SUN Quad FastEthernet

[weizen_42]

 
Tried a SUN Quad FastEthernet PCI Card 64-Bit X1034A QFE S10394 (using sunhme) in a RaQ4.  No Go 

Log comes up with this:

Code:

happy_meal(SBUS): Can't order irq 8 to go

The card works OK in a standard PC using IPCop 1.4.21.

[Davesworld]

Hmm, I think I see what's happening here. The only pci cards that work in these units with the past and current state of the rom are pci devices that self init. Since that particular driver supports pci and sbus and without pci init, it would look for an sbus, at least that's my guess.

I had thought not long ago that it was the pci 2.1 limitation of the chipset but after my discussions with people currently working on the rom, it is the lack of pci init in the rom code that is usually to blame for some hardware not working. We're dealing with an Aladdin V chipset which is not at all exotic.

If you thought it was worth it, the driver code might be patchable to never assume sbus.

[weizen_42]

Not sure what to patch, the driver code already uses CONFIG_SBUS which is not set in kernel config.

[Davesworld]

It looked to me like it looks for both pci and sbus, if it does not see pci, it assumes it is an sbus. Probably not much help but Brian has been successful using a Quad gig HP 64 bit card in a raq4. I googled your error message and all the hits came back mainly for 2.6 kernels. Seems like the drive should be split since the pci version is far more likely these days. I saw a pic of that card on ebay, there seems to be a lot of them for sale cheap on your side of the pond. It looks like one of the chips should be a pci to pci bridge and any of these type cards I have ever tried seem to work but the drivers are all pci only though.

 Even with the rom work being done right now,  and with Chris having ported the rom code to modern gcc in the last month to get the rom monitor working with the 2.6 kernel, it doesn't sound like the pci init problem will go away anytime soon. The pci init issue has been with the X86 Cobalts all along which only requires that any pci cards you use self init. My desire would be to replace the rom code with Redboot. Besides solving the pci init, it would support pxe as well as console over tcp rather than just serial and luckily the intel and national semiconductor nics that between the two cover ALL x86 Cobalts are supported in Redboot in addition to a third realtek driver that we don't need. 

[weizen_42]

Yeah they are quite affordable these days    Mine cost me an amazing 1 €, incl VAT, excl shipping.


If I understood the code comments correctly the sunhme driver is basically a backport from 2.6 and has a large common x86 and sparc codebase.
Ah well, let's wait and see what the future brings ...

[ceelight]

If this would work once, I would be really glad. So I could, beside the normal colors, use some "grays" to get the kids network running that I'm thinking about.

But as weizen already said

Ah well, let's wait and see what the future brings ...

There's also a D-Link Quad-Port-NIC. Do you know anything about them? Would it work? -> ftp://ftp.dlink.eu/datasheets/DFE-580TX.pdf

[Davesworld]

Keep in mind that that Sun card is a special situation due to the fact that the driver looks for an sbus if it doesn't see what it wants to see. Not sure if the 32 bit pci slot is a factor in this as well. Also not sure if Weizen_42 has investigated this any further.

To that end, speaking of 64 bit PCI-X slots, the Raq 550 as well as the XTR actually have 64 bit PCI-X slots in them and as of Raqcop 1.4.20 support for the 550 is built into our kernel as well as the 3000 series which always existed in Raqcop. I could easily have included Raq XTR support but I just can't see using something that is 26" deep, has four drive swap bays in the front, and six fans unless your name is Symantec. Many Velociraptors starting with the 1200 are XTR units with only one drive bay occupied. I run XTR's as file servers only. Also unique to the XTR is that the 16x2 display is a miniature one (very tiny) and it is connected via i2c, not parallel as the 3000 series and the 550 are. They do support lba48 ata100 and I have used Sata converters in them for testing in my second unit. Now back to the subject at hand:

I see no reason why that Quad D-Link wouldn't work, I can tell just from the picture that it uses a PCI to PCI bridge as most multiport nics do. Not sure what nic chips are on them but I do not exclude any drivers for nics at all. Having not tried that card, I can make no guarantees. I can only report what has worked for me so far. Brian has used giganics he had laying around in his with success even though he didn't need the speed. Not sure which model.