Ethernat Toast?

[JoeAtari]

I'm been using my Ethernat for years with no problems. Recently, under Mint if I click on anything that accesses networking, my Falcon will lock up. The mouse cursor still moves, but clicking gets no response. Even if I try to ping from bash this freeze-up will happen.

I tried restoring my software back a couple months before the problem with no result.

I flashed the Ethernat with a Xilinx cable and latest MAIN.JED with no result (programming the FPGA worked with no problems).

I re-seated the Ethernat on the SuperVidel with no result.

I re-seated the CT-60 with no result.

I will only re-seat the SuperVidel as a last result, as it is VERY tight and it scares me to move it.

I have verified that I don't have any router problems by using the same port on the router with other Atari computers.

This one has me baffled. I am thinking the Ethernat has failed (I hope not!). USB storage still functions. I don't get any kind of error messages upon booting Mint. Everything is normal until I try to access networking, then it freezes up.

Help?

[mikro]

So you didn't change your MiNT setup at all?

[mzry]

Well I find Mint to be very flakey when it comes to networking. At the moment my netusbee/mint config has stopped working too, totally random. Last night it was working, this morning it's not. I have no explanation.

[wongck]

Well I find Mint to be very flakey when it comes to networking. At the moment my netusbee/mint config has stopped working too, totally random. Last night it was working, this morning it's not. I have no explanation.

I disagree. I think most of the issues is the hardware.

The hardware retrofits basically tries to add hardware that the Atari was not designed for it. The hardware and software needed to work this is already incredibly amazing.
On my Firebee, the network works everytime. The network hardware was part of the design and so it handles the network stuff very well.

[mikro]

Exactly. What actually FreeMiNT does very well is that it's being far more sensitive for HW issues. So if you suddenly see a lot of memory violations, bus errors etc, you can be pretty sure something bad is going on with your hardware even if TOS works all right. That includes hard disk corruption as well.

[paul92706]

this seems like a Hardware issue joeatari! somthing has failed on your Ethernat board, maybe loose connection, or bad cap, or IC, troubleshooting would be a pain, maybe time to switch to NetUSBee?

[JoeAtari]

Just an update. This problem still persists, but I don't think it is the Ethernat. I have now tried both a netusbee and an ethernec which work on my other machines, and I still can't get any networking. All the drivers load properly, the interface is up when I run ifconfig, etc. The LEDs are lit, etc. When I try to run a browser the system hangs with the ethernat, or times out with the netusbee or ethernec. I can't ping in or out.

I have a Svethlana on the way to try. If that does not work I will transfer my CT60 and other upgrades to a backup Falcon I bought to see what happens there.

Is there something that can fail on the Falcon that affects only networking?

[jury]

Have you checked on this machine if NetUSBee or EtherNEC work OK in TOS? As maybe its some issue with MiNT.

[JoeAtari]

I haven't tried TOS/Sting on this particular Falcon. That is a good suggestion. I don't think it is Mint, because I tried restoring my partitions back to before the problem started in case there was some kind of corruption going on with my Mint partitions. I restored the boot partition and the ext2 partition.

With the ethernec and netusbee I'm getting a "cannot resolve host" message in Netsurf. With the ethernat, the system just locks up as soon as I try anything that accesses networking. The mouse cursor moves, but I can't click anything.

I even tried changing from the Google DNS servers that I usually use to the OpenDNS servers. That changed nothing.

Thanks!

[mikro]

Does the ping (with the netusbee) work when not using DNS? I.e. pinging an IP?

[JoeAtari]

Solved (at least for now)! This appears to have been a Mint problem, or at least a Mint configuration problem. I decided to wipe things clean and reinstall using Easymint. As soon as it finished, networking with my Ethernat came back to life. In fact, I am typing this with my Falcon. Thanks!

[JoeAtari]

Well, I'm not sure what the deal is but the problem returned. I went through the same steps that resolved it the last time, and this time it was not resolved. I'm thinking this may be a problem with the Falcon motherboard, so I am going to try moving everything to the spare that I bought. The spare is a UK revision A board. I'll start a new topic for this. Thanks!

[JoeAtari]

The final answer to the question of "Is my Ethernat Toast?" seems to be "Yes", for networking anyway. I installed the Svethlana, and it is working properly. USB on the Ethernat is still functioning.