Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 18:15:30 +0100 From: se@zpr.uni-koeln.de (Stefan Esser) To: "Adam W. Dace" <thekind@netural.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Device Support / PCI Ethernet Message-ID: <199601071715.AA10835@Sysiphos> In-Reply-To: "Adam W. Dace" <thekind@NETural.com> "Device Support / PCI Ethernet" (Jan 6, 5:18)
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On Jan 6, 5:18, "Adam W. Dace" wrote: } Subject: Device Support / PCI Ethernet } Hello all, due to a suggestion of a friend I'm currently wanting to test out } FreeBSD in hopes of abondoning Linux on our servers here. I love Linux } to death, but it's networking is a bit uhm, hacked shall I say? I've } also heard with FreeBSD NFS is actually does quite well in the } performance department, where Linux's is more of a joke than anything else.. } } One thing disturbs me, however. Lack of PCI Ethernet support. Hmm, are you sure about that ? There are a number of PCI Ethernet boards supported for more than a year ... } Both of our servers have 3c590 PCI 10Base-T cards in them, and my desktop } machine at work is a SMC-WD DE435-based chipsed PCI card (I forget the } actually manufacturer's product name). Ala Linux it is: } } Oct 31 16:18:51 tanelorn kernel: eth0: DE435 at 0xd000 (PCI device 15), } h/w address 00:00:c0:0a:03:c6, } Oct 31 16:18:51 tanelorn kernel: and requires IRQ5 (not probed). } Oct 31 16:18:51 tanelorn kernel: de4x5.c:v0.241 4/18/95 davies@wanton.lkg.dec.co } } I saw on the www.freebsd.org archives that 3c590 support is in the } FreeBSD-current source tree as of recently, by any chance is the DE435 } chipset supported as well? The DE435 is based on the DEC 21040 chip, and that driver is in -stable (in fact was in 1.1R in late 1994). } Also, is there any chance of actually running a -stable- server off of } these "current" kernels? Perhaps its possible to patch in drivers into } the "release" kernel as I've done with Linux 1.2.13? You can do this, but there are currently some major changes in the way the /dev file system is populated (will be done automatically by the driver instead of creating char/block devices by mknod/MAKEDEV). You should be able to port the 3c590 driver back to -stable with little effort, though. You need the files /sys/pci/if_vx.c /sys/pci/if_vxreg.h from -current and have to add the following line to /sys/conf/files: pci/if_vx.c optional vx device-driver There could be slight differences in function prototypes, but those are most likely benign (i.e. a change from long to some other type with the same number of bits on a 32 bit CPU). Regards, STefan -- Stefan Esser, Zentrum fuer Paralleles Rechnen Tel: +49 221 4706021 Universitaet zu Koeln, Weyertal 80, 50931 Koeln FAX: +49 221 4705160 ============================================================================== http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~se <se@ZPR.Uni-Koeln.DE>
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