RealTek 8169 support question

RealTek 8169 support question

[Chuck Lever]

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Hello Francois-

I just bought a new Jetway mainboard with a pair of RTL 8169 NICs. 
After installing Fedora 7, and upgrading to 2.6.22.1-41.fc7, I still 
can't get either of the NICs to recognize a link beat from my switch.

lspci -v output:

00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
         Subsystem: Jetway Information Co., Ltd. Unknown device 10ec
         Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
         I/O ports at ee00 [size=256]
         Memory at fdffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
         [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10020000 [disabled] [size=64K]
         Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
         Subsystem: Jetway Information Co., Ltd. Unknown device 10ec
         Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
         I/O ports at f000 [size=256]
         Memory at fdffd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
         [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10030000 [disabled] [size=64K]
         Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

I assume "Unknown device" indicates that the driver doesn't recognize 
the model string?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Re: RealTek 8169 support question

[Francois Romieu]

Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> :
[...]
> I just bought a new Jetway mainboard with a pair of RTL 8169 NICs. 

Mini-ITX J7F4 ?

> After installing Fedora 7, and upgrading to 2.6.22.1-41.fc7, I still 
> can't get either of the NICs to recognize a link beat from my switch.
> 
> lspci -v output:
> 
> 00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
> RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
>         Subsystem: Jetway Information Co., Ltd. Unknown device 10ec
>         Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
>         I/O ports at ee00 [size=256]
>         Memory at fdffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
>         [virtual] Expansion ROM at 10020000 [disabled] [size=64K]
>         Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
[...]
> I assume "Unknown device" indicates that the driver doesn't recognize 
> the model string?

Not exactly. The driver uses the PCI Vendor ID/Device ID Configuration
registers to identify the chipset. lspci used the same information to
identify a "Realtek... RTL-8110SC/8169SC...". It is a known device.
The driver does not care about the Subsystem ID ("10ec" above) so there
is nothing to worry about here.

> Thanks in advance for any advice.

Have your tried 2.6.23-git-latest or at least a post 2.6.23-rc1 kernel ?

-- 
Ueimor

Re: RealTek 8169 support question

[Chuck Lever]

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Francois Romieu wrote:
> Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> :
> [...]
>> I just bought a new Jetway mainboard with a pair of RTL 8169 NICs. 
> 
> Mini-ITX J7F4 ?

Yes.  I wanted a low-power DSL router that will support IPv6 and have a 
familiar GUI.

> Have your tried 2.6.23-git-latest or at least a post 2.6.23-rc1 kernel ?

Not yet.  I wanted to check with "the Maintainer" to see if it was worth 
trying.  :-)  The last time I tried a kernel build on one of these 
little Via processors, it took forever.  Will give it a shot.

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Re: RealTek 8169 support question

[Francois Romieu]

Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> :
[...]
> Not yet.  I wanted to check with "the Maintainer" to see if it was worth 
> trying.  :-)  The last time I tried a kernel build on one of these 

It is worth trying.

> little Via processors, it took forever.  Will give it a shot.

Why can you not compile on a different computer ?

-- 
Ueimor

Re: RealTek 8169 support question

[Chuck Lever]

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Francois Romieu wrote:
> Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> :
> [...]
>> Not yet.  I wanted to check with "the Maintainer" to see if it was worth 
>> trying.  :-)  The last time I tried a kernel build on one of these 
> 
> It is worth trying.

FYI: I tested a 2.6.23-rc2 kernel over the weekend, and the NICs worked 
without issue.

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