6500 install hell

[Stefan Jeglinski]

>Thanks much for the insights and ideas! I'm working with Jason Haas,
>formerly of LinuxPPC, on a hosting project, so I suspect I can find one of
>those LinuxPPC CDs someplace. ;)

Good luck and let me know when you're done. I'd like to find out what 
your ethernet experience is on the 6500. Over time on my machine 
(currently I have a Farallon 10/100 PCI card in it, I've tried 
others), the kernel and drivers have evolved to the point that 
network performance is OK when there is a "slow" connection (that is, 
anything over the internet). On a fast connection (LAN), ethernet 
will lock up almost immediately, unless very small numbers of packets 
are sent (for example, in a remote terminal where just some keys are 
being pressed and echoed back to the terminal). I've never really 
succeeded in troubleshooting it despite a lot of experimentation, but 
I have this sneaking suspicion that the issue may not be an ethernet 
one, but rather a PCI one. OTOH, restarting networking usually solves 
the issue until the next lockup, so whadda I know...

I've always been suspicious because IIRC OrangeLink had to issue a 
one-of-a-kind patch for this box so that their USB/Firewire cards 
would work on it. Probably irrelevant... My experience on this and 
the linuxppc-user list before that for the last 3 years or so is that 
maybe 50% of 6500 respondents have this issue, the rest report no 
problems at all. I've never been able to find a pattern...

Please, keep me posted on your progress. I'll give you any advice I 
can. The 6500 is a great little Linux box, but what's Linux without 
reliable ethernet? No fun, that's what.


Stefan Jeglinski