Article View: comp.os.linux.answers
Article #5Linux Ethernet HOWTO (part 2/3)
From: Paul Gortmaker
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 00:00
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 00:00
1525 lines
52777 bytes
52777 bytes
Archive-Name: linux/howto/ethernet/part2
Last-modified: 19 Nov 95
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
*** The `Linux Ethernet HOWTO' is posted automatically by the
*** Linux HOWTO coordinator, Greg Hankins <gregh@sunsite.unc.edu>. Please
*** direct any comments or questions about this HOWTO to the author,
*** Paul Gortmaker <Paul.Gortmaker@anu.edu.au>.
- --- BEGIN Linux Ethernet HOWTO part 2/3 ---
Yes, another MCA card. No, not too much interest in it. Better
chances with the 3c523 or the 3c529.
5.1.8. 3c529
Status -- Not Supported
This card actually uses the same chipset as the 3c509. Donald
actually put hooks into the 3c509 driver to check for MCA cards after
probing for EISA cards, and before probing for ISA cards. But it
hasn't evolved much further than that. Donald writes:
``I don't have access to a MCA machine (nor do I fully understand the
probing code) so I never wrote the mca_adaptor_select_mode() or
mca_adaptor_id() routines. If you can find a way to get the adaptor
I/O address that assigned at boot time, you can just hard-wire that in
place of the commented-out probe. Be sure to keep the code that reads
the IRQ, if_port, and ethernet address.''
5.1.9. 3c562
Status -- Supported
This PCMCIA card is the combination of a 3c589B ethernet card with a
modem. The modem appears as a standard modem to the end user. The only
difficulty is getting the two separate linux drivers to share one
interrupt. There are a couple of new registers and some hardware
interrupt sharing support.
Thanks again to Cameron for getting a sample unit and documentation
sent off to David Hinds. Look for support in David's next PCMCIA
package release.
5.1.10. 3c579
Status -- Supported
The EISA version of the 509. The current EISA version uses the same 16
bit wide chip rather than a 32 bit interface, so the performance
increase isn't stunning. The EISA probe code was added to 3c509.c for
0.99pl14. We would be interested in hearing progress reports from any
3c579 users. (Read the above 3c509 section for info on the driver.)
Cameron Spitzer writes: ``The 3C579 (Etherlink III EISA) should be
configured as an EISA card. The IO Base Address (window 0 register 6
bits 4:0) should be 1f, which selects EISA addressing mode. Logic
outside the ASIC decodes the IO address s000, where s is the slot
number. I don't think it was documented real well. Except for its IO
Base Address, the '579 should behave EXACTLY like the'509 (EL3 ISA),
and if it doesn't, I want to hear about it (at my work address).''
5.1.11. 3c589 / 3c589B
Status -- Semi-Supported
Many people have been using this PCMCIA card for quite some time now.
Note that support for it is not (at present) included in the default
kernel source tree. You will also need a supported PCMCIA controller
chipset. There are drivers available on Donald's ftp site:
cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov:/pub/linux/pcmcia/README.3c589
cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov:/pub/linux/pcmcia/3c589.c
cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov:/pub/linux/pcmcia/dbether.c
Or for those that are net-surfing you can try:
Don's PCMCIA Stuff <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/pcmcia.html>
You will still need a PCMCIA socket enabler as well.
See ``PCMCIA Support'' for more info on PCMCIA chipsets, socket
enablers, etc.
The "B" in the name means the same here as it does for the 3c509 case.
5.1.12. 3c590 / 3c595
Status -- Supported
These ``Vortex'' cards are for PCI bus machines, with the '590 being
10Mbps and the '595 being 3Com's 100Mbs offering. Also note that you
can run the '595 as a '590 (i.e. in a 10Mbps mode). The driver will
eventually appear in the 1.3.x kernel, but you can get the driver now
from the following URL:
Vortex <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortex.html>
3Com has been offering an evaluation deal where you get 2 '595 cards
for a total price of $250. Check with your local 3Com distributor to
see if this is still available.
A thanks to Cameron Spitzer and Terry Murphy of 3Com for sending cards
and documentation to Donald so he could write the driver.
5.1.13. 3c597
Status -- Supported
This is the recently released EISA version of the 3c59x series of
cards. The 3c597 (aka Demon) should work with the vortex driver
discussed above.
5.2. Accton
5.2.1. Accton MPX
Status -- Supported
Don't let the name fool you. This is still supposed to be a NE2000
compatible card. The MPX is supposed to stand for MultiPacket
Accelerator, which, according to Accton, increases throughput
substantially. But if you are already sending back-to-back packets,
how can you get any faster...
5.2.2. Accton EN1203, EN 1207, EtherDuo-PCI
Status -- Supported
This is another implementation of the DEC 21040 PCI chip.
See ``DEC 21040'' for more information on these cards, and the present
driver situation.
5.2.3. Accton EN2212 PCMCIA Card
Status -- Semi-Supported
David Hinds has been working on a driver for this card, and you are
best to check the latest release of his PCMCIA package to see what the
present status is.
5.3. Allied Telesyn/Telesis
5.3.1. AT1500
Status --Supported
These are a series of low-cost ethercards using the 79C960 version of
the AMD LANCE. These are bus-master cards, and hence one of the faster
ISA bus ethercards available.
DMA selection and chip numbering information can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on AMD LANCE based Ethernet cards can be
found in ``Notes on AMD...''.
5.3.2. AT1700
Status -- Supported
The Allied Telesis AT1700 series ethercards are based on the Fujitsu
MB86965. This chip uses a programmed I/O interface, and a pair of
fixed-size transmit buffers. This allows small groups of packets to be
sent back-to-back, with a short pause while switching buffers.
A unique feature is the ability to drive 150ohm STP (Shielded Twisted
Pair) cable commonly installed for Token Ring, in addition to 10baseT
100ohm UTP (unshielded twisted pair).
The Fujitsu chip used on the AT1700 has a design flaw: it can only be
fully reset by doing a power cycle of the machine. Pressing the reset
button doesn't reset the bus interface. This wouldn't be so bad,
except that it can only be reliably detected when it has been freshly
reset. The solution/work-around is to power-cycle the machine if the
kernel has a problem detecting the AT1700.
Some production runs of the AT1700 had another problem: they are
permanently wired to DMA channel 5. This is undocumented, there are
no jumpers to disable the "feature", and no driver dares use the DMA
capability because of compatibility problems. No device driver will be
written using DMA if installing a second card into the machine breaks
both, and the only way to disable the DMA is with a knife.
The at1700 driver is included in the standard kernel source tree.
5.3.3. AT2450
Status -- Supported
This is the PCI version of the AT1500, and it doesn't suffer from the
problems that the Boca 79c970 PCI card does. Allied Telsyn was still
`beta testing' the card in early/mid 1995, so it may not have spread
to various retailers yet (but it doesn't hurt to ask.)
DMA selection and chip numbering information can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on AMD LANCE based Ethernet cards can be
found in ``Notes on AMD...''.
5.4. AMD / Advanced Micro Devices
5.4.1. AMD LANCE (7990, 79C960, PCnet-ISA)
Status -- Supported
There really is no AMD ethernet card. You are probably reading this
because the only markings you could find on your card said AMD and the
above number. The 7990 is the original `LANCE' chip, but most stuff
(including this document) refer to all these similar chips as `LANCE'
chips. (...incorrectly, I might add.)
These above numbers refer to chips from AMD that are the heart of many
ethernet cards. For example, the Allied Telesis AT1500 (see
``AT1500'') the NE1500/2100 (see ``NE1500'') and the Boca-VLB/PCI
cards (see ``Boca-VLB/PCI'')
The 79C960 (a.k.a. PCnet-ISA) contains enhancements and bug fixes over
the original 7990 LANCE design.
One common problem people have is the `busmaster arbitration failure'
message. This is printed out when the LANCE driver can't get access to
the bus after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed (50us). This
usually indicates that the motherboard implementation of bus-mastering
DMA is broken, or some other device is hogging the bus, or there is a
DMA channel conflict. If your BIOS setup has the `GAT option' (for
Guaranteed Access Time) then try toggling/altering that setting to see
if it helps.
Chances are that the existing LANCE driver will work with all AMD
LANCE based cards. (except perhaps some of the original 7990 designs
with shared memory.) This driver should also work with NE1500 and
NE2100 clones.
For the ISA bus master mode all structures used directly by the LANCE,
the initialization block, Rx and Tx rings, and data buffers, must be
accessible from the ISA bus, i.e. in the lower 16M of real memory. If
more than 16MB of memory is installed, low-memory `bounce-buffers' are
used when needed.
The DMA channel can be set with the low bits of the otherwise-unused
dev->mem_start value (a.k.a. PARAM_1). (see ``PARAM_1'') If unset it
is probed for by enabling each free DMA channel in turn and checking
if initialization succeeds.
The HP-J2405A board is an exception: with this board it's easy to read
the EEPROM-set values for the IRQ, and DMA.
See ``Notes on AMD...'' for more info on these chips.
5.4.2. AMD 79C961 (PCnet-ISA+)
Status -- Supported
This is the PCnet-ISA+ -- an enhanced version of the 79C960. It has
support for jumper-less configuration and Plug and Play. See the info
in the above section.
5.4.3. AMD 79C965 (PCnet-32)
Status -- Supported
This is the PCnet-32 -- a 32 bit bus-master version of the original
LANCE chip for VL-bus and local bus systems. Minor cleanups were
added to the original lance driver around v1.1.50 to support these 32
bit versions of the LANCE chip. The main problem was that the current
versions of the '965 and '970 chips have a minor bug. They clear the
Rx buffer length field in the Rx ring when they are explicitly
documented not to. Again, see the above info.
5.4.4. AMD 79C970 (PCnet-PCI)
Status -- Supported
This is the PCnet-PCI -- similar to the PCnet-32, but designed for PCI
bus based systems. Again, see the above info. Donald has modified the
LANCE driver to use the PCI BIOS structure that was introduced by Drew
Eckhardt for the PCI-NCR SCSI driver. This means that you need to
build a kernel with PCI BIOS support enabled.
Note that the Boca implementation of the 79C970 fails on fast Pentium
machines. This is a hardware problem, as it affects DOS users as well.
See the Boca section for more details.
5.4.5. AMD 79C974 (PCnet-SCSI)
Status -- Supported
This is the PCnet-SCSI -- which is basically treated like a '970 from
an Ethernet point of view. A minor '974 specific fix was added to the
1.1.8x kernels, so get a 1.1.90 or newer kernel. Also see the above
info. Don't ask if the SCSI half of the chip is supported -- this is
the Ethernet-Howto, not the SCSI-Howto.
5.5. Ansel Communications
5.5.1. AC3200 EISA
Status -- Semi-Supported
This driver is included in the present kernel as an alpha test driver.
It is based on the common NS8390 chip used in the ne2000 and wd80x3
cards. Please see ``Alpha Drivers'' in this document for important
information regarding alpha drivers. If you use it, let Donald know
how things work out, as not too many people have this card and
feedback has been low, even though the driver has been in the kernel
since v1.1.25.
If you intend on using this driver as a loadable module you should
probably see ``Using the Ethernet Drivers as Modules'' and also ``8390
Based Cards as Modules'' for module specific information.
5.6. Apricot
5.6.1. Apricot Xen-II On Board Ethernet
Status -- Supported
This on board ethernet uses an i82596 bus-master chip. It can only be
at i/o address 0x300. The author of this driver is Mark Evans. By
looking at the driver source, it appears that the IRQ is hardwired to
10.
Earlier versions of the driver had a tendency to think that anything
living at 0x300 was an apricot NIC. Since then the hardware address
is checked to avoid these false detections.
5.7. Arcnet
Status -- Supported
With the very low cost and better performance of ethernet, chances are
that most places will be giving away their Arcnet hardware for free,
resulting in a lot of home systems with Arcnet.
An advantage of Arcnet is that all of the cards have identical
interfaces, so one driver will work for everyone. It also has built in
error handling so that it supposedly never loses a packet. (Great for
UDP traffic!)
Avery Pennarun's arcnet driver has been in the default kernel sources
since 1.1.80. The arcnet driver uses `arc0' as its name instead of the
usual `eth0' for ethernet devices. Bug reports and success stories
can be mailed to:
apenwarr@foxnet.net
There are information files contained in the standard kernel for
setting jumpers and general hints.
Supposedly the driver also works with the 100Mbs ARCnet cards as well!
5.8. AT&T
Note that AT&T's StarLAN is an orphaned technology, like SynOptics
LattisNet, and can't be used in a standard 10Base-T environment,
without a hub that `speaks' both.
5.8.1. AT&T T7231 (LanPACER+)
Status -- Not Supported
These StarLAN cards use an interface similar to the i82586 chip. At
one point, Matthijs Melchior (matthijs.n.melchior@att.com) was playing
with the 3c507 driver, and almost had something useable working.
Haven't heard much since that.
5.9. AT-Lan-Tec / RealTek
5.9.1. AT-Lan-Tec / RealTek Pocket adaptor
Status -- Supported
This is a generic, low-cost OEM pocket adaptor being sold by AT-Lan-
Tec, and (likely) a number of other suppliers. A driver for it is
included in the standard kernel. Note that there is substantial
information contained in the driver source file `atp.c'. BTW, the
adaptor (AEP-100L) has both 10baseT and BNC connections! You can
reach AT-Lan-Tec at 1-301-948-7070. Ask for the model that works with
Linux, or ask for tech support.
In the Netherlands a compatible adaptor is sold under the name SHI-TEC
PE-NET/CT, and sells for about $125. The vendor was Megasellers. They
state that they do not sell to private persons, but this doesn't
appear to be strictly adhered to. They are: Megasellers, Vianen, The
Netherlands. They always advertise in Dutch computer magazines. Note
that the newer model EPP-NET/CT appears to be significantly different
than the PE-NET/CT, and will not work with the present driver.
Hopefully someone will come up with the programming information and
this will be fixed up.
In Germany, a similar adaptor comes as a no-brand-name product. Prolan
890b, no brand on the casing, only a roman II. Resellers can get a
price of about $130, including a small wall transformer for the power.
The adaptor is `normal size' for the product class, about 57mm wide,
22mm high tapering to 15mm high at the DB25 connector, and 105mm long
(120mm including the BNC socket). It's switchable between the RJ45 and
BNC jacks with a small slide switch positioned between the two: a very
intuitive design.
Donald performed some power draw measurements, and determined that the
average current draw was only about 100mA @ 5V. This power draw is
low enough that you could buy or build a cable to take the 5V directly
from the keyboard/mouse port available on many laptops. (Bonus points
here for using a standardized power connector instead of a proprietary
one.)
Note that the device name that you pass to ifconfig is not eth0 but
atp0 for this device.
5.10. Boca Research
Yes, they make more than just multi-port serial cards. :-)
5.10.1. Boca BEN (PCI, VLB)
Status -- Supported
These cards are based on AMD's PCnet chips, used in the AT1500 and the
like. You can pick up a combo (10BaseT and 10Base2) PCI card for under
$70 at the moment.
Perspective buyers should be warned that many users have had endless
problems with these cards. Owners of fast Pentium systems have been
especially hit. Note that this is not a driver problem, as it hits
DOS/Win/NT users as well. Boca's technical support number is (407)
241-8088, and you can also reach them at 75300.2672@compuserve.com.
Donald did a comparitive test with the above Boca PCI card and a
similar Allied Telsyn PCnet/PCI implementation, which showed that the
problem lies in Boca's implementation of the PCnet/PCI chip. These
test results can be accessed on Don's www server.
Linux at CESDIS <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/>
Also, Dave Platt has compared the recommended implementation given on
the AMD data sheet with the Boca implementation, and has determined
that Boca has left out a substantial number of important filtering
capacitors. At the risk of being verbose, here is a quote from Dave,
which will allow you to assess if the problem has been addressed yet,
given a card for visual inspection.
``I just reviewed Appendix B in the 79c970 data sheet. It recommends
a _minimum_ of 8 high-frequency bypassing caps (.1 uF multilayer
ceramic) around the chip, to keep ground and power bounce from causing
unreliable operation. Looking at the card I have here, I see a total
of 5 such caps on the entire card - only a couple of them are close
enough to the chip to do a decent job of high-frequency bypassing.
If you hold the card with chips facing up, and the PCI pins pointed
towards you, the lower-left corner of the '970 has the positioning
dimple. The upper-left corner of the chip is the `analog corner',
where the analog power and ground pins are. Appendix B calls these
`the most cricical pins in the layout of a PCnet-PCI card'. There are
4 analog power pins, and 2 analog ground pins... all of them are
supposed to be connected, and properly bypassed.
On the left side of the chip, the uppermost pin is AVSS1 (analog
ground 1). On the top edge, the fourth pin from the left is AVDD3
(analog power 3). The Appendix specifically recommends having a .1 uF
bypass cap tied directly to these two pins (not going through the
common ground plane). On the card I have, there is no such cap - the
nearest bypass cap is about half-an-inch away over by the crystal, and
is tied to the ground plane.
The Appendix also specifically recommends `low-frequency bulk
capacitors' (by which I assume that they mean multi-uF tantalum or
aluminum electrolytics) as well as high-frequency bypass caps. I see
only two bulk capacitors (one 10 uF in the AVSS2/AVDD2 filter circuit,
and one 4.7 uF up above the chip which also appears to be part of a
filter circuit). The Appendix recommends `at least one low-frequency
bulk (e.g. 22 uF) bypass capactor... connected directly to the power
and ground planes.' There is no capacitor on the board which matches
this description.
It appears that Boca ignored _several_ of AMD's recommendations,
regarding the number, size, placement, and wiring of the power supply
bypass capacitors.''
(Thanks Dave.) Boca is offering a `warranty repair' for affected
owners, which involves adding one of the missing capacitors, but it
appears that this fix doesn't work 100 percent for most people,
although it helps some.
If you are still thinking of buying one of these cards, then at least
try and get a 7 day unconditional return policy, so that if it doesn't
work properly in your system, you can return it.
More general information on the AMD chips can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on AMD LANCE based Ethernet cards can be
found in ``Notes on AMD...''.
5.11. Cabletron
Donald writes: `Yes, another one of these companies that won't release
its programming information. They waited for months before actually
confirming that all their information was proprietary, deliberately
wasting my time. Avoid their cards like the plague if you can. Also
note that some people have phoned Cabletron, and have been told things
like `a D. Becker is working on a driver for linux' -- making it sound
like I work for them. This is NOT the case.'
If you feel like asking them why they don't want to release their low
level programming info so that people can use their cards, write to
support@ctron.com. Tell them that you are using Linux, and are
disappointed that they don't support open systems. And no, the usual
driver development kit they supply is useless. It is just a DOS object
file that you are supposed to link against. Which you aren't allowed
to even reverse engineer.
5.11.1. E10**, E10**-x, E20**, E20**-x
Status -- Semi-Supported
These are NEx000 almost-clones that are reported to work with the
standard NEx000 drivers, thanks to a ctron-specific check during the
probe. If there are any problems, they are unlikely to be fixed, as
the programming information is unavailable.
5.11.2. E2100
Status -- Semi-Supported
Again, there is not much one can do when the programming information
is proprietary. The E2100 is a poor design. Whenever it maps its
shared memory in during a packet transfer, it maps it into the whole
128K region! That means you can't safely use another interrupt-driven
shared memory device in that region, including another E2100. It will
work most of the time, but every once in a while it will bite you.
(Yes, this problem can be avoided by turning off interrupts while
transferring packets, but that will almost certainly lose clock
ticks.) Also, if you mis-program the board, or halt the machine at
just the wrong moment, even the reset button won't bring it back. You
will have to turn it off and leave it off for about 30 seconds.
Media selection is automatic, but you can override this with the low
bits of the dev->mem_end parameter. See ``PARAM_2''. Module users can
specify an xcvr=N value on the insmod command line to do the same.
Also, don't confuse the E2100 for a NE2100 clone. The E2100 is a
shared memory NatSemi DP8390 design, roughly similar to a brain-
damaged WD8013, whereas the NE2100 (and NE1500) use a bus-mastering
AMD LANCE design.
There is an E2100 driver included in the standard kernel. However,
seeing as programming info isn't available, don't expect bug-fixes.
Don't use one unless you are already stuck with the card.
If you intend on using this driver as a loadable module you should
probably see ``Using the Ethernet Drivers as Modules'' and also ``8390
Based Cards as Modules'' for module specific information.
5.12. Cogent
Here is where and how to reach them:
Cogent Data Technologies, Inc.
175 West Street, P.O. Box 926
Friday Harbour, WA 98250, USA.
Cogent Sales
15375 S.E. 30th Place, Suite 310
Bellevue, WA 98007, USA.
Technical Support:
Phone (360) 378-2929 between 8am and 5pm PST
Fax (360) 378-2882
Compuserve GO COGENT
Bulletin Board Service (360) 378-5405
Internet: support@cogentdata.com
5.12.1. Cogent eMASTER+, EM100, EM400, EM960, EM964
Status -- Supported
These are yet another DEC 21040 implementation that should work fine
with the standard 21040 driver.
The EM400 and the EM964 are four port cards using a DEC 21050 bridge
and 4 21040 chips.
See ``DEC 21040'' for more information on these cards, and the present
driver situation.
5.13. D-Link
Some people have had difficulty in finding vendors that carry D-link
stuff. This should help.
(714) 455-1688 in the US
(081) 203-9900 in the UK
(416) 828-0260 in Canada
(02) 916-1600 in Taiwan
5.13.1. DE-100, DE-200, DE-220-T
Status -- Supported
The manual says that it is 100 % compatible with the NE2000. This is
not true. You should call them and tell them you are using their card
with Linux, and they should correct their documentation. Some
pre-0.99pl12 driver versions may have trouble recognizing the DE2**
series as 16 bit cards, and these cards are the most widely reported
as having the spurious transfer address mismatch errors. Note that
there are cards from Digital (DEC) that are also named DE100 and
DE200, but the similarity stops there.
5.13.2. DE-520
Status -- Supported
This is a PCI card using the PCI version of AMD's LANCE chip. DMA
selection and chip numbering information can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on AMD LANCE based Ethernet cards can be
found in ``Notes on AMD...''.
5.13.3. DE-530
Status -- Supported
This is a generic DEC 21040 PCI chip implementation, and works with
the generic 21040 driver.
See ``DEC 21040'' for more information on these cards, and the present
driver situation.
5.13.4. DE-600
Status -- Supported
Laptop users and other folk who might want a quick way to put their
computer onto the ethernet may want to use this. The driver is
included with the default kernel source tree. Bjorn Ekwall
bj0rn@blox.se wrote the driver. Expect about 180kb/s transfer speed
from this via the parallel port. You should read the README.DLINK file
in the kernel source tree.
Note that the device name that you pass to ifconfig is now eth0 and
not the previously used dl0.
If your parallel port is not at the standard 0x378 then you will have
to recompile. Bjorn writes: ``Since the DE-620 driver tries to sqeeze
the last microsecond from the loops, I made the irq and port address
constants instead of variables. This makes for a usable speed, but it
also means that you can't change these assignements from e.g. lilo;
you _have_ to recompile...'' Also note that some laptops implement the
on-board parallel port at 0x3bc which is where the parallel ports on
monochrome cards were/are.
5.13.5. DE-620
Status -- Supported
Same as the DE-600, only with two output formats. Bjorn has written a
driver for this model, for kernel versions 1.1 and above. See the
above information on the DE-600.
5.13.6. DE-650
Status -- Semi-Supported
Some people have been using this PCMCIA card for some time now with
their notebooks. It is a basic 8390 design, much like a NE2000. The
LinkSys PCMCIA card and the IC-Card Ethernet (available from Midwest
Micro) are supposedly DE-650 clones as well. Note that at present,
this driver is not part of the standard kernel, and so you will have
to do some patching.
See ``PCMCIA Support'' in this document, and if you can, have a look
at:
Don's PCMCIA Stuff <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/pcmcia.html>
5.14. DFI
5.14.1. DFINET-300 and DFINET-400
Status -- Supported
These cards are now detected (as of 0.99pl15) thanks to Eberhard
Moenkeberg emoenke@gwdg.de who noted that they use `DFI' in the first
3 bytes of the prom, instead of using 0x57 in bytes 14 and 15, which
is what all the NE1000 and NE2000 cards use. (The 300 is an 8 bit
pseudo NE1000 clone, and the 400 is a pseudo NE2000 clone.)
5.15. Digital / DEC
5.15.1. DEPCA, DE100/1, DE200/1/2, DE210, DE422
Status -- Supported
As of linux v1.0, there is a driver included as standard for these
cards. It was written by David C. Davies. There is documentation
included in the source file `depca.c', which includes info on how to
use more than one of these cards in a machine. Note that the DE422 is
an EISA card. These cards are all based on the AMD LANCE chip. See
``AMD LANCE'' for more info. A maximum of two of the ISA cards can be
used, because they can only be set for 0x300 and 0x200 base I/O
address. If you are intending to do this, please read the notes in
the driver source file depca.c in the standard kernel source tree.
This driver will also work on Alpha CPU based machines, and there are
various ioctl()s that the user can play with.
5.15.2. Digital EtherWorks 3 (DE203, DE204, DE205)
Status -- Supported
Included into kernels v1.1.62 and above is this driver, also by David
C. Davies of DEC. These cards use a proprietary chip from DEC, as
opposed to the LANCE chip used in the earlier cards like the DE200.
These cards support both shared memory or programmed I/O, although you
take about a 50%performance hit if you use PIO mode. The shared memory
size can be set to 2kB, 32kB or 64kB, but only 2 and 32 have been
tested with this driver. David says that the performance is virtually
identical between the 2kB and 32kB mode. There is more information
(including using the driver as a loadable module) at the top of the
driver file ewrk3.c and also in README.ewrk3. Both of these files
come with the standard kernel distribution.
The standard driver has a number of interesting ioctl() calls that can
be used to get or clear packet statistics, read/write the EEPROM,
change the hardware address, and the like. Hackers can see the source
code for more info on that one.
David has also written a configuration utility for this card (along
the lines of the DOS program NICSETUP.EXE) along with other tools.
These can be found on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
/pub/Linux/system/Network/management -- look for the file ewrk3tools-
X.XX.tar.gz.
The next release of this driver (v0.40) will have Alpha CPU support
like depca.c does and is available from David now if you require it.
5.15.3. DE425 (EISA), DE434, DE435, DE500
Status -- Supported
These cards are based on the 21040 chip mentioned below. Included
into kernels v1.1.86 and above is this driver, also by David C. Davies
of DEC. It sure is nice to have support from someone on the inside
;-) The DE500 uses the newer 21140 chip to provide 10/100Mbs ethernet
connections. Have a read of the 21040 section below for extra info.
Note that as of 1.1.91, David has added a compile time option that
will allow non-DEC cards to work with this driver. Have a look at
README.de4x5 for details.
All the Digital cards will autoprobe for their media (except,
temporarily, the DE500 due to a patent issue).
This driver is also ALPHA CPU ready and supports being loaded as a
module. Users can access the driver internals through ioctl() calls -
see the 'ewrk3' tools and the de4x5.c sources for information about
how to do this.
5.15.4. DEC 21040, 21041, 21140, Tulip
Status -- Supported
The DEC 21040 is a bus-mastering single chip ethernet solution from
Digital, similar to AMD's PCnet chip. The 21040 is specifically
designed for the PCI bus architecture. SMC's new EtherPower PCI card
uses this chip.
You have a choice of two drivers for cards based on this chip. There
is the DE425 driver discussed above, and the generic 21040 driver that
Donald has written.
The updated 21041 chip is also found in place of the 21040 on newly
produced SMC EtherPower cards. The 21140 is for supporting 100Base-?
and works with the Linux drivers for the 21040 chip. To use David's
de4x5 driver with non-DEC cards, have a look at README.de4x5 for
details.
Donald has used SMC EtherPower-10/100 cards to develop the `tulip'
driver. Note that the driver that is in the standard kernel tree at
the moment is not the most up to date version. If you intend on using
this driver, you should get the newest version from Donald's ftp/WWW
site.
Tulip Driver <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/tulip.html>
The above URL also contains a (non-exhaustive) list of various
cards/vendors that use the 21040 chip.
Also note that the tulip driver is still considered an alpha driver
(see ``Alpha Drivers'') at the moment, and should be treated as such.
To use it, you will have to edit arch/i386/config.in and uncomment the
line for CONFIG_DEC_ELCP support.
5.16. Farallon
Farallon sells EtherWave adaptors and transceivers. This device allows
multiple 10baseT devices to be daisy-chained.
5.16.1. Farallon Etherwave
Status -- Supported
This is reported to be a 3c509 clone that includes the EtherWave
transceiver. People have used these successfully with Linux and the
present 3c509 driver. They are too expensive for general use, but are
a great option for special cases. Hublet prices start at $125, and
Etherwave adds $75-$100 to the price of the board -- worth it if you
have pulled one wire too few, but not if you are two network drops
short.
5.17. Hewlett Packard
The 272** cards use programmed I/O, similar to the NE*000 boards, but
the data transfer port can be `turned off' when you aren't accessing
it, avoiding problems with autoprobing drivers.
Thanks to Glenn Talbott for helping clean up the confusion in this
section regarding the version numbers of the HP hardware.
5.17.1. 27245A
Status -- Supported
8 Bit 8390 based 10BaseT, not recommended for all the 8 bit reasons.
It was re-designed a couple years ago to be highly integrated which
caused some changes in initialization timing which only affected
testing programs, not LAN drivers. (The new card is not `ready' as
soon after switching into and out of loopback mode.)
If you intend on using this driver as a loadable module you should
probably see ``Using the Ethernet Drivers as Modules'' and also ``8390
Based Cards as Modules'' for module specific information.
5.17.2. HP PC Lan+ (27247, 27252A)
Status -- Supported
The HP PC Lan+ is different to the standard HP PC Lan card. This
driver was added to the list of drivers in the standard kernel during
the v1.1.x development cycle. It can be operated in either a PIO mode
like a ne2000, or a shared memory mode like a wd8013.
The 47B is a 16 Bit 8390 based 10BaseT w/AUI, and the 52A is a 16 Bit
8390 based ThinLAN w/AUI. These cards have 32K onboard RAM for Tx/Rx
packet buffering instead of the usual 16KB, and they both offer LAN
connector autosense.
If you intend on using this driver as a loadable module you should
probably see ``Using the Ethernet Drivers as Modules'' and also ``8390
Based Cards as Modules'' for module specific information.
5.17.3. HP-J2405A
Status -- Supported
These are lower priced, and slightly faster than the 27247/27252A, but
are missing some features, such as AUI, ThinLAN connectivity, and boot
PROM socket. This is a fairly generic LANCE design, but a minor
design decision makes it incompatible with a generic `NE2100' driver.
Special support for it (including reading the DMA channel from the
board) is included thanks to information provided by HP's Glenn
Talbott.
More technical information on LANCE based cards can be found in
``Notes on AMD...''
5.17.4. HP-Vectra On Board Ethernet
Status -- Supported
The HP-Vectra has an AMD PCnet chip on the motherboard. Earlier
kernel versions would detect it as the HP-J2405A but that would fail,
as the Vectra doesn't report the IRQ and DMA channel like the J2405A.
Get a kernel newer than v1.1.53 to avoid this problem.
DMA selection and chip numbering information can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on LANCE based cards can be found in
``Notes on AMD...''
5.17.5. HP 10/100 VG Any Lan Cards (27248B, J2573, J2577, J2585)
Status -- Supported
As of early 1.3.x kernels, this driver was made available by Jaroslav
Kysela, (perex@pf.jcu.cz). Due to the newness of the driver and the
relatively small number of VG cards in use, feedback on this driver
has been low.
Donald has also written a driver for these cards. Unlike the above, it
is not presently in the standard kernel source tree. Check out the
following URL for more information on Donald's 100VG work.
Donald's 100VG Page
<http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/100vg.html>
5.18. IBM / International Business Machines
5.18.1. IBM Thinkpad 300
Status -- Supported
This is compatible with the Intel based Zenith Z-note. See ``Z-note''
for more info.
Supposedly this site has a comprehensive database of useful stuff for
newer versions of the Thinkpad. I haven't checked it out myself yet.
Thinkpad-info <http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/html/linux-thinkpad.html>
For those without a WWW browser handy, try
peipa.essex.ac.uk:/pub/tp750/
5.18.2. IBM Credit Card Adaptor for Ethernet
Status -- Semi-Supported
People have been using this PCMCIA card with Linux as well. Similar
points apply, those being that you need a supported PCMCIA chipset on
your notebook, and that you will have to patch the PCMCIA support into
the standard kernel.
See ``PCMCIA Support'' in this document, and if you can, have a look
at:
Don's PCMCIA Stuff <http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/pcmcia.html>
5.18.3. IBM Token Ring
Status -- Semi-Supported
To support token ring requires more than only writing a device driver,
it also requires writing the source routing routines for token ring.
It is the source routing that would be the most time comsuming to
write.
Peter De Schrijver has been spending some time on Token Ring lately.
and has worked with IBM ISA and MCA token ring cards.
The present token ring code has been included into the first of the
1.3.x series kernels.
Peter says that it was originally tested on an MCA 16/4 Megabit Token
Ring board, but it should work with other Tropic based boards.
5.19. ICL Ethernet Cards
5.19.1. ICL EtherTeam 16i/32
Status -- Supported
Mika Kuoppala (miku@pupu.elt.icl.fi) wrote this driver, and it was
included into early 1.3.4x kernels. It uses the Fujitsu MB86965 chip
that is also used on the at1700 cards.
5.20. Intel Ethernet Cards
5.20.1. Ether Express
Status -- Semi-Supported
This card uses the intel i82586. (Surprise, huh?) The driver is in
the standard release of the kernel, as an alpha driver. See ``Alpha
Drivers'' for important information on using alpha-test ethernet
drivers with Linux.
The reason is that the driver works well with slow machines, but the
i82586 occasionally hangs from the packet buffer contention that a
fast machine can cause. One reported hack/fix is to change all of the
outw() calls to outw_p(). Also, the driver is missing promiscuous and
multicast modes. (See ``Multicast and...'')
There is also the standard way of using the chip (read slower) that is
described in the chip manual, and used in other i82586 drivers, but
this would require a re-write of the entire driver.
There is some technical information available on the i82586 in
``Programming the Intel Chips'' and also in the source code for the
driver `eexpress.c'. Don't be afraid to read it. ;-)
5.20.2. Ether Express PRO/10
Status -- Supported
Bao Chau Ha has written a driver for these cards that has been
included into early 1.3.x kernels. It may also work with some of the
Compaq built-in ethernet systems that are based on the i82595 chip.
5.20.3. Ether Express PRO/100
Status -- Not Supported
These PCI and EISA cards use a different chip that the PRO/10 cards
do. Bao is currently trying to get a datasheet out of Intel without
having to sign a NDA. Good Luck!
5.21. LinkSys
5.21.1. LinkSys Pocket Ethernet Adapter Plus (PEAEPP)
Status -- Supported
This is supposedly a DE-620 clone, and is reported to work well with
that driver. See ``DE-620'' for more information.
5.21.2. LinkSys PCMCIA Adaptor
Status -- Supported
This is supposed to be a re-badged DE-650. See ``DE-650'' for more
information.
5.22. Microdyne
5.22.1. Microdyne Exos 205T
Status -- Semi-Supported
Another i82586 based card. Dirk Niggemann dabn100@hermes.cam.ac.uk has
written a driver that he classes as ``pre-alpha'' that he would like
people to test. Mail him for more details.
5.23. Mylex
Mylex can be reached at the following numbers, in case anyone wants to
ask them anything.
MYLEX CORPORATION, Fremont
Sales: 800-77-MYLEX, (510) 796-6100
FAX: (510) 745-8016.
5.23.1. Mylex LNP101
Status -- Supported
This is a PCI card that is based on DEC's 21040 chip. It is
selectable between 10BaseT, 10Base2 and 10Base5 output. The LNP101
card has been verified to work with the generic 21040 driver.
See the section on the 21040 chip (``DEC 21040'') for more
information.
5.23.2. Mylex LNP104
Status -- Not Supported
The LNP104 uses the DEC 21050 chip to deliver four independent 10BaseT
ports. It may work with 21040 drivers, but nobody has tried yet.
5.23.3. Mylex M390B EISA
Status -- Not Supported
Russ writes that "...it's a fairly vanilla 8390-based adapter. Only
really tricky thing is that, like the Interlan es3210, you MUST do
only 32-bit transfers to/from the board. Look at the Crynwr packet
driver and try making the changes yourself...''
5.24. Novell Ethernet, NExxxx and associated clones.
The prefix `NE' came from Novell Ethernet. Novell followed the
cheapest NatSemi databook design and sold the manufacturing rights
(spun off?) Eagle, just to get reasonably-priced ethercards into the
market. (The now ubiquitous NE2000 card.)
5.24.1. NE1000, NE2000
Status -- Supported
NOTE: If you are using a kernel that is older than v1.2.9, it is
strongly recommended that you upgrade to a newer version. There was an
important bugfix made to the ne driver in 1.2.7, and another important
bugfix made to the upper layers (dev.c) in 1.2.9. Both of these bugs
can cause a ne2000 card to hang your computer.
The ne2000 is now a generic name for a bare-bones design around the
NatSemi 8390 chip. They use programmed I/O rather than shared memory,
leading to easier installation but slightly lower performance and a
few problems. Again, the savings of using an 8 bit NE1000 over the
NE2000 are only warranted if you expect light use. Some recently
introduced NE2000 clones use the National Semiconductor `AT/LANTic'
83905 chip, which offers a shared memory mode similar to the 8013 and
EEPROM or software configuration. Some problems can arise with poor
NE2000 clones. See ``Problems with...'', and ``Poor NE2000 Clones'' In
general it is not a good idea to put a NE2000 clone at I/O address
0x300 because nearly every device driver probes there at boot. Some
poor NE2000 clones don't take kindy to being prodded in the wrong
areas, and will respond by locking your machine.
Donald has written a NE2000 diagnostic program, but it is still
presently in alpha test. (ne2k) See ``Diagnostic Programs'' for more
information.
If you intend on using this driver as a loadable module you should
probably see ``Using the Ethernet Drivers as Modules'' and also ``8390
Based Cards as Modules'' for module specific information.
5.24.2. NE1500, NE2100
Status -- Supported
These cards use the original 7990 LANCE chip from AMD and are
supported using the Linux lance driver. Newer NE2100 clones use the
updated PCnet/ISA chip from AMD.
Some earlier versions of the lance driver had problems with getting
the IRQ line via autoIRQ from the original Novell/Eagle 7990 cards.
Hopefully this is now fixed. If not, then specify the IRQ via LILO,
and let us know that it still has problems.
DMA selection and chip numbering information can be found in ``AMD
LANCE''.
More technical information on LANCE based cards can be found in
``Notes on AMD...''
5.24.3. NE3200
Status -- Not Supported
This card uses a lowly 8MHz 80186, and hence you are better off using
a cheap NE2000 clone. Even if a driver was available, the NE2000 card
would most likely be faster.
5.25. Pure Data
5.25.1. PDUC8028, PDI8023
Status -- Supported
The PureData PDUC8028 and PDI8023 series of cards are reported to
work, thanks to special probe code contributed by Mike Jagdis
jaggy@purplet.demon.co.uk. The support is integrated with the WD
driver.
5.26. Racal-Interlan
5.26.1. NI5210
Status -- Semi-Supported
Michael Hipp has written a driver for this card. It is included in the
standard kernel as an `alpha' driver. Michael would like to hear
feedback from users that have this card. See ``Alpha Drivers'' for
important information on using alpha-test ethernet drivers with Linux.
Michael says that ``the internal sysbus seems to be slow. So we often
lose packets because of overruns while receiving from a fast remote
host.''
This card also uses one of the Intel chips. See ``Programming the
Intel Chips'' for more technical information.
5.26.2. NI6510 (not EB)
Status -- Semi-Supported
There is also a driver for the LANCE based NI6510, and it is also
written by Michael Hipp. Again, it is also an `alpha' driver. For some
reason, this card is not compatible with the generic LANCE driver. See
``Alpha Drivers'' for important information on using alpha-test
ethernet drivers with Linux.
5.26.3. EtherBlaster (aka NI6510EB)
Status -- Supported
As of kernel 1.3.23, the generic LANCE driver had a check added to it
for the 0x52, 0x44 NI6510EB specific signature. Others have reported
that this signature is not the same for all NI6510EB cards however,
which will cause the lance driver to not detect your card. If this
happens to you, you can change the probe (at about line 322 in
lance.c) to printk() out what the values are for your card and then
use them instead of the 0x52, 0x44 defaults.
The cards should probably be run in `high-performance' mode and not in
the NI6510 compatible mode when using the lance driver.
5.27. Sager
5.27.1. Sager NP943
Status -- Semi-Supported
This is just a 3c501 clone, with a different S.A. PROM prefix. I
assume it is equally as brain dead as the original 3c501 as well.
Kernels 1.1.53 and up check for the NP943 i.d. and then just treat it
as a 3c501 after that. See ``3Com 3c501'' for all the reasons as to
why you really don't want to use one of these cards.
5.28. Schneider & Koch
5.28.1. SK G16
Status -- Supported
This driver was included into the v1.1 kernels, and it was written by
PJD Weichmann and SWS Bern. It appears that the SK G16 is similar to
the NI6510, in that it is based on the first edition LANCE chip (the
7990). Once again, it appears as though this card won't work with the
generic LANCE driver.
5.29. SEEQ
5.29.1. SEEQ 8005
Status -- Supported
This driver was included into early 1.3.x kernels, and was written by
Hamish Coleman. There is little information about the card included
in the driver, and hence little information to be put here. If you
have a question, you are probably best off e-mailing
hamish@zot.apana.org.au
5.30. SMC (Standard Microsystems Corp.)
Please see ``Western Digital'' for information on SMC cards.
5.31. Thomas Conrad
5.31.1. Thomas Conrad TC-5048
This is yet another PCI card that is based on DEC's 21040 chip.
See the section on the 21040 chip (``DEC 21040'') for more
information.
5.32. Western Digital / SMC
The ethernet part of Western Digital has been bought out by SMC. One
common mistake people make is that the relatively new SMC Elite Ultra
is the same as the older SMC Elite16 models -- this is not the case.
Here is how to contact SMC (not that you should need to.)
SMC / Standard Microsystems Corp., 80 Arkay Drive, Hauppage,
New York, 11788, USA.
Technical Support via phone:
800-992-4762 (USA)
800-433-5345 (Canada)
516-435-6250 (Other Countries)
Literature requests:
800-SMC-4-YOU (USA)
800-833-4-SMC (Canada)
516-435-6255 (Other Countries)
Technical Support via E-mail:
techsupt@ccmail.west.smc.com
FTP Site:
ftp.smc.com
5.32.1. WD8003, SMC Elite
Status -- Supported
These are the 8-bit versions of the card. The 8 bit 8003 is slightly
less expensive, but only worth the savings for light use. Note that
some of the non-EEPROM cards (clones with jumpers, or old old old
wd8003 cards) have no way of reporting the IRQ line used. In this
case, auto-irq is used, and if that fails, the driver silently assings
IRQ 5. Information regarding what the jumpers on old non-EEPROM
wd8003 cards do can be found in conjunction with the SMC setup/driver
disks stored on dorm.rutgers.edu in the directory
/pub/novell/nic_drvs/. Note that some of the newer SMC `SuperDisk'
programs will fail to detect the old EEPROM-less cards. The file
SMCDSK46.EXE seems to be a good all-round choice. Also the jumper
settings for old cards are in an ascii text file in the aforementioned
archive. The latest (greatest?) version can be obtained from
ftp.smc.com.
- --- END Linux Ethernet HOWTO part 2/3 ---
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Technical Details
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X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10669a,851309853b10cbe2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10669a,public X-Google-Thread: 102983,851309853b10cbe2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid102983,public X-Google-Thread: 102b32,851309853b10cbe2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid102b32,public X-Google-Thread: 1038bf,851309853b10cbe2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1038bf,public X-Google-Thread: f9b51,851309853b10cbe2,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf9b51,public From: Paul Gortmaker <Paul.Gortmaker@anu.edu.au> Subject: Linux Ethernet HOWTO (part 2/3) Date: 1995/11/30 Message-ID: <Ethernet-HOWTO.2-7410.817769683@cc.gatech.edu> X-Deja-AN: 120471445 sender: gregh@cc.gatech.edu references: <Ethernet-HOWTO.1-7410.817769683@cc.gatech.edu> followup-to: poster summary: Information on Ethernet hardware compatibility for Linux organization: Linux HOWTO Project keywords: Linux, Ethernet, TCP/IP, NET-2, network newsgroups: comp.os.linux.answers,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.hardware,aus.computers.linux nntp-posting-user: gregh