Re: [Etherboot-developers] RTL8169 gigabit NIC

[Anselm M. H. <ans...@gm...>]

> Has anybody tried making this work with Etherboot? I see some mods in
> the Linux 8139cp.c driver that seem to indicate the hardware has a
> similar structure. There is also a driver written by Realtek which might
> handle media negotiation better.  What are the prices of NICs based on
> this controller like? Is Realtek stamping them out like cookies like
> they did with the 8139?
> 
> Sigh, technology moves on, time for me to start looking for a Gb switch.

I have three of these and let me say - some drivers are crap. The rtl8169 in
2.4.21 works fine, as does the latest (at least when I last looked) from
realtek which also runs on 2.4.18. The older realtek driver crashes at heavier
load (YMMV, interrupt handling seemed to be the problem). There are two 8139er
drivers out in the net which claim (directly or by short comments in the
code) to be rtl8169 comptaible, but they are *NOT* (again, when I looked some
months ago). The hardware seems to differ stronger than their developers
expected.
Realtek's documentation on rtl8169 did not bring me much in understanding
the changes to rtl8139. Most parts are similar (but slightly different,
obviuosly), other parts (as media detection, IIRC) are implemented totally
different.
I'd expect the 8169 to become a cheapo. When I bought my cards (Nov 2002),
there wasn't even Linux support for them except that crashing realtek driver
(which changed soon, before I got to using them really, for luck). By now,
there seem to be more 8169er cards on the market, number growing?

I'm not in time to implement it for etherboot. I'm even stuck on PCMCIA as
my laptop goes nuts. Could be the heat (38°C at day) in my flat, so let's wait
another week (sorry).

Greetings,
Anselm

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