OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Networking => Topic started by: Ben on October 06, 2013, 11:32:51 pm

Title: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 06, 2013, 11:32:51 pm
I recently upgraded some of my hardware and my new motherboard has a built-in Realtek PCIe Gigabit NIC.

The RTGNDA13, (version 2.01),  drivers work fine for TCP/IP, however MPTN will not work with it.

I searched online, but could not find a thing.

I heard about some new NIC drivers being developed by Mensys, but I could not find a list.

Has anyone here had any success getting this NIC to work with eCS?


Update:

I could not find a better name for the NIC than that, neither in the manual, nor listed in Windows 7 Device Manager, but the board shows a chip labeled "RTL 8111E".
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: ivan on October 06, 2013, 11:40:10 pm
Which Realtek chip does it use?
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 07, 2013, 12:08:19 am
Like I said in the above post RTL 8111E. 8) I guess you posted your reply before I updated the post. No matter.

I have since found the driver I heard rumours of, it is the Mensys MultiMac and it lists my NIC. 8)

And strangely enough, I found it on the eComstation BetaZone! a site I had long given up for dead. 8)

Anyway, it works even worse than the Realtek 8169 driver which at least gave me TCP/IP.

Oh, well, unless someone is aware of another driver then I'm dead in the water with respect to that chipset. 8(

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 07, 2013, 04:11:39 am
You need to go to the eComStation Software Subscription site. If you do not have that, you do not have access to anything that has been released after your subscription ran out. It must be renewed after one year (the site becomes static, as you describe, if you don't).

The ONLY version of the Multimac Realtek driver that will work with the chipset that you have, is the one from that source. It was, unfortunately released as r8169-0.3.1.wpi, which is the same name, and version, used for an earlier, defective, version of the driver. The one that works, for me, is dated 5/17/2013 (m/d/y). Bldlevel reports:
Code: [Select]
Signature:       @#D Azarewicz:0.3.1#@##1## 17 May 2013 08:46:29     DAZAR1
:::1::SVN253@@Realtek 8169/1Gb PCIe MAC Driver
Vendor:          D Azarewicz
Revision:        0.03.1
Date/Time:       17 May 2013 08:46:29
Build Machine:   DAZAR1
FixPak Version:  SVN253
File Version:    0.3.1
Description:     Realtek 8169/1Gb PCIe MAC Driver
on the r8169.os2 file. If that is what you have, please report that it doesn't work, with as much information as you can supply, at the Multimac bug tracker.

I have three Realtek Gigabit devices. PCI.EXE describes one, on board device, as:
Device 8168h RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
it is, in fact a:
10EC:8168 version 21 (RTL8168c/8111c)
(from RtlChipId.exe, that is available in the Software Subscription betazone).
A second, on board device, is described as:
Device 8168h RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
It is, in fact:
10EC:8168 version 33 (RTL8168evl/8111evl)
which is probably the same as yours.
I don't have the other one installed, but I think it is
10EC:8169 version ?? (RTL8169a/8111a)
(or something similar). It is on a PCI plug in card.

As you can see, Ivan's question is valid, you need to find out which Realtek chip it is, and the only tool, that I know about, that actually tells you that, is RtlChipId.exe, which is found in the betazone under Software Subscription (which is NOT the same as the betazone in the eCS web site).

The third one always worked with the various versions of the Multimac Realtek driver.

The first one started working, before the second one did.

The second one is working properly, with the above mentioned driver, but did some nasty things before the latest driver was available. One of those nasty things is that it disabled the ethernet interface, and the ONLY way to get it turned back on, is to turn off all power to the machine (pull the plug, - and remove the battery if it is a laptop - for a minute, or so). Even windows (and the working Multimac driver) wouldn't re-enable it, before the power was removed. The only other driver, that came close to working, was the old RTGNDA driver.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Alex Taylor on October 07, 2013, 07:27:03 am
There are basically 3 RealTek GbE drivers available (well, 3 1/2).
The RTGNDA driver works reasonably well in some circumstances, but not in others, and IIRC has some critical flaw like not being SMP-safe (or something like that).

The GenMAC driver supposedly works OK if it supports your chipset, but may require a manually-specified MAC address (see below).

The R8110 driver was apparently so badly written that the MultiMac developer decided to simply abandon it rather than try and fix it, and wrote the newer R8169 driver from scratch to replace it. However, if using R8169 you are very strongly recommended to have at least version 0.31, as earlier versions suffered from various other problems.

One other point. In all of the above cases (with maybe the exception of recent versions of R8169), on some chipsets you might not get a usable MAC address after booting. If this is the case (check your LANTRAN.LOG and/or the output of netstat -n, 'physical address' value - if it's all 0 then you have this problem), you need to manually specify the MAC address in your MPTS config. This parameter is driver specific but is usually called 'NETADDRESS'.  Note that not all versions of R8110.OS2 support this option, but you shouldn't be using R8110.OS2 anyway as it's buggy and obsolete.  I don't remember offhand if GenMAC supports it or not.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 07, 2013, 10:19:28 am
OK.

Here is what I got that I can add:

According to PCI.exe I have the following;

Vendor 10ECh Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
Device 8168h RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Command 0007h (I/O Access, Memory Access, BusMaster)
Status 0010h (Has Capabilities List, Fast Timing)
Revision 06h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency Timer 00h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
Cache line size 32 Bytes (8 DWords)
PCI Class Network, type Ethernet
Subsystem ID 84321043h P8P67 and other motherboards
Subsystem Vendor 1043h ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Address 0 is an I/O Port : D800h
Address 1 is not present or not configured!
Address 2 is a Memory Address (64-bit, Prefetchable) : F8FFF000h
Address 4 is a Memory Address (64-bit, Prefetchable) : F8FF8000h
System IRQ 5, INT# A

The driver I downloaded from the BetaZone is this;

r8169-0.3.1.wpi

Which doesn't work.

According to the change log in the included readme it is;

v.0.3.1 16-May-2013 - David Azarewicz

Which would indicate that it is the same as your version, Doug, less one day...

Alex, I do believe that I have a copy of the GenMAC driver here running on one of the machines, with an RTL 8169 chipset, (I have had great success with that chip), working without problem. I haven't tried it on this new one, (RTL8111E), so I'll give that a go now, and see how that works.

Doug, I do not have access to Subscription Services though I have in the past; I do not consider it to be a valid expenditure... though I am sure that there are others who will disagree. Also, I do not believe that I should pay to beta test, anything(rather, I should be paid), though I do understand the reasons why Mensys handles it that way.

With regard to reporting software bugs, if I get the time I will do it, but I have found that in the past it produced results about 1 time in 5. Ergo: time wasted. It could have been inadequate reporting, but I have not once been asked for anything additional so...

At any rate, I'll see how that GenMAC driver does now...
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 08, 2013, 06:12:10 am
Quote
Device 8168h RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Unfortunately, that does NOT tell you what the chip is. Realtek seems to have about 40 different chip versions that PCI will identify as the same thing. They are not the same. You need the RtlChipId.exe program, which is found along side of the "working" driver, in the betazone. Without that information, everybody is guessing about what chip you have. There is a clue, that you have something different, because of the "/8411" entry.

Quote
less one day...

Okay, I just checked, and what is in the non SS betazone is what I have. RtlChipId.exe is also there. That means that you should collect the relevant information, and report the problem.

Quote
Doug, I do not have access to Subscription Services though I have in the past; I do not consider it to be a valid expenditure...

As for Software Subscription being a "valid expenditure", that depends on your point of view. If you want (some of) the latest stuff, before it becomes available in the "next" release, you pay for Software Subscription. However, you must also look at it as a way to support moving eCS (OS/2) forward. IMO, I can't afford NOT to have SS, it is a way to support the work that is being done, and, you get the "next" release, when it becomes available. Not a bad deal, although it would be better if "next" releases were better managed, and more frequent.

To correct what I wrote earlier (About the "third device"):
Code: [Select]
10EC:8169 version ?? (RTL8169a/8111a)
(or something similar). It is on a PCI plug in card.
should read:
Code: [Select]
10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8111sb)
It is on a PCI plug in card.

Quote
At any rate, I'll see how that GenMAC driver does now...

I couldn't get that one to work with the 10EC:8168 version 33 (RTL8168evl/8111evl) device. It did work with the 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8111sb) device, but only at 100 Mbs. When I tried it at 1000 Mbs, it would trap in GENMAC. You could try updating to the windows driver that comes with it, but that may not work at all. GENMAC is definitely limited, and most newer windows drivers won't work.

BTW, which RTGNDA driver do you have? The one that I was using is v1.13. BLDLEVEL shows:
Code: [Select]
Signature:       @#chagrin:1.13#@Realtek RTL8169 OS/2 NDIS 2.0.1 MAC Driver
Vendor:          chagrin
Revision:        1.13
File Version:    1.13
Description:     Realtek RTL8169 OS/2 NDIS 2.0.1 MAC Driver
on the rtgnda.os2 file. I also had to use some parameters to make it use IRQs above 15, and to add the MAC address.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: walking_x on October 08, 2013, 08:41:38 am
on the rtgnda.os2 file. I also had to use some parameters to make it use IRQs above 15, and to add the MAC address.
MAC address parameter must be uncommented in NIF and, in most cases, set up manually. This driver set zero MAC too often ;)
And it works, except using it as netbeui server. Netbeui client and all kinds of netbios over ip work fine.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Andi B. on October 08, 2013, 11:35:16 am
Quote
And it works, except ....

Have to repeat myself whenever I read rtgnda as I really had a hard time to find that out -
Quote
Do a search on the internet before trying it. Years ago I installed my system with it and got sporadic traps. Took me months till I found out it was this driver. After that others told me this driver is known to sporadically trap systems. Maybe it was Eugene so probably there are some traces about ecomstation.ru...
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 08, 2013, 04:44:04 pm
Quote
Years ago I installed my system with it and got sporadic traps

When I was using RTGNDA, nothing else would work, at all, so I figured that potential traps were better than no networking. FWIW, I used it for a couple of months, and never had a problem with it, other than I couldn't use it with VBox (which didn't matter anyway). I haven't used NETBIOS (not over TCP/IP) for many years. I have an Asus WL-330g that will not work with it. If anybody is interested, rtgnda13.zip comes with source code.

I did take the steps necessary to report the Realtek problem, and work with those who know about such things, to get it fixed. Sitting back, waiting for somebody else to do it, is not an option, although it took a second report to get enough interest to get it done. Apparently, the Linux crowd has been having similar problems with Realtek devices, but there are a lot more of them working on the problem.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 08, 2013, 07:30:12 pm
You need the RtlChipId.exe program, which is found along side of the "working" driver, in the betazone. Without that information, everybody is guessing about what chip you have. There is a clue, that you have something different, because of the "/8411" entry.
OK.

Done.

Here it is:

"Found Realtek NIC at bus 3:1:0: 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8110sb)"

Quote from:  Ben Dragon
At any rate, I'll see how that GenMAC driver does now...

I couldn't get that one to work with the 10EC:8168 version 33 (RTL8168evl/8111evl) device. It did work with the 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8111sb) device, but only at 100 Mbs. When I tried it at 1000 Mbs, it would trap in GENMAC. You could try updating to the windows driver that comes with it, but that may not work at all. GENMAC is definitely limited, and most newer windows drivers won't work.

I have not had the time yet to test my version on the new machine. All that I can say it that it worked so well these long years that it has been in that I forget it was in there; totally transparent.

Samba won't install under Ubuntu and needs to be beat over the head a few times. I will post the results of the GenMac RTL driver when I have them.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 08, 2013, 08:40:04 pm
Quote
"Found Realtek NIC at bus 3:1:0: 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8110sb)"

Interesting... That is the same one that always worked with Multimac, for me, but mine is on a PCI plug in card. It also worked with GENMAC, but only at 100 Mbs.

Quote
Samba won't install under Ubuntu and needs to be beat over the head a few times.

Odd. SAMBA comes with Linux Mint (which is Ubuntu under the covers). All it needed was to be configured.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Andi B. on October 09, 2013, 06:57:08 pm
At that time I looked into the rtgnda sources but honestly I'm not so masochist these days anymore to try fixing a NIC driver written in assembler. Multimac is the way to go in this case.

The os2 kernel sources would be the only reason for me if available to dig into assembler again.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Steven Levine on October 09, 2013, 07:55:20 pm

"Found Realtek NIC at bus 3:1:0: 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8110sb)"


This chipset is documented as supported by the multimac driver.  I guess it's possible that the PCI-e bus is an issue, but the only way to get this resolved is to submit a ticket  at svn.ecomstation.nl/multimac

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 09, 2013, 09:47:05 pm
Quote
r8169-0.3.1.wpi

Which doesn't work.

I guess it is time to ask the tough question. What, exactly, do you mean by "Which doesn't work"???

If you report that "it doesn't work", nobody is going to bother to ask you "What doesn't work"? They also won't bother trying to figure it out. They need to know, exactly, what it is that they are trying to fix, and how to reproduce the problem.

It is also possible, that you have something else that is causing the problem. With more information, we might be able to spot the problem, without bothering the developer, who is overloaded with work already.

NETBIOS *might* be the missing link. As I said, I haven't used that, for years. It was causing problems when I quit using it, and I am sure that it hasn't changed. The last time I tried NETBIOS over TCPIP, it was causing more problems than SAMBA (which is certainly not perfect), but it worked better than NETBIOS, for me, when I was using it.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 10, 2013, 01:50:10 am
By r8169-0.3.1.wpi not working I meant that while it installed without error, with everything in place and as expected, neither TCP/IP nor MPTN worked.

No errors showed up... at least during the install. If there are logs to look at, I know not of them.

Tomorrow I have made time to give this another go.

I will remove all other NICs, (re)activate the onboard chip set and try the three drivers individually. I will jot down any peculiarities and note what works and doesn't work, after setup is complete, and I will post the findings in more detail... hoping to find something to add.


With respect to posting a bug report I say again that after having posted many bug reports, (many of them repeated), over the years, virtually every single, one of them has been a complete waste of time.

IIRC, only one, single, thing that I have ever reported was addressed... and that took many years and five or six bug reports/personal E-mails to the programmer(s). I simply do not have that kind of time to waste. It is a more efficient use of my time to simply go buy new hardware for drivers that I know work.

The obvious and frequent response to that question is that "if you do not report the bugs then don't expect them to get fixed", but like I said, bugs getting fixed by bug reports submitted happens only in dreams; whether I report them or whether I do not, there is no resulting difference! It is like buying a lottery ticket; you are buying "hope"... with no chance to win!.. only an illusion.

While others may have a higher success rate than I have, many, many OS/2 users here and elsewhere, have reported similar in the past.

In fact, I would not at all be surprised if others came out to report similar, and to support my statement via reply to this thread... though I am not encouraging it, because there is no need for redundancy or corroboration; it is common knowledge.

Programmers complain that users do not post bug reports and people who post bug reports stop making them because it is useless.

It is a circle jerk.

I could give many examples with copies of reports and E-mails but, why? It would serve no purpose whatsoever other than to cascade a series of meaningless typing.

Having said that, I most certainly do appreciate every and all minutes anyone has ever spent helping out the OS/2 community whether for pay or for spiritual growth... whatever your definition of that term defines.

And I mean what I say... unlike most people... both the good and the bad. So, now a nit has been picked, and a tick-comb has been used. 8)

Anyway...

Tomorrow I will post my findings... maybe something new will turn up, or a non-obvious, flaky, install will be supplanted by a true one and I will have good news to post. If not... then there is always the "drop test"... but that is a story for another day... and if someone wants to hear it, then they will have to ask! But if you know what the "flotation test" is, then you already know the story... (and you don't). ;)

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on October 10, 2013, 02:40:14 am
Well, what does it mean to say

Quote
neither TCP/IP nor MPTN worked

?

Many times with the Realtek drivers, and I mean all of them, I had to specify the Network Address in the driver parameters. Then it worked fine. If this has happened to you, you'd install, get no error messages, and things in general won't work.

More important, if you try netstat -n, you'll discover that the physical address of the network adapter is 0. If you correct this with the Network Address parameter, networking will work well.

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 10, 2013, 05:43:10 pm
Well, what does it mean to say

Quote
neither TCP/IP nor MPTN worked

?

I made no additional adjustments other than adding a "6" to the TCP/IP protocol in the MPTN config to denote "Ethernet".

For me, that has always been enough to get networking cards to work.

Many times with the Realtek drivers, and I mean all of them, I had to specify the Network Address in the driver parameters. Then it worked fine. If this has happened to you, you'd install, get no error messages, and things in general won't work.

More important, if you try netstat -n, you'll discover that the physical address of the network adapter is 0. If you correct this with the Network Address parameter, networking will work well.

OK. I'll give that a go.

One more thing that I thought I had put up here, but haven't;

After my initial replacement of the rtgnd13 driver with the Mensys  one, I started getting a popup window stating;

"UPM0004C:The program failed to start. The Exit code returned from the program is :17"

The above is from the Mugwepop.exe program when startup2.cmd is auto-executed in an XWorkplace Startup Folder.

This has never gone away since the initial driver change post hardware upgrade.

Initially, I took a completely working and configured OS/2 hard drive and moved it directly into this new board... which is an ASUS P5G4IT-M LX Series motherboard.

For those who have been following this, I have reattempted to install the rtgnda13 driver and then the Mensys one, both have yielded the exact same results; TCP/IP works, no MPTN.

I have not yet tried the GenMAC driver; that one is next.

Neil, I just did a "netstat -n" as you suggested and the physical address is indeed set to a whole bunch of zeros!

Now, the question is, how do I find out the physical address, (MAC address), of my card? I have always used "netstat -n" to get it.

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 10, 2013, 06:49:50 pm
Quote
With respect to posting a bug report I say again that after having posted many bug reports, (many of them repeated), over the years, virtually every single, one of them has been a complete waste of time.

Not my experience, at all. You DO have to take the time to properly create a report. As I said earlier, a report that says "It doesn't work", with no supporting documentation, or description of what doesn't work, will often be ignored. Many people also fail to follow up and answer the developers questions. I don't blame them, at all, for ignoring such reports.

Quote
No errors showed up... at least during the install. If there are logs to look at, I know not of them.

Which "install" are you talking about. The WarpIn installer simply puts the proper files in place (look at the WarpIn log). You then have to use the Adapters and Protocols tool (AKA MPTS), or the new NAPS tool (which is broken in eCS 2.2 beta), to configure the Network, or manually change PROTOCOL.INI (correctly), to "install" the NIC. You may also need to do the complete power off (pull the plug, and remover the battery, if it is a laptop, to get the NIC reset so that it will communicate over the cable).

Quote
both have yielded the exact same results; TCP/IP works, no MPTN.

What do you mean by "no MPTN"? There is TCPIP, and there is NETBIOS. I assume you mean no "MultiProtocol Transport Services", but that isn't true, because you say that TCP/IP works. So, the bug is probably that NETBIOS is not working. I need to see if I can set up a couple of machines with that installed, and try it (it has been many years).

Quote
Neil, I just did a "netstat -n" as you suggested and the physical address is indeed set to a whole bunch of zeros!

Now, the question is, how do I find out the physical address, (MAC address), of my card? I have always used "netstat -n" to get it.

Do you have another OS installed? Try using that to find the MAC address. If not, just create a number that is not all zeros, with the same number of digits, and use that. The all zeros MAC address is, in fact, a valid MAC address, however, it seems that many routers will, incorrectly, reject it as being invalid. It can also cause a problem, if there are two, or more, of them doing the same thing, on the same subnet.

In Linux, you can do this:
Code: [Select]
    As the root user (or user with appropriate permissions)
    Type "ifconfig -a"
    From the displayed information, find eth0 (this is the default first Ethernet adapter)
    Locate the number next to the HWaddr. This is your MAC address

So now, after much prompting, it seems that we have a suspect area to investigate (NETBIOS, and/or the all zeros MAC address). If your other problem reports went like this, it is not surprising that you have not had good results from making problem reports.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 10, 2013, 08:28:13 pm
Using "netstat -arp" or "arp -a" yields the following information:

          ARP table contents:

interface     hardware address         IP address   minutes since last use
  lan0       0 :18:e7:18:36:89          192.168.0.2            2

Note that there seems to be a digit missing; a space between the first zero and the first colon.

I filled this in with another zero, (in the NIC configuration settings in Adapters and Protocols). This caused the TCP/IP and the LAN services, (in this case Netbios), to stop working; before this change, (no entry in the "Network Adapter Address"), TCP/IP worked fine.

Removing the 12 digit hex number brought back the TCP/IP connection... and I am using it to type this message.

At this point I suspect that Neil is on the right track, (at least it is something tangible to work with), but something seems wrong with the adapter address that arp is giving me. I have never seen one with a blank space before.

Of course, I cannot cut and paste the address for the entry field will not accept blanks or colons. It only accepted 0018e7183689... which as I said, doesn't work.

WRT r8169-0.3.1.wpi, I say this; Installation of all drivers went without incident. "Did not work" means everything installed fine and without error, but nothing worked; For the extent of this thread that means no TCP/IP and no Netbios.

I am only interested in those two protocols; the rest are of no value to me.


WRT "bug reports" I have wasted far too much time on that topic.

WRT the "NAPS Tool" I am assuming that you mean the little popup window that prompts the user to select from a choice of available LANs; Lan0 or Lan1, etc.

That pops up and I use it, but if it is broken I have no way of testing it.

I do not have *nix installed; I do have W7 on this same machine.

WRT to this being a report, it is not. It is a troubleshooting and diagnoses session. I would have thought that would have been obvious... to everyone... since this is a Forum and not a Technical Bug Reporting site.

People making bug reports are not programmers, nor do they have ESP. If a programmer wants specific information then use the damn machine that he is trying to work with and send a simple E-mail... or can he only communicate with jargon?

Better yet, make widely available everything that he needs to know and not keep it in his head to make him feel falsely superior as a soothing mechanism for his personal insecurities and inadequacies.

Stop browbeating the user who can only learn things through reading and successful communication and not merely by strong desires that the user become knowledgeable through deep wishes and empty words that communicate nothing of value, but serve to clutter the Internet and to simulate a DoS attack.

Now... back to the topic of importance and relevance.

I will boot to W7 and see if it can give me a better Adapter Address than ARP does.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 10, 2013, 09:01:49 pm
OK.

Two things of note.

ARP -a or netstat -arp in the above posting is reporting the hardware address of a NIC on another machine. This other machine is connected to this one. But there is nothing else given by ARP -a or netstat -arp. I have no idea why this is so, but I'm sure that someone in the OS/2 community does.

Secondly, W7 was able to successfully produce my Adapter Address.

I entered it into the Network Adapter Address entry field for the Mensys RTL driver, (via "Adapters and Protocols"), and rebooted. This time the TCP/IP works... but the Netbios still does not.

Thanks, Neil, it was a good idea, but has not been effective. However, the Physical Address of my onboard NIC is now properly displayed in "netstat -n"... which is something.

Now I have to find that GenMAC RTL driver and see if that works.


Addendum:

But before I do that, there is one more thing of note:

When I first tried the onboard NIC using the rtgnda13 driver that was already installed, (I moved my hardrive from my previous machine to this one), Netbios did not work.

However, when I disabled the onboard NIC and installed my previous NIC in a PCI slot and rebooted, everything worked fine. But I needed that NIC for another machine. I reactivated the onboard NIC and installed the Mensys RTL driver.

Since then, Netbios will not work with either of these NICs; I keep getting that Mugwepop.exe popup when I try to logon the network.

I suspect that installing the Mensys driver altered something else that is not being updated... what that can be I yet, have no idea; time will tell.


Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 10, 2013, 10:19:01 pm
Quote
Note that there seems to be a digit missing; a space between the first zero and the first colon.
That seems to be a cosmetic thing. I see the same.

Quote
It only accepted 0018e7183689... which as I said, doesn't work.
I haven't needed that with any of my Realtek NICS, using the Multimac driver. When I was using RTGNDA, I needed to modify the rtgnda.nif file with this section, at the end:
Code: [Select]
[NETADDRESS]
tag = NETADDRESS
display = "Network adapter address"
type = hexstring
strlength = 12
default="3c970e67241b"
optional = yes
editable = yes
help = "NETADDRESS alternates the MAC address of the adapter
with the one fixed in the hardware(in the EEPROM)."
3c970e67241b is the MAC address of the Realtek NIC. Perhaps it needs the quotes.

Quote
WRT the "NAPS Tool" I am assuming that you mean the little popup window that prompts the user to select from a choice of available LANs; Lan0 or Lan1, etc.

No. It is a replacement for the Adapters and Protocols configuration program (AKA MPTS). The fixed one is working well, for me.

Quote
Since then, Netbios will not work with either of these NICs; I keep getting that Mugwepop.exe popup when I try to logon the network.
Interesting. Is there a program by that name somewhere on your machine? I find no such thing on my systems.

It appears that you have now isolated the problem to NETBIOS, but it would be good for somebody else to verify that. I will try to find the time to install NETBIOS, on two machines using the Multimac Realtek driver, to see if it will work, or not. If that fails, you have three options: 1) report it properly. 2) use a different NIC, 3) Change to NETBIOS over TCPIP. If I can make it fail, I will report it, but a second report would help to get attention. If it doesn't fail, you need to look elsewhere for your problem. A new install would probably help in that case, but I have a bit of work to do to do a test.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 11, 2013, 12:32:59 am
C:/MUGLIB/MUGWEPOP.EXE 3-23-04  10:56a          7,365

It has to do with the Netbios logon. It is in the same folder where Mugwepop.exe resides.

You probably do not have it because you have removed it or have not installed it, instead choosing to use SAMBA. And if I knew that the OS/2 handlers of  SAMBA had solved the EA problems, (particularly WRT PMVIEW and images), I'd give it another go, because it does solve a lot of problems that exist with OS/2 LAN Services... it was just that for me the problems with SAMBA were worse than the problems that it solved.

As I said before, the last time I communicated with them, they had done nothing to address those issues and had no intentions of doing so. That was a few years ago... maybe I'll send them another E-mail.

But, WRT Mugwepop.exe, this program strikes a weak bell in my memories from back in a time period when I knew plenty about all things networking WRT OS/2.

The problem with becoming proficient with something is that based upon your skill/knowledge you can put together something really good! Then you do not have to look at it again for ten years... and by then you have forgotten large chunks of it from a complete lack of use.

The only solution then is;

Of course, some skills you keep fresh because your way of life keeps it fresh. With everyone, it is a choice. Keep one fresh at the expense of another.

Oh, well. It is just one of the troughs of those long-term cycles reoccurring.

Hmmph! 8|

Anyway. I'll solve it. It is just a question of how much piss and vinegar I have to spit first. 8)


These days I covet every moment of my time and give it up only with a battle. In fact, one of the reasons that I use OS/2 is because ONCE SETUP, it will work very well indeed, with little need for attention... unlike any flavour of Windows or *nix... which require nursemaiding and constant attention if only in the incessant learning of arcane parameters designed to be jampacked full of obscure, completely unintuitive, jargon  that is designed to appeal to the the mind of the socially inept, introvert.

Being able to use it or learn to use it, is irrelevant - though clearly it is a personal thing - Why? I simply have more important things to do with my time... though in my youth, I did waste much time there, I have grown. So, now when I have to "waste my time" (re)learning this, it bothers me; I feel like I'm being robbed!

But, like any sh*t job, it is best to just do it and be done with it.

But enough for today. The rest will be handled tomorrow... if I can keep it open that is...
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 11, 2013, 03:06:05 am
Quote
It appears that you have now isolated the problem to NETBIOS, but it would be good for somebody else to verify that. I will try to find the time to install NETBIOS, on two machines using the Multimac Realtek driver, to see if it will work, or not. If that fails, you have three options: 1) report it properly. 2) use a different NIC, 3) Change to NETBIOS over TCPIP. If I can make it fail, I will report it, but a second report would help to get attention. If it doesn't fail, you need to look elsewhere for your problem. A new install would probably help in that case, but I have a bit of work to do to do a test.

Well, that was an interesting exercise. I discovered two things:
1) NETBIOS works fine with the latest Multimac driver for Realtek devices, in either direction.
2) Apparently it is just NETBIOS over TCPIP that does not coexist with SAMBA. NETBIOS seems to be okay with it (which makes sense after thinking about it).

So, it would seem that you have some other problem...
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Alex Taylor on October 11, 2013, 11:32:16 am
Examine \ibmcom\lantran.log for clues, or better still, post it here.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 11, 2013, 03:59:11 pm
Here is the Log:

file:///C:/IBMCOM/LANTRAN.LOG

--
IBM OS/2 LANMSGDD [05/21/04] 6.00 is loaded and operational.
IBM OS/2 NETBEUI 6.00.0
NETBEUI: Using a 32-bit data segment.
IBM OS/2 NETBIOS 4.0
Adapter 0 has 223 NCBs, 130 sessions, and 20 names available to NETBIOS applications.
NETBIOS 4.0 is loaded and operational.
R8169 NDIS device driver @#D Azarewicz:0.3.1#@##1## 17 May 2013 08:46:29     DAZAR1    ::::1::SVN253@@Realtek 8169/1Gb PCIe MAC Driver
R8169 Hardware detected: RTL8168e/8111e.

IBM OS/2 LAN Netbind

--

That's all that there is.

The Mugwepop.exe file first showed itself after I installed the Mensys driver. And no matter what I do, it will not go away, even if I go back to the once fully working combo of the rtgnda13 driver and PCI NIC, (not the onboard RTL chip). Now that is not much to go by, but it is the dividing line. Whether the timing is merely coincidental or not, I cannot say. Whether it is the cause, a manifestation of the cause, or entirely irrelevant remains to be determined.

After I post this I'm going to give the GenMAC driver a go.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 11, 2013, 04:29:12 pm
GenMAC WPI install detected an RTL 8168 chipset and installed from there.

In Adapters and Protocols I changed over the Mensys driver for the GenMAC driver and rebooted.

I could no longer ping anything including this machine, ping presenting only "sento: No route to host". I ran \bin\setup.cmd, (sometimes that will alter things), but this had no effect.

I added the Adapter Address to the Netbios configuration and rebooted and nothing changed. I had to switch back to Mensys driver to send this message.

The old RTL 8169 NIC that I used for many years with the rtgnda13 driver should work. As I have said, it did work on this machine when I first put it in, but I can no longer get it to work with Netbios. It works now exactly as the Mensys driver does allowing good TCP/IP but no Netbios. Obviously something was changed that wasn't changed back.

Find that and I'll be on the track of the problem and on the path to a solution. At least, that's my conclusion at this point.

Now I have two options;


If anyone else has a suggestion now is the time.

In the meantime I will see what has changed with SAMBA in the interim.

Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Alex Taylor on October 11, 2013, 05:00:45 pm
CONFIG.SYS, PROTOCOL.INI and IBMLAN.INI all have to be in agreement with each other as far as how each network interface & protocol is configured.  Probably one or more of them got out of sync with the others when you started changing the NIC drivers around.

If you post all three somebody might be able to find the culprit.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 11, 2013, 06:21:19 pm
Some time back, you posted:
Quote
"Found Realtek NIC at bus 3:1:0: 10EC:8169 version 3 (RTL8169sb/8110sb)"

Now, Lantran.log says:
Quote
R8169 Hardware detected: RTL8168e/8111e.

The first one, is the one that has always worked with Multimac, for me. The second one is probably the same as the one that never worked, for me, until the very latest driver was produced (which seems to be the one that you are using).

Which one is it? Use RtlChipId.exe to find out. The "e" is probably "evl" (sort of like "evil").

I agree with Alex, that something has got out of sync somewhere.

What I would do is this:
Go to Adapters and Protocols (or whatever it may be called), and delete ALL of the entries. Then put the device back in, and add the appropriate protocols. Try it (after reboot) without changing anything, and check to see if the MAC address got picked up. If not, you need to add that. Then, try the rest of what you need to work. If it works, you are done. If not, I would start looking in IBMLAN.INI, since that is the one that is unique to NETBIOS. I don't think TCPIP would work if the others were out of sync.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 11, 2013, 07:28:23 pm
Right now I have the onboard RTL active and I'm using the Mensys driver.

I took out the PCI NIC about 30 hours ago and it isn't going back unless the onboard chipset is a complete no-go.

Here are the Config.sys lines that are added by A & P at the end. If the rest of the networking lines are required let me know.

DEVICE=C:\MPTN\PROTOCOL\SOCKETSK.SYS
DEVICE=C:\MPTN\PROTOCOL\AFOS2.SYS
DEVICE=C:\MPTN\PROTOCOL\AFINETK.SYS
REM DEVICE=C:\MPTN\BIN\VDOSTCP.VDD
RUN=C:\MPTN\BIN\CNTRL.EXE
CALL=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE /Q /C C:\MPTN\BIN\MPTSTART.CMD >NUL
REM RUN=C:\MPTN\BIN\VDOSCTL.EXE
DEVICE=C:\IBMCOM\PROTOCOL\NETBEUI.OS2
DEVICE=C:\IBMCOM\PROTOCOL\NETBIOS.OS2
DEVICE=C:\IBMCOM\MACS\R8169.OS2

Protocol.ini

[PROT_MAN]

   DRIVERNAME = PROTMAN$

[IBMLXCFG]

   netbeui_nif = netbeui.nif
   tcpip_nif = tcpip.nif
   r8169_nif = r8169.nif

[NETBIOS]

   DriverName = netbios$
   ADAPTER0 = netbeui$,0

[netbeui_nif]

   DriverName = netbeui$
   Bindings = r8169_nif
   NETADDRESS = "5404A6CFBF51"
   ETHERAND_TYPE = "I"
   USEADDRREV = "YES"
   OS2TRACEMASK = 0x0
   SESSIONS = 130
   NCBS = 225
   NAMES = 21
   SELECTORS = 50
   USEMAXDATAGRAM = "NO"
   ADAPTRATE = 1000
   WINDOWERRORS = 0
   MAXDATARCV = 4168
   TI = 30000
   T1 = 1000
   T2 = 200
   MAXIN = 1
   MAXOUT = 1
   NETBIOSTIMEOUT = 500
   NETBIOSRETRIES = 3
   NAMECACHE = 1000
   RNDOPTION = 1
   PIGGYBACKACKS = 1
   DATAGRAMPACKETS = 50
   PACKETS = 300
   LOOPPACKETS = 8
   PIPELINE = 5
   MAXTRANSMITS = 6
   MINTRANSMITS = 2
   DLCRETRIES = 10
   FCPRIORITY = 5
   NETFLAGS = 0x0

[tcpip_nif]

   DriverName = TCPIP$
   Bindings = r8169_nif
   IfType = 6

[r8169_nif]

   DriverName = R8169$
   MODE = "1000FULL"
   NETADDRESS = "5404A6CFBF51"

IBMLAN.INI

; OS/2 LAN Requester initialization file

[networks]

; This information is read by the redirector at device initialization time.
  net1 = NETBEUI$,0,LM10,34,100,14

[requester]

; The following parameters generally do not need to be
; changed by the user.
  charcount = 16
  chartime = 250
  charwait = 3600
  keepconn = 600
  keepsearch = 600
  maxcmds = 16
  maxerrorlog = 100
  maxthreads = 10
  maxwrkcache = 64
  numalerts = 12
  numcharbuf = 10
  numservices = 7
  numworkbuf = 40
  numdgrambuf = 14
  othdomains =
  printbuftime = 90
  sesstimeout = 45
  sizcharbuf = 512
  sizerror = 1024
  sizworkbuf = 4096
  wrkheuristics = 1111111121311111110001011120111221001111100
  wrkservices = MESSENGER
  wrknets = net1

[messenger]

  logfile = messages.log
  sizmessbuf = 4096

[peer]

  auditing = resource
; The following parameters generally do not need to be changed
  guestacct = guest
  autodisconnect = -1
  maxauditlog = 100
  maxchdevjob = 2
  maxchdevs = 1
  maxconnections = 26
  maxlocks = 64
  maxopens = 160
  maxsearches = 150
  maxsessopens = 80
  maxsessreqs = 25
  maxsessvcs = 1
  maxshares = 16
  maxusers = 5
  numbigbuf = 4
  numfiletasks = 1
  numreqbuf = 48
  sizreqbuf = 4096
  srvhidden = yes
  srvheuristics = 111101411113110013311
  SRVSERVICES =
  srvnets = net1

  SRVCOMMENT =
[replicator]

  replicate = IMPORT
  importpath = C:\ibmlan\repl\import
  tryuser = yes
  password =

[services]

  messenger = services\msrvinit.exe
  peer = services\peerinit.exe
  replicator = services\replicat.exe
  requester = services\wksta.exe

I cut most of the REM'd lines. If you see something missing just let me know.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Doug Bissett on October 12, 2013, 05:33:27 am
It has been a long time since I looked at this stuff. I have a lot more lines, in CONFIG.SYS, related to networking, but I don't think that is where the problem lies.

PROTOCOL.INI also looks okay, I think.

Without spending a lot of time looking, the only thing that jumps out at me, in IBMLAN.INI, is that you have:
wrkservices = MESSENGER
while I have:
wrkservices = MESSENGER, peer

I seem to recall, that "MESSENGER" is optional, but "peer" starts peer sharing, which seem to be what isn't working.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Alex Taylor on October 12, 2013, 09:46:14 am
Peer is only necessary if you want to serve out files & directories, not access them.

Of more concern is that there is no "Computername" or "Domain" specified in the [requester] section. I've never seen that before.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 12, 2013, 11:44:01 am
I have no idea what "MESSENGER" is.

I cut the workstation and domain entries, (I meant to mention that), but they are there in the original.
Title: Re: OS/2, Realtek and NIC drivers
Post by: Ben on October 12, 2013, 08:25:10 pm
Lacking any immediate solution to this problem and being pressed for time, I had to try the only other solution... albeit, reluctantly.

There are only two choices for LAN Services under OS/2, NETBIOS, (well, Netbeui  via the same mechanism), and Samba.

Maybe I can find a work-around for the new/old problems that will bring with it.

A big thanks to all that offered help and suggestions; I do appreciate your efforts.

If any other related ideas, (or possible solutions), falls across your path, please do not hesitate to post them up here. If I cannot use them I'm sure someone else will.