Orinoco PCMCIA card giving TX errors

[Martin Pot]

I'm getting the same problems with Enterasys RoamAbout wireless cards on 
two PCs, and have pinpointed the cause of the problem as being NetStumbler.

I've experienced the problem on two PCs, a 486DX4/100 laptop, and a Dell 
Optiplex GXi P166, both running RedHat 7.2, with the 2.4.18 kernel and 
have tried both pcmcia-cs 3.1.33 (orinoco_cs 0.09b) and pcmcia-cs 3.1.34 
beta (orinoco_cs 0.11b).

I'm using Enterasys 6.06 firmware, as the 6.04 firmware doesn't work under 
linux.

The cards work fine in ad-hoc mode, until I run NetStumbler on a Win9x 
laptop (also in ad-hoc mode), and stumble one of the cards in a linux box.

The card in the linux box then starts generating Tx timeouts, and keeps 
resetting the card.  According to NetStumbler, the link drops out after 
about 60 seconds, but can be re-established by pinging out thru the 
wireless card on the linux box!

Does anyone know why NetStumbler is causing the card in the linux boxes to 
drop out?

Cheers,
Martin.

> Hello all,
> 
> Recently I puchased an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card for my Thinkpad.  I'm
> running Debian unstable, with linux kernel 2.4.18.  I have the latest
> pcmcia-cs package, as well.
> 
> After compiling the right kernel package, I now have the laptop
> recognizing the card.  However, as soon as I insert it, I start getting
> a slew of errors from the kernel, like this:
> 
> kernel: eth0: Tx error, status 4 (FID=01E2)
> kernel: eth0: Tx error, status 4 (FID=01CE)
> kernel: eth0: Tx error, status 4 (FID=01BA)
> kernel: eth0: Tx error, status 4 (FID=01A6)
> kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
> kernel: eth0: Tx timeout! Resetting card.
> 
> Which repeats a few times, and then quits.  I'm not able to see my
> Orinoco RG-1000 gateway (which I can't configure because I can't see it
> with my card, but I suspect that will resolve itself).  I have done a
> few web searched to see if anyone else has reported this, but haven't
> found anything.
> 
> If anyone has any clues about what i should be doing differently, either
> in kernel configuration, pcmcia setup, or what, I would be greatly
> appreciative.  Thanks all!
> 
> katre
> 
> katre at plover.net
> 
>