(C)Copyright 1999 SysKonnect. =========================================================================== sk98lin.txt created 11-Nov-1999 Readme File for sk98lin.o v3.04 SK-NET Gigabit Ethernet Adapter SK-98xx Driver for Linux This file contains (1) OVERVIEW (2) REQUIRED FILES (3) INSTALLATION (4) INCLUSION OF THE ADAPTER AT SYSTEM START (5) DRIVER PARAMETERS (6) LARGE FRAME SUPPORT (7) TROUBLESHOOTING (8) HISTORY =========================================================================== (1) OVERVIEW ============ The sk98lin driver supports the SysKonnect SK-NET Gigabit Ethernet Adapter SK-98xx family on Linux 2.2.x and above. It has been tested with Linux on Intel/x86, ALPHA and UltraSPARC machines. From v3.02 on, the driver is integrated in the linux kernel source. *** (2) REQUIRED FILES ================== The linux kernel source. No additional files required. *** (3) INSTALLATION ================ The following steps describe the actions that are required to install the driver and to start it manually. These steps should be carried out for the initial driver setup. Once confirmed to be ok, they can be included in the system start which is described in the next chapter. NOTE 1: You must have 'root' access to the system to perform the following tasks. NOTE 2: IMPORTANT: In case of problems, please read the section "Troubleshooting" below. 1) The driver can either be integrated into the kernel or it can be compiled as a module. Select the appropriate option during the kernel configuration. For use as a module, your kernel must have 'loadable module support' enabled. For automatic driver start, you also need 'Kernel module loader' enabled. Configure those options, build and install the new kernel. If you choose to use the driver as a module, do "make modules" and "make modules_install". Reboot your system. 4) Load the module manually by entering: insmod sk98lin.o If the SysKonnect SK-98xx adapter is installed in your computer and you have a /proc filesystem, running the command 'more /proc/net/dev' should produce an output containing a line with the following format: eth0: 0 0 ... which means that your adapter has been found and initialized. NOTE 1: If you have more than one SysKonnect SK-98xx adapter, the adapters will be listed as 'eth0', 'eth1', 'eth2', etc. For each adapter, repeat the steps 5) and 6). NOTE 2: If you have other Ethernet adapters installed, your SysKonnect SK-98xx adapter can be mapped to 'eth1' or 'eth2' ... The module installation message (in system logfile or on console, depending on /etc/syslog.conf) prints a line for each adapter that is found, containing the corresponding 'ethX'. 5) Select an IP address and assign it to the respective adapter by entering: ifconfig eth0 This causes the adapter to connect to the ethernet. The solitary yellow LED at the adapter is now active, the link status LED of the primary port is on and the link status LED of the secondary port (on dual port adapters) is blinking (only if the laters are connected to a switch or hub). You will also get a status message on the console saying "ethX: network connection up using port Y" and indicating the selected connection parameters. NOTE: If you are in doubt about IP addresses, ask your network administrator for assistance. 6) Your adapter should now be fully operational. Use 'ping ' to verify the connection to other computers on your network. By entering 'ifconfig', you can check the number of packets sent and received by your adapter and additional some other information regarding the adapter configuration. 7) The driver module can be stopped and unloaded using the following commands: ifconfig eth0 down rmmod sk98lin *** (4) INCLUSION OF THE ADAPTER AT SYSTEM START ============================================ Since a large number of different Linux distributions are available, we are unable to describe a general installation procedure for the driver module. Because the driver is now integrated in the kernel, installation should be easy, using the standard mechanism of your distribution. Refer to the distribution's manual for installation of ethernet adapters. *** (5) DRIVER PARAMETERS ===================== Parameters can be set at the command line while loading the module with 'insmod'. The configuration tools of some distributions can also give parameters to the driver module. If you use the kernel module loader, you can set driver parameters in the file /etc/modules.conf (or old name: /etc/conf.modules). Insert a line of the form: options sk98lin ... For "...", use the same syntax as described below for the command line paramaters of insmod. You either have to reboot your computer or unload and reload the driver to activate the new parameters. The syntax of the driver parameters is: insmod sk98lin parameter=value1[,value2[,value3...]] value1 is for the first adapter, value2 for the second one etc. All Parameters are case sensitive, so write them exactly as shown below. Sample: Suppose you have two adapters. You want to set AutoNegotiation on Port A of the first adapter to ON and on Port A of the second adapter to OFF. You also want to set DuplexCapabilities on Port A of the first adapter to FULL and on Port A of the second adapter to HALF. You must enter: insmod sk98lin.o AutoNeg_A=On,Off DupCap_A=Full,Half NOTE: The number of adapters that can be configured this way is limited in the driver (file skge.c, constant SK_MAX_CARD_PARAM). The current limit is 16. If you happen to install more adapters, adjust this and recompile. 5.1 Per-Port Parameters ----------------------- Those setting are available for each port on the adapter. In the following description, '?' stands for the port for which you set the parameter (A or B). - Auto Negotiation Parameter: AutoNeg_? Values: On, Off, Sense Default: Sense The "Sense"-mode finds out automatically whether the link partner supports autonegotiation or not. - Duplex Capabilities Parameter: DupCap_? Values: Half, Full, Both Default: Both This parameters is relevant only if autonegotiation for this port is not "Sense". If autonegotiation is "On", all three values are possible. If it is "Off", only "Full" and "Half" are allowed. It is usefull if your link partner does not support all possible combinations. - Flow Control Parameter: FlowCtrl_? Values: Sym, SymOrRem, LocSend, None Default: SymOrRem This parameter can be used to set the flow control capabilities that the port reports during autonegotiation. The meaning of the different modes is: -- Sym = Symetric: both link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames -- SymOrRem = SymetricOrRemote: both or only remote partner are allowed to send PAUSE frames -- LocSend = LocalSend: only local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames -- None: no link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames NOTE: This parameter is ignored if autonegotiation is set to "Off". - Role in Master-Slave-Negotiation (1000Base-T only). Parameter: Role_? Values: Auto, Master, Slave Default: Auto This parameter is only valid for the SK-9821 and SK-9822 adapters. For two 1000Base-T ports to communicate, one must take the role as master (providing timing information), while the other must be slave. Normally, this is negotiated between the two ports during link establishment. If this should ever fail, you can force a port to a specific setting with this parameter. 5.2 Per-Adapter Parameters -------------------------- - Preferred Port Parameter: PrefPort Values: A, B Default: A This is used to force the preferred port to A or B (on two-port NICs). The preferred port is the one that is used if both are detected as fully functional. - RLMT (Redundant Link Management Technology) Mode Parameter: RlmtMode Values: CheckLinkState,CheckLocalPort, CheckSeg Default: CheckLinkState RLMT (the driver part that decides which port to use) knows three ways of checking if a port is available for use: -- CheckLinkState = Check link state only: RLMT uses the link state reported by the adapter hardware for each individual port to determine whether a port can be used for all network traffic or not. -- CheckLocalPort - Check other port on adapter: RLMT sends test frames from each port to each other port and checks if they are received by the other port, respectively. Thus, the ports must be connected to the network such that LLC test frames can be exchanged between them (i.e. there must be no routers between the ports). -- CheckSeg - Check other port and segmentation: RLMT checks the other port and in addition requests information from the Gigabit Ethernet switch next to each port to see if the network is segmented between the ports. Thus, this mode is only to be used if you have Gigabit Ethernet switches installed in your network that have been configured to use the Spanning Tree protocol. NOTE: The modes CheckLocalPort and CheckSeg are meant to operate in configurations where a network path between the ports on one adapter exists. Especially, they are not designed to work where adapters are connected back-to-back. *** (6) LARGE FRAME SUPPORT ======================= Large frames (also called jumbo frames) are now supported by the driver. This can result in a greatly improved throughput if transfering large amounts of data. To enable large frames, set the MTU (maximum transfer unit) of the interface to the value you wish (up to 9000). The command for this is: ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000 This will only work if you have two adapters connected back-to-back or if you use a switch that supports large frames. When using a switch, it should be configured to allow large frames, without autonegotiating for them. The setting must be done on all adapters that can be reached by the large frames. If one adapter is not set to receive large frames, it will simply drop them. You can switch back to the standard ethernet frame size with: ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500 To make this setting persitent, add a script with the 'ifconfig' line to the system startup sequence (named something like "S99sk98lin" in /etc/rc.d/rc2.d). *** (7) TROUBLESHOOTING =================== If you run into problems during installation, check those items: Problem: The SK-98xx adapter can not be found by the driver. Reason: Look in /proc/pci for the following entry: 'Ethernet controller: SysKonnect SK-98xx ...' If this entry exists, then the SK-98xx adapter has been found by the system and should be able to be used. If this entry does not exist or if the file '/proc/pci' is not there, then you may have a hardware problem or PCI support may not be enabled in your kernel. The adapter can be checked using the diagnostic program which is available from the SysKonnect web site: www.syskonnect.de Some COMPAQ machines have a problem with PCI under Linux. This is described in the 'PCI howto' document (included in some distributions or available from the www, e.g. at 'www.linux.org'). This might be fixed in the 2.2.x kernel series (I've not tested it). Problem: Programs such as 'ifconfig' or 'route' can not be found or you get an error message 'Operation not permitted'. Reason: You are not logged in as user 'root'. Logout and login as root or change to root via 'su'. Problem: Using the command 'ping
', you get a message "ping: sendto: Network is unreachable". Reason: Your route is not set up correct. If you are using RedHat, you probably forgot to set up the route in 'network configuration'. Check the existing routes with the 'route' command and check if there is an entry for 'eth0' and if it is correct. Problem: The driver can be started, the adapter is connected to the network, but you can not receive or transmit any packet; e.g. 'ping' does not work. Reason: You have an incorrect route in your routing table. Check the routing table with the command 'route' and read the manual pages about route ('man route'). NOTE: Although the 2.2.x kernel versions generate the routing entry automatically, you may have problems of this kind here, too. We found a case where the driver started correct at system boot, but after removing and reloading the driver, the route of the adapter's network pointed to the 'dummy0' device and had to be corrected manually. Problem: You want to use your computer as a router between multiple IP subnetworks (using multiple adapters), but you can not reach computers in other subnetworks. Reason: Either the router's kernel is not configured for IP forwarding or there is a problem with the routing table and gateway configuration in at least one of the computers. Problem: At the start of the driver, you get an error message: "eth0: -- ERROR -- Class: internal Software error Nr: 0xcc Msg: SkGeInitPort() cannot init running ports" Reason: You are using a driver compiled for single processor machines on an multiprocessor machine with SMP (Symetric MultiProcessor) kernel. Configure your kernel appropriate and recompile the kernel or the modules. If your problem is not listed here, please contact SysKonnect's technical support for help (linux@syskonnect.de). When contacting our technical support, please ensure that the following information is available: - System Manufacturer and Model - Boards in your system - Distribution - Kernel version *** (8) HISTORY =========== VERSION 3.04 (In-Kernel version) Problems fixed: - Driver start failed on UltraSPARC - Rx checksum calculation for big endian machines did not work - Jumbo frames were counted as input-errors in netstat VERSION 3.03 (Standalone version) Problems fixed: - Compilation did not find script "printver.sh" if "." not in PATH Known limitations: - None VERSION 3.02 (In-Kernel version) Problems fixed: - None New Features: - Integration in Linux kernel source (2.2.14 and 2.3.29) Known limitations: - None VERSION 3.01 Problems fixed: - None New Features: - Full source release Known limitations: - None VERSION 3.00 Problems fixed: - None New Features: - Support for 1000Base-T adapters (SK-9821 and SK-9822) Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.07 Problems fixed: - RlmtMode parameter value strings were wrong (#10437) - Driver sent too many RLMT frames (#10439) - Driver did not recognize network segmentation (#10440) - RLMT switched too often on segmented network (#10441) Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.06 Problems fixed: - System panic'ed after some time when running with RlmtMode=CheckOtherLink or RlmtMode=CheckSeg (#10421) Panic message: "Kernel panic: skput: over ... dev: eth0" - Driver did not switch back to default port when connected back-to-back (#10422). Changes: - RlmtMode parameter names have changed New features: - There is now a version for ALPHA processors Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.05 Problems fixed: - Driver failed to load on kernels with version information for module symbols enabled Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.04 Problems fixed: - Large frame support does work now (no autonegotiation support for large frames, just manually selectable) New Features: - Receive checksumming in hardware - Performance optimizations Some numbers (on two PII-400 machines, back-to-back): netpipe: 300 MBit/sec, with large frames: 470 MBit/sec ttcp: 38 MByte/sec, with large frames: 60 MByte/sec ttcp (UDP send): 66 MByte/sec, with large frames: 106 MByte/sec Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.03 Problems fixed: - Unloading with "rmmod" caused segmentation fault (#10415) - The link LED flickered from time to time, if no link was established (#10402) - Installation problems with RedHat 6.0 (#10409) New Features: - Connection state ouput at "network connection up" Known limitations: - None VERSION 1.02 Problems fixed: - Failed with multiple adapters - Failed with Single Port adapters - Startup string was only displayed if adapter found - No link could be established on certain switches when the switches were rebooted. (#10377) Known limitations: - Segmentation fault at "rmmod" with kernel 2.2.3 on some machines VERSION 1.01 Problems fixed: - Sensor status was not set back to 'ok' after 'warning/error'. (#10386) Changes: - improved parallelism in driver VERSION 1.00 Known limitations: - not tested with all kernel versions (I don't have that much time :-) - only x86 version available (if you need others, ask for it) - source code not completely available ***End of Readme File***