What Happens During Card Initialization Sequence?

Following is an overview of the initialization sequence for the EISA 10/100Base-TX card:

Initialization of an EISA 10/100Base-TX card happens during system bootup only, and it is driven by the btlan0 driver for the card. At boot time, the card does a self-test of the Intel chipset which should verify the major component parts. It then puts the card in loopback mode and sends a packet. The loopback effectively tests EISA DMA, 82556DMA, EISA/82556 interrupts, transmit and receive of the chip.

Whenever initialization fails, it prints a message on the console identifying the failure. You can later retrieve initialization messages after the system is fully booted up by using the dmesg command.

Finally, the driver tries to establish a good data link between the card and the hub or switch. If there is no cable connection, or if the cable connection is bad, or if the hub or switch is not compatible, that is, not 10Base-T or 100Base-TX capable, no LEDS will be lit. Also, a message indicating the detection of a bad cable connection is printed on the console as well as logged in NETTL logs. The 100 or 10 Mbit/s LEDs for activity and link must be lit to indicate proper functioning. These LEDs are lit only when the card is connected properly to a 100 Mbit/s switch or hub.