From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Sep 24 13:41:36 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA09360 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:41:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from vespucci.advicom.net (vespucci.advicom.net [199.170.120.42]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA09318 for ; Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:41:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from avalon@vespucci.advicom.net) Received: from localhost (avalon@localhost) by vespucci.advicom.net (8.8.8/8.8.5) with SMTP id PAA14693; Thu, 24 Sep 1998 15:41:07 -0500 (CDT) X-Envelope-Recipient: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 15:41:06 -0500 (CDT) From: Avalon Books To: Dennis cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is the de driver dead? In-Reply-To: <199809241630.QAA00852@etinc.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, 24 Sep 1998, Dennis wrote: > At 08:59 AM 9/24/98 -0500, Avalon Books wrote: > > > >> > > > >> > > Still can't use -AC 10/100 21040 cards with the de driver, and > having other > >> > > mysterious problems with a 3 21041 card system running 2.2.7-RELEASE. > >> > > > >> > > Is this known, or cared about? > >> > > >> > It's known that there are problems; the 'de' driver is third-party > >> > software and the problem needs to be addressed with the vendor. > >> > > >> > Speak to matt@3am-software.com. > >> > > > > > I have heard this, too, but my experience with the de driver has been > >one of flawless operation, under any load and every protocol I've tried. I > >use Kingston KNE-40BT (using the DEC 21041A/PB) and I have to admit, for > >an inexpensive card that's warrantied *forever*, its good hardware. > > After the few network problems I run into (and they are few and far > >between), there wasn't anything that could be firmly blamed on the de > >driver as the culprit. Is there any documentation on these supposed > >problems with the de driver? > > The card you site is not a 21040 nor a -AC or later, so how is this relevant? > > The first problem is that there is seemingly no way to get the 10/100 cards > to work on a 10mb/s network as they "autosense" wrong and when set > manually do not work with the DE driver. > > db > Considering the 21041A is a 21040 with a few minor firmware revisions I think it might be relevent. It seems the de driver itself has been essentially unchanged in quite a while, and I think it might of a value to determine why the supposed problems with the de driver manifest themselves the way they do. And those of us in the hardware business find multi-platform and third party testing to be extremely useful for locating both software and hardware flaws. For all we know, the chip isn't at fault--maybe its a bus interfacing problem, or an interface compliance problem, or who knows what else... --Rick Pelletier Sys Admin, House Galiagante To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message