuances that should have had little chance of slipping by unaccounted for.

The number of betatesters was not large enough it seems, as I'm sure the card I'm using was one that Eyetech supplied to me, so there must be lots of people with the same type of card, but you just don't happen to have encountered it - not enough checking on this kind of available hardware for OS4 in my opinion. Maybe lots of work went on, but not enough as these problems should have been resolved and a solution that worked for all with such hardware should have been implemented. They work on a PC without this crazy VendorID, or DeviceID being a problem, so it should work without this kind of a problem on an Amiga - don't you think?

More checks on more hardware should have been done, and a solution for all users with supported hardware should have been achieved BEFORE OS4.0 was released and definitely before OS4.1 was released.

OK, back to my problem.

How, do I edit a hardware ENV: file that doesn't exist? Using which editor, if required, and by whatever other means.

I could just create a file called rtl8029.device with "ed" - is that what you are saying? If so, that doesn't seem right as you've made it look like a directory, but there is no directory in ENV: that is called rtl8029.device.

I know the other user managed to work out what you meant, BUT, your directions as to how to accomplish it were not very specific. You seemed to think that anyone would know what you meant, but I can assure it you it was/is not that clear to me as to what is required to solve my problem, that I shouldn't even be experiencing anyway.

I have installed Ranger, and can see that basically my product is the same ID as the previous OS4.1 user who has this problem - maybe they too got their PCI NIC from Eyetech, as my ID seems to be the same VENDORID 0x4A14 and DEVICEID 0x5000, so 2 users with the same ID, and betatesters who never came across this ID on this kind of hardware, yet here we are 2 purchasers caught out with this problem, because not enough checking, and preparing for such eventualities while beta-testing - that is where this problem should have been found, and a fix-all solution put in place.

There is no file in ENV: that is named as you've stated, so there is nothing to edit - full explanation required.
The driver reads a file from "ENV:rtl8029.device/" named "unit<X>" where
<X> replaced by the unit number (0-7). The variable must contain one line
of configuration text which follows this template:

HALFDUPLEX/S,FULLDUPLEX/S,NOFLOWCONTROL/S,FLOWCONTROL/S,
VENDORID/K,DEVICEID/K

The options should be fairly self-explanatory, so just a few words
regarding VENDORID/K and DEVICEID/K: These two are meant to overwrite
the standard Realtek vendor and device PCI IDs, which might be usefull
for rebranded network cards with a supported Realtek chip. To get both
IDs, run "pciscan" in a shell and look for your card. The ID's *must*
be given as 16-bit hex values, e.g. 0x10EC or just 10EC. Case is
ignored.
I tried to run "pciscan" in a Shell window, but "unknown command" is the result I got from that Shell input.

Hope to get some more help to solve this problem, but I am somewhat disappointed with OS4.1 so far.
SAM 440ep-flex 733MHz 1GB RAM, Radeon 9250 PCI, OS4.1FE Upd 1, Amiga A1200 Blizzard SCSi PPC G3 240Mhz/060-50Mhz, 256MB + 200MB -> Radeon 9200 256MB in Mediator TX, + Voodoo 3 3000 16MB, Sound Blaster Live + TT-SOLO-1 soundcards, Spider USB, Ethernet RTL8139 + RTL8029AS, Adaptec 2940UW SCSI.
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gazelle
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by gazelle »

For ENV you normaly use the setenv command.

temporary:

Code: Select all

setenv rtl8029.device/unit0 "VENDORID 0x4A14 DEVICEID 0x5000"
permanently:

Code: Select all

setenv save rtl8029.device/unit0 "VENDORID 0x4A14 DEVICEID 0x5000"
Neil_P
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Location: Manchester, Britain (United Kingdom)

Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by Neil_P »

So is that using the "SHELL/CLI" and inputting SETENV with the required parameters to achieve what is needed?

- So where does that get saved? Prefs/Env-Archive?

I have in the meantime, managed to get the RTL8029AS card I have to work, but I accomplished it a slightly different way, by using "ed", and creating a file called "unit0" in a folder/drawer/directory named "rtl8029.device" with the VendorID and DeviceID parameters, and saved it in env-archive, and also created a temp directory in RAM called ENV as there wasn't one there when I checked - must be different to OS3.x in that sense.

WHY has this file got to be created by the initial person setting up their system with a RTL8029AS PCI card - this should have been fixed before OS4.1 was released, and just in case there were other IDs for these RTL8029 cards, which has proved to be the case, WHY was there no specific information, with detailed information in the documentation about this, and how to achieve it. It really is a mess, and poorly thought out, in my opinion.

I've seen the 'Docs' on the realtek8029 device in the main Documentation folder/directory, but the instructions are not very clear, and would put off many users when coming up against this problem, and I cannot help but be annoyed by the poor methodology of implementing PCI NIC support for these cards.

I think my method will work just about the same as the SETENV method, but I really do appreciate you replying so quickly, and with much clearer instructions as to how to achieve what I needed - THANKS
SAM 440ep-flex 733MHz 1GB RAM, Radeon 9250 PCI, OS4.1FE Upd 1, Amiga A1200 Blizzard SCSi PPC G3 240Mhz/060-50Mhz, 256MB + 200MB -> Radeon 9200 256MB in Mediator TX, + Voodoo 3 3000 16MB, Sound Blaster Live + TT-SOLO-1 soundcards, Spider USB, Ethernet RTL8139 + RTL8029AS, Adaptec 2940UW SCSI.
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danbeaver
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by danbeaver »

Sorry, crossed posts.

Normally the ENV is not required to be generated with most 8029 cards, but on occasion the cards firmware doesn't match the expected one. There are a lot (dozens) of the RTL8029 cards out there with differing firmware and OS4.1 CAN GET CONFUSED! All the different cards could not be checked and an "override" is needed to clarify the issue.
spud
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by spud »

Sorry to revive this thread but I'm having issues getting an RTL8029 card to work in AOS 4.1 FE (not yet updated, cause I need network connectivity, duh)

My system:
Recapped Amiga 4000D with ATX PSU, 16 MB fast, 2 MB chip, Kick 3.1
CSPPC + 128MB
Mediator 4000Di MKiii 3,3 v
Bigramplus 256 MB
Highway USB
Voodoo3 3000
RTL8029 NIC, in the lowest slot right above the mediator bridgeboard (and tried it in different slots with same result)

Everything works (well, haven't tried the bigram yet as I need update1 for that) except for the network card.
The network card works without a problem in AOS3.9.

Then I read this thread, no idea if it is still valid for the later AOS4.x versions as it is already a bit old.
But trying the ENVARC thing doesn't work or either I don't do it correctly.
I tried both:
- a file unit0 in /envarc/rtl8029.device/ containing the string (without brackets) "VENDORID 0x0008 DEVICEID 0x8029"
- a file unit0 in /envarc/rtl8029.device/ containing the string (without brackets) "VENDORID=0x0008 DEVICEID=0x8029"
- two files: 1) a file VENDORID in /envarc/rtl8029.device/unit0/ containing the string (without brackets) "0x0008" 2) - a file DEVICEID in /envarc/rtl8029.device/unit0/ containing the string (without brackets) "0x8029"

All to no avail, the network card device cannot be opened. Weird thing is that PCiinfo in AOS3.9 shows a different vendorid than Ranger in AOS4.1, see attached images.
Attachments
Ranger
Ranger
PCIinfo
PCIinfo
spud
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Re: Solved: Can not get my RTL8029AS to work

Post by spud »

OK, so I give up with the rtl8029 PCI card. I can't get it to work.
I tried several ENV: settings.
I tried multiple jumper configs on the mediator board.
Nothing works. Maybe I still need to use different VENDORID/DEVICEID settings? The card shows the following:
HT-2100PCI on a sticker and HT-8029as on the PCB.

I tried with my AriadneII card and that thing worked flawlessly in AOS4.1. But I can't use that one, I need the space for other stuff. Would a combination of X-Surf 1000 & RapidRoad work?
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