[Info-vax] OpenVMS V8.3 ES40 NIC compatibility question

[Steven Schweda]

On Jul 28, 1:55 pm, MG <marcog... at SPAMxs4all.nl> wrote:
> On 28-7-2011 18:02, RobertsonEricW wrote:
>
> > Does anybody know if the HP NC7771 Gb Ethernet interface is compatible
> > with OpenVMS V8.3 on an AlphaServer ES40?
>
> > As always, any wisdom is appreciated.

   Look for it in SYS$SYSTEM:SYS$CONFIG.DAT?  Find it?  You
could adapt the existing "DEGXA-SB (Gigabit Ethernet)" entry,
and add it to SYS$USER_CONFIG.DAT with a change from:
  id            = 0x16C714E4,0x601A0E11
to:
  id            = 0x16C714E4,0x00CA0E11
but that won't help much the next time you boot from a
standard CD-ROM.

> If it's based on the Broadcom BCM5703, I believe it ought to, unless
> there's specific firmware loaded on it (i.e. for HP/Compaq ProLiant
> systems).  If the latter should be the case, you could always try
> this firmware hack:
> <http://moon.hanya-n.org/comp/alpha/hct/GbE-mod.html>
>
> I got a NC7770 (BCM5701) a while back and it unfortunately didn't
> work under OpenVMS for me (at the time I posted about it, here, on
> comp.os.vms).

   Possibly more convenient (no "using a binary editor", for
example):

      http://antinode.info/ftp/degxa/

   Of course, I tried it only in my XP1000 systems (Tru64
V5.1B-?, VMS V8.3), not an ES40, but what could go wrong?

alp $ show devi /full ewb0

Device EWB0:, device type DEGXA, is online, network device, error
logging is
    enabled, device is a template only.

    Error count                    0    Operations
completed                  0
    Owner process                 ""    Owner UIC
[SYSTEM]
    Owner process ID        00000000    Dev Prot
S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G,W
    Reference count                0    Default buffer
size                 512

Operating characteristics: Link up, Full duplex, Autonegotiation,
Jumbo frames.

    Speed (Mbits/sec)           1000
    Def. MAC addr  00-10-18-10-37-09    Current MAC addr
AA-00-04-00-5F-04


   Note that "Jumbo frames" requires setting bit 6 in SYSMAN's
LAN_FLAGS parameter.  My MODPARAMS.DAT says:

[...]
! LAN_FLAGS: Bit 6: If set, enables the use of jumbo frames over all
!                   Gigabit Ethernet Adapters.
!
LAN_FLAGS = 64
[...]


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