Basically, the Realtek people are right. The W9x simply removes the value
for the interrupt number of the ethernet card from the PCI config space
register of that card. The number was written there by the BIOS, while
initializing the PCI subsystem to tell the operating system which IRQ was
assigned to the card.
This is a problem of W9x and, as far as I know could only be fixed by
re-assigning all the interrupts to PCI cards upon Linux boot, which doesn't
happen now (though is possible to happen in the future).
So, the only solution for you now is to mark the linux batchfile as needing
a different configuration in W98, so that W98 reboots prior to running it.
Or, alternately, throw away W98 ;)
Have fun,
Vojtech
> every now and then I need to work with Windows98 (it's not getting
> off-topic, please read on). Therefore I don't start Linux by using
> LiLo, but LoadLin instead and I actually choose the operating system
> by the Windows Boot Menu. From inside Windows I use a shortcut which
> launches the following batch file (ie, without rebooting in order to
> save time):
>
> @echo off
> c:\windows\smartdrv /c
> c:\loadlin\loadlin vmlinuz.2_2 root=1602 ro hda=1027,255,63 hdc=790,255,63
> pci=nobios video=vesa:off video=matrox:noinit,vesa:792,fh:72,fv:86
>
> However, when I do this, my RealTek PCI NE2000 card (which works fine
> usually) is not recognised, as shown by a small dmesg fragment:
>
> Linux version 2.2.2 (root@p6) (gcc version 2.7.2.3) #1 Wed Feb 24 22:01:34 CET 1999
> [...]
> ne2k-pci.c:v0.99L 2/7/98 D. Becker/P. Gortmaker http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/ne2k-pci.html
> WARNING: The PCI BIOS assigned this PCI NE2k card to IRQ 0, which is unlikely to work!.
> You should use the PCI BIOS setup to assign a valid IRQ line.
> ne2k-pci.c: PCI NE2000 clone 'RealTek RTL-8029' at I/O 0x5800, IRQ 0.
> eth0: PCI NE2000 found at 0x5800, IRQ 0, 00:40:05:65:70:B4.
>
> When I reboot the computer I get:
>
> ne2k-pci.c:v0.99L 2/7/98 D. Becker/P. Gortmaker http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/ne2k-pci.html
> ne2k-pci.c: PCI NE2000 clone 'RealTek RTL-8029' at I/O 0xd000, IRQ 10.
> eth0: PCI NE2000 found at 0xd000, IRQ 10, 00:40:05:65:70:B4.
>
> I was told by RealTek technical support, that Windows98 deletes
> information about the properties of the network card. (from where?)
>
> Is there anything I can do here?
> As you can see, I tried the option 'pci=nobios' with 2.1.x kernels and
> I now use the direct PCI access method during make config, but to no
> avail. If I use the BIOS method, the kernel doesn't complain about the
> irq being 0, but instead about the i/o ports being 0 (which wouldn't work
> either of course).
>
> Maybe there is a way to reset the PNP Bios, as it it obviously done, when
> resetting (warm boot as well as cold boot)?
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