[gpatrick]

Having a fondness for OS/2 I was elated to have an update being released by Arca Noae in ArcaOS. I waited patiently, checking multiple times daily, for weeks during their countless delays, until the official release where I immediately purchased by own copy of the new OS/2.

I had even purchased a Lenovo N580 for the purpose of running OS/2 on new hardware (eComStation doesn't run on the Lenovo). I burned the iso to a DVD and began the installation. Maybe 15 minutes later the installation was completed and two reboots later I had a desktop. Success! Now I could browse the Internet without much worry about the silent predators known as Windows viruses and malware. I click on Firefox, the browser opens. I type in my URL. No page displays.

I check the network setup and it has an IP but I couldn't ping my gateway. I rebooted. Ping worked. Started Firefox, typed in a URL. No page. Ping of the gateway didn't work.

ArcaOS and eComStation work fine on my IBM Thinkpad T60's. Installed ArcaOS on my HP desktop. Successful installation. Start Firefox. Type in URL. Network gone. I found the HP desktop and the Lenovo N580 laptop both have Atheros chipsets.

Opened a ticket with Arca Noae. Nothing for 3 weeks. Had me try changing the setup in a config file and still dropped the network. Nearly 6 weeks later I'm asked to change the cable or maybe I have a bad port on my switch. Unlikely since I used the same cable in the same port for another laptop with another OS, but I bought a new cable and plugged it into a different port.
Same problem. A few days later I'm asked to reset my router because that could potentially be the problem according to tech support. Reset the router (FreeBSD running IPF) and same problem continues. More time goes by and I'm asked to create a TCP dump. A few days go by and I'm asked to change my firewall rules because "possibly" IPv6 traffic is confusing the IP stack on ArcaOS.

It must be noted that I currently run: OpenIndiana, Minix3, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan9, and Windows 8 going through the same router without any problems. I have also ran OpenBSD, SmartOS, Solaris 11, 9front, Inferno, Windows 10 successfully going through the same router without any problems. Plus I stream Hulu and Netflix to my TV. In addtion, I have two IBM Thinkpad T60's which have eComStation and ArcaOS installed and they both work perfectly fine and no network problems.

It has been two months since the ticket was opened. The last update it was said by tech support the ArcaOS MMALC driver is used successfully by others. I don't dispute that. But when that driver is used with an Atheros chipset then network problems occur (at least on my two machines with Atheros). Given that no network problems exist on the T60 but they do with Atheros chipset machines seems to give credence to my diagnosis.

To be continued...