[Etherboot-developers] Re: [Etherboot-users] National 83815

[Marty C. <md...@th...>]

On 5/4/01 9:36 AM Bob Doan bd...@si... wrote:
>Simple question I hope :)
>First of all, I'm a bit new to etherbooting/ netbooting.  But I have a 
>question about the national 83815.  I'm currently trying to find the 
>correct etherboot driver name for it...   In the DB there does not seem to 
>be a name... but it looks like it was added in etherboot version 4.7.17 
>.... any ideas?

[followups should probably go to etherboot-developers]

Hi Bob.  You must be related to Terry Doan who visited the Etherboot 
booth at LinuxWorld Expo 2001 in NYC.

I don't believe there is currently support in Etherboot for the DP83815.  
Terry asked about it, and I said I'd look into doing it.  It's about the 
same level of difficulty as the SiS900 driver I did a a couple months 
back, and much easier than the Tulip driver I most recently did.  I 
downloaded the datasheet and got a copy of Don Becker's Linux driver for 
the DP83815.

If I get a spare weekend I might look into it again.  Terry said you were 
wanting to use it in an embedded system.  It also happens to be the chip 
on the NetGear FA311/312 board, which is popular, though doesn't have a 
ROM socket on it.  We don't seem to have much call for it, so it hasn't 
been a priority.

Anyway, it's about a week's work if one knows what one is doing, and a 
good learning project for anyone who might want to learn how to write 
Etherboot drivers.  See the file sis900.txt in the Etherboot 5.0.x 
distribution for a quickstart on adding a driver to Etherboot.

Perhaps someone on the list would be interested in working on the driver. 
 I'll probably get around to it, but we want to encourage new Etherboot 
developers, and this is a nice little driver project for someone who 
wants to get into driver writing.

If you're in a hurry and are willing to fund development (the driver 
would have to be released under the GPL), you can contact me privately 
and maybe we can figure something out.

Best Regards,

Marty

---
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   Name: Marty Connor
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