From owner-freebsd-hardware Sun Dec 6 08:41:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA12823 for freebsd-hardware-outgoing; Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:41:03 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (skynet.ctr.columbia.edu [128.59.64.70]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id IAA12815 for ; Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:40:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu) Received: (from wpaul@localhost) by skynet.ctr.columbia.edu (8.6.12/8.6.9) id LAA17567; Sun, 6 Dec 1998 11:45:45 -0500 From: Bill Paul Message-Id: <199812061645.LAA17567@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> Subject: Re: Test request, SMC 1211TX EtherEZ PCI card To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 11:45:43 -0500 (EST) Cc: hardware@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199812060646.WAA02587@dingo.cdrom.com> from "Mike Smith" at Dec 5, 98 10:46:31 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Mike Smith had to walk into mine and say: > > Hi guys, got a quick favor to ask. SMC has this (relatively) new > > NIC called the EtherEZ 1211-TX. This is a PCI 10/100 adapter. From > > what I can tell, I think this board uses a RealTek 8139 or compatible > > chipset, which means that in theory it should work with the rl driver. > > Er, aren't all the 'TX' boards based on the SMC9432TX part? > > If so, you want the 'tx' driver. I thought that initially myself, but that appears not to be the case. The EPIC boards are called the EtherPower II series, whereas this new board is called an EtherEZ. It's meant to be a low cost card, and if it does in fact use a RealTek chip, then that's exactly what it is. :) I downloaded the drivers from ftp.smc.com for this card and ran strings -a on a few of them: they explicitly mention the rtl8139, so it looks like it is indeed a RealTek chip. I also looked at the SCO OpenSewer 5 driver kit: it includes an 'r8e.h' header file which contains definitions that match the information I have for the RealTek and mentions the 8129 and 8139. This seems to show pretty conclusively that it is a RealTek chip. However this appears to be SMC's own build of the driver; in many cases I think the distributors just use whatever drivers are provided by RealTek and make up their own diskettes, but SMC seems to have compiled their own driver versions. This being the case, it's possible they may have used their own PCI vendor and device ID in the EEPROM and customized the driver to match, just to it look like their board is different from others and get you to use their particular drivers. So even though it's a RealTek chip, the rl driver still might not detect it as such. Then again I may just be overly paranoid. Either way, I can't really tell without a board, and I don't really want to go to the trouble of getting one when somebody else can just do 5 minutes of testing and tell me what I need to know. -Bill P.S. It's too bad that SMC is using the RealTek chip. There are plenty of other cheap fast ethernet controllers thet could have used that would have provided much better performance. -- ============================================================================= -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ============================================================================= "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness" ============================================================================= To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message