The problem is alot worse that I thought. I ran the 'test net' after I did the 'stop a' thing and the system worked once, but the second time it froze. No matter what i tried I couldn't get the system out of a frozen state so I had to cycle the power.

I thought lemme check the entire system to see what's going on, so I did a "test scsi" which did nothing for a few seconds and then I was flooded with a "bus fault" message. The system seemed to keep on generating this message and it was stuck in this loop. Again, I had to cycle the power to get a functioning system.

While I am writing this, I tried this one more time. After I cycled the power the link light blinked on on my switch. I ran the 'test net' and everything seemed to check out. When I tried to run it again, the loopback test succeeded but the transceiver test failed with a return code = -1.

I've tried the 'test scsi' which doesn't seem to give any errors right now.

I'm completely lost here. I dunno what I should do. I'm thinking that the hardware is probably faulty which means the guy I bought it from ripped me off.

observation
maybe this isn't entirely true, but i've noticed, that when I do a 'stop a' right after I boot the system I can run the test w/o an error or lockup (although, I seem to only be able to run 'test net' once, after that I get an error or the system freezes), BUT after the system does the filesystem cleanup (from the power off) and brings the integrated nic up, i get error messages.

Does something happen that results in these errors? If someone could explain the bootup workings of an Ultra10 i'd really appreciate it.

The following is the original message I posted:

I'm getting odd problems with my Ultra10's integrated ethernet port.

It seems that the unit works intermittantly. Today it took about 5 minutes before the port light was lit on my switch.

I disconnected the cable and then reconnected it and now the light is off.

Any ideas on this one? Is it hardware failure or is it a setting in Solaris 8 that requires the port to be activated or requires something to happen before the port becomes active?

this problem has been somewhat resolved.

i was told I needed to add a strong at the end of my /etc/system file indicating auto negotiation for the port.

things seem to be working now, however, they are working at 10mbps instead of 100mbps.

any one know how I can change this?

How to force the HME card to work at 100mb (full-duplex).

If the auto negotiate does not work, then the 100-MB full-duplex mode
can be forced to run at 100-MB, Full-Duplex using the following:

Please try (if using /etc/rc2.d/S99...)

ndd -set /dev/hme instance 0
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_100T4_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_100fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_100hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_10fdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_10hdx_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/hme adv_autoneg_cap 0

or (if using /etc/system)

set hme:hme_adv_autoneg_cap=0
set hme:hme_adv_100T4_cap=0
set hme:hme_adv_100fdx_cap=1
set hme:hme_adv_100hdx_cap=0
set hme:hme_adv_10fdx_cap=0
set hme:hme_adv_10hdx_cap=0

Note that the order does make a difference.
The link is re-negotiated when the interface is
ifconfig'ed up or when ndd ndd adv_autoneg_cap command is executed.

thank you so much for the reply...

i was given these commands a bit earlier on a newsgroup...

the 'no connection' problem seems to be resolved here... but it brings up another problem.

this port is a 10/100 port... but for some reason the port runs at 10mbps.

any idea how to correct this problem?

The commands given will set your card to work at 100 but the network card must be set to either 100 or to auto-negotiate. Ask your network guys or maybe there is one on this board.

what's really odd is that once in a blue moon when the integrated nic actually worked before I entered these settings... it would work at 100mbps.

now, no matter what... it will not.

if anyone can help me configure the internal nick on a Sun AXi board... i'd be forever in your debt.