Topic: need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running

[z3n0]

hi, the intel it produces ethernet cards, or i must try ethernet card with intel chips?

[z3n0]

this motherboard is supported from sme server?

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=34#j7f4

[Confucius]

From what I know (reading the forum frequently) the RTL8110 has the same problems as the RTL8169 chipset. SME Doesn't have support built in yet. It's a kernel issue and that's out of the hands of the SME dev'rs.

Harro

[z3n0]

we can demand to sme community to resolve this problem?

I cannot use the sme with my dlink gigabit or buy that motherboard!  

PS: i have format the old sme and i have install a new sme 7.1 clean..
i have compiled the r1000 driver and to modprobe r1000 i don't have error..

but the gigabit's card not use that driver...

why?

[Stefano]

From what I know (reading the forum frequently) the RTL8110 has the same problems as the RTL8169 chipset. SME Doesn't have support built in yet. It's a kernel issue and that's out of the hands of the SME dev'rs.

Harro

if you search with google for "realtek poor performance" you'll see that this kind of chipset is evil  

IMHO intel is far better..

Ciao

Stefano

[z3n0]

i need an ethernet gigabit for my sme server..

my dlink is evil

what buy?

[levien]

Hello everyone,

I have recently moved our SME server 7.1 to a new machine, based on a Jetway J7F4 Mini-ITX board with a passively cooled 1200 Mhz VIA C7 processor, CN700 chipset and dual RTL8110SC ethernet adapters onboard. Like others in this thread, I had rather a lot of problems getting SME to work with this hardware.

I played around a bit with the Realtek r1000 driver, but it made the system pretty unstable. Besides, the 2.6.9 kernel used in CentOS 4 / SME 7 doesn't handle the VIA chipset and its buggy ACPI bios very well. So in the end I decided to compile a custom 2.6.21 kernel with extra patches for the VIA C7 processor.  I roughly followed this howto and made an RPM package containing the new kernel and modules: http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_centos

It took a bit of trial-and-error to select the proper modules to get NAT and a few other things working, but since I switched to the new kernel the machine runs *a lot* faster and the RTL8110 adapters are now working just fine (with the 8169 kernel module)! Plus I now have kernel support for VIA's Padlock encryption engine, which does all the SHA and AES stuff in hardware.

As soon as I have Wiki access I will write a HOWTO on how I did it, and I'll make the RPM with my kernel available as well (although note that I used a highly experimental kernel version, so it might not work for everyone).

Best regards,
Levien

[compsos]

We have been trying to compile a Realtek 1Gb NIC card. We have managed to get a r1000.ko file and it will load in the non smp kernel but is very erratic in performance. From 0.1ms to 14000ms on a LAN ping test. Also tried it from  a live mephis 6.0.1 CD (2.6.15) and it was perfect so hardware and cabling are fine.
The messages log file has
"Apr 19 17:59:10 ppserver kernel: r1000: disagrees about version of symbol struct_module
Apr 19 18:15:34 ppserver kernel: r1000: disagrees about version of symbol struct_module"
Any clues? Would this message indicate a problem? A ping test to the cards own IP is also good. It is only external response that fails.
MB Gigabyte GA-945G-S3

The loading of the driver
Apr 19 13:56:24 ppserver kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
Apr 19 13:56:24 ppserver kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
Apr 19 13:56:24 ppserver kernel: divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: eth0: Identified chip type is 'RTL8168B/8111B'.
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: eth0: r10001.04, the Linux device driver for Realtek Ethernet Controllers at 0x9000, 00:16:e6:38:c5:4a, IRQ 177
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Driver version:1.04
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Released date:2006/07/07
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Link Status:Linked
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Link Speed:1000Mbps
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: Duplex mode:Full-Duplex
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: I/O Base:0x9000(I/O port)
Apr 19 13:56:27 ppserver kernel: IRQ:177
Apr 19 13:56:39 ppserver kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 5
Apr 19 13:56:42 ppserver esmith::event[4119]: expanding /etc/sysconfig/kernel  
Apr 19 17:57:27 ppserver kernel: divert: freeing divert_blk for eth0
Apr 19 17:59:10 ppserver kernel: r1000: disagrees about version of symbol struct_module
Apr 19 18:15:34 ppserver kernel: r1000: disagrees about version of symbol struct_module
Apr 19 18:16:00 ppserver kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
Apr 19 18:16:00 ppserver kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
Apr 19 18:16:00 ppserver kernel: divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: eth0: Identified chip type is 'RTL8168B/8111B'.
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: eth0: r10001.04, the Linux device driver for Realtek Ethernet Controllers at 0x9000, 00:16:e6:38:c5:4a, IRQ 177
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Driver version:1.04
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Released date:2006/07/07
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Link Status:Linked
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Link Speed:1000Mbps
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: Duplex mode:Full-Duplex
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: I/O Base:0x9000(I/O port)
Apr 19 18:16:03 ppserver kernel: IRQ:177

[compsos]

We now have a module that works very well in the non smp kernel (0.02ms) but not the 2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp kernel. It just complains invalid kernel format. Still looking.

[compsos]

OK Solved
To compile for the smp kernel

yum install kernel-smp-devel (plus the other modules listed in this post)
Make sure you are booted to the smp kernel

expand out the r1000_v1.04.tgz
tar zxvf r1000_v1.04.tgz
cd r1000_v1.04

Edit the src/r1000_n.c file and change the
MODULE_PARM (speed, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
MODULE_PARM (duplex, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
MODULE_PARM (autoneg, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
To
MODULE_PARM_DESC (speed, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
MODULE_PARM_DESC (duplex, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
MODULE_PARM_DESC (autoneg, "1-" __MODULE_STRING(MAX_UNITS) "i");
make clean modules

If no errors then just do make
make

We found we had loading issues with make install command. Ping results on LAN 0.2ms

Have not tried ver 5 in this pattern yet.
Good luck

[zi4]

hi all,

Thanks for your how-to!

I have a more general question:

wanna use *CDemu* to mount a CUE/BIN file (similar to ISO). The author's homepage says it needs a kernel module to be compiled.

Would this module stop working with each kernel update?

[compsos]

Hi
Can report the 1.0.4 r1000.ko file works fine in the standard 7.1 and 7.1.3 kernels. The only problem en counted was the file was not automatically updated to the new kernel 2.6.9-42.0.10.EL... from 2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.... A simple copy worked. NB 2 .ko files are required for the one for each kernel (smp and std)
Motherboard used Gigabyte GA945-S3 with Core2 Duo CPU. Note this board still uses a ICH7 chipset so is supported by the current kernels.

[levien]

I've written a HowTo on compiling your own kernel for SME 7.x on a Jetway J7F4 series MiniITX board with dual RTL8110SC gigabit ethernet adapters on-board. It's on the contribs.org wiki:

http://wiki.contribs.org/JetwayMiniITX

I also have a ready-made RPM containing the kernel. I'll put it online and add a 'For the impatient' section to the HowTo as soon as I've had a chance to update it to a 2.6.21 stable kernel. (Anyone who's  in a hurry and doesn't mind running  2.6.21-rc5-git1, just let me know and I'll send you my current RPM).

-Levien

[Jean-Philippe Pialasse]

Hello,
I have currently a mtherboard J7F4  with the two gigabyte lan revision 3  bios A04.


I would really enjoy to test your ready rpm kernel as i didn't manage to do it  for the first try.

furher more i have my network working with r1000 but never with r8169 under SME kernels

[levien]

Just send me an e-mail at levien AT scum dot org, and I'll mail you the URL. (bandwidth is a bit limited, so I'd rather not post it on the forum)

The kernel I compiled is still not the final version, but our server has been running it without problems for about 3 months now. Just make sure that your board temperature stays below 50 degrees Celsius, as the VIA chipset on board the J7F4 (and many newer Epia boards) seems to have serious stability issues when it gets warmer than that...

Best regards,
Levien