On Thursday, 25 January 2001 at 12:54:17 -0600, Jonathan Lemon wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 25, 2001 at 01:12:42PM -0500, Dennis wrote:
>> At 10:58 PM 01/24/2001, Jonathan Lemon wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <local.mail.freebsd-hackers/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>> you write:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll look into the Linux driver, however, and see if it has anything
>>>>>> useful in it. Historically the Linux Pro/100+ driver has totally
>>> sucked and
>>>>>> was chalk-full of magic numbers being anded and ored.
>>>>>
>>>>> That's "chock full", and you're confusing the Becker driver (bad) with
>>>>> the Intel-supplied driver (slightly less bad).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The intel driver seems to cover all the bases and has some nice glue
>>>> routines for determining the part and features available.
>>>>
>>>> I havent tested it under load, but I wonder if intel would consider
>>>> supporting it if someone ported it over to freebsd? they have drivers for
>>>> just about every other major OS except BSD. it would be nice if the driver
>>>> was updated BEFORE cards and MBs that dont work started showing up on the
>>>> loading dock. Every time I get a shipment we have to hold our breath until
>>>> we try one out.
>>>
>>> The documentation is available, if you want to (or have to) sign an
>>> NDA. People who have the NDA documentation are perfectly capable of
>>> writing a driver, although the source can't be released. It would
>>> probably be possible to release a binary driver, but why do anything
>>> to help Intel, given their unhelpful attitude?
>>
>> If they have a published, freely distributable driver for linux. why would
>> you have to sign an NDA to port it to FreeBSD?
>>
>> I dont think so. Not anymore anyway. Thats the whole point of this thread...
>
> Having looked at the Linux driver, the FreeBSD driver, and the
> documentation, I can tell you that assuredly not all of the features
> are documented in the Linux driver. Also, porting requires changing
> things, and without an understanding of _WHY_ things are done the
> way they are, you can end up invaderdently changing something that
> turns out to be critical.
>
> Also, the Intel driver isn't put together very well, so you might end
> up with a lower performance driver after all is said and done.
Performance isn't even the main thing. As I said earlier, it's plain
bloody unreliable. Linux people avoid the EtherExpress because they
think something is wrong with the card. They were surprised when I
reported that it works without any problems under FreeBSD. Do we
really want to change that?
Greg
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