[conspire] Broadcom NetExtreme BCM5705 ethernet driver, Help!

[Bill Stoye]

Thanks for the prompt response Rick. You have given me plenty to chew on and it'll take me awhile to sort it out. 

Yes, it is a "gigabit ethernet controller" and I have a good Libranet installation on the non s-ata hard drive. 

I did try to install kernel 2.6.2-2, from Debian's unstable branch, failed miserably and went back and did a fresh Libranet installation.

Can you direct me to a reasonably readable document for compiling the kernel? 

I don't know how to download the kernel from Libranet with out compiling it; I have to do that on one machine, copy it to a CD and install it in the new box, so I used the .deb kernel.

Thank you,
Bill

PS I like Libranet very much.


On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:38:24 -0800
Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

> Hi, Bill.  I've been doing some work on Serial ATA (SATA), so let's deal
> with that, for starters:
> 
> Doing some research on your SOYO SY-KT600 DRAGON Ultra Platinum
> motherboard, it seems that it uses a VIA KT600 North Bridge (the part of
> the motherboard where the CPUs and RAM are) and a VIA VT8237 South
> Bridge (the part of the motherboard where all the I/O support circuitry
> is).  The VT8237, in turn, uses a VIA VT6420 chip for its Serial ATA
> function.
> 
> I've written a Web page about Linux's support issues with various Serial
> ATA chipsets.  See:  "Serial ATA" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware .
> Basically, support for VIA VT8237 / VT6420 hardware wasn't developed
> until Linux kernel 2.6.x.  You're trying to load Libranet 2.8.1 (an
> excellent choice!), whose installation kernel, I gather...
> 
> > Running Libranet 2.8.1:
> > Downloaded and copied "kernel-headers-2.4.21-5_2.4.21-5_i386.deb" into
> > /tmp directory.
> > Ran: # "dpkg -i kernel-headers-2.4.21-5_2.4.21-5_i386.deb"
> 
> ...is a 2.4.x kernel, as is still the case with most distributions.
> 
> On the bright side, I gather that you've been able to complete
> installation onto the other hard drive, so now you can (if you wish)
> fetch a prepackaged, precompiled 2.6.x kernel from Libranet (or Debian)
> -- or, at worst, compile one yourself.
> 
> 
> OK, your ethernet chipset:  Hmm, I gather that this is a gigabit
> ethernet controller.  Nice (potentially).
> 
> Hmm, my Google hits on "Broadcom BCM5705" are suggesting you should use
> the "tg3" driver.  Ah, that rings a bell:  I have another document,
> similar to the Serial ATA one.  See:  "Gigabit Ethernet" on
> http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware .
> 
> It consists partly of a preserved discussion thread from this mailing
> list, and should be useful to you.
> 
> > Downloaded and copied driver:"bcm5700-7.1.22.tar.gz" into broadcom directory.
> 
> This is the manufacturer-issued driver that's said to absolutely suck
> rocks.  By all accounts, you should use the community-developed tg3
> driver, instead.  
> 
> That is typical of hardware support:  Drivers isssued by manufacturers
> tend to be some combination of sucky and/or proprietary/binary-only.
> Avoid if you can; favour real open-source drivers produced by the
> open-source community.
> 
> (My opinion; yours for a small fee.  ;->  )
> 
> -- 
> Cheers,                   The cynics among us might say:   "We laugh, 
> Rick Moen                 monkeyboys -- Linux IS the mainstream UNIX now!
> rick at linuxmafia.com       MuaHaHaHa!" but that would be rude. -- Jim Dennis
> 
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