ed0 does not like 0x280

ed0 does not like 0x280

If you are having trouble getting your NIC going and it’s an ed card (e.g. ed0, ed1, etc), this article may help.  The basis for this short blurb lies in New NIC was causing network problems but was again brought to my attention by someone else having the same problem.  I went searching for the article and couldn’t find it.  And if *I* can’t find it, how can I expect you to?

The details

Two nights ago, I found the problem had not been solved.  I tried some old NICs, mostly SMC cards and was unable to get them to work.  These ed0 cards where normally easy to use.  But Azoos mentioned that I should try 0x300 as he had never been able to get them to work with 0x280.  So I tried that.  Low and behold, they worked.  Here’s the line from my kernel config:

device  ed0  at isa? port 0x300 irq 10 iomem 0xcc000

With this setting, and a newly compiled kernel, I was able to use the NIC.  For more information on the underlying problem, see New NIC was causing network problems