Need a clue with kernel modules

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Mon Jul 21 16:59:42 UTC 2014


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Customer: not for general discussions Ubuntu user technical support
Subject: Need a clue with kernel modules
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User 13 | JUL 21, 2014 | 12:59PM EDT

Yo yo 

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not for general discussions | JUL 19, 2014 | 04:50PM EDT 



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not for general discussions | JUL 19, 2014 | 03:52PM EDT 

At Sat, 19 Jul 2014 12:34:46 -0400 Sabniveesu Shashank <shashank at linux.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 10:41 AM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > At Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:27:39 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not
> > for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I found from nm-tool output that my system is using Driver:  r8169.
> > >
> > > lspci showed this text:  "*RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet
> > > controller*"
> > >
> > > I searched over the Internet "r8169" and found that the above text
> > > occurring in http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/R8169.html. but saying
> > > "device: 8136"
> > >
> > > Q) How can an "8169" work well for "8136"? If it does and if I'm to
> > compile
> > > for any other chipset, how would I know if the exact device/driver no.
> > > isn't going to appear?
> >
> >
> > Many NICs (from various makers) have 'common' parts or the things that vary
> > are minor or on the 'far side' of the interface or something (not
> > 'visible' to
> > the software). In which case one software driver can manage with whole
> > families of NIC board/chipsets. The RealTek 8100 series NIC is a case of
> > this.
> > There are several variations, from motherboard based versions to plain PCI
> > and
> > PCI Express, boards etc. The basic set of device registers are all much the
> > same, with maybe minor variations.
>
> When you mention the registers(the low-level part), I see that I'm getting
> the point
>
> In many cases the core NIC controler 'chip'
> > might be the same in several different boards and the boards only vary in
> > things like form factor or type of bus interface.
>
> I now think of this as "Though the bus interfaces vary, it is the duty of
> the controller
> to take care of; in any case, the driver has to deal only with the
> controller and
> hence 'one driver is for one controller but not the board' "
>
> Are my conclusions valid?

In essence, yes. In some cases there are different controllers, but they all
present the same software interface -- the differences are 'invisible' to the
software driver -- usually the differences are things like power supply
voltages or signaling methods or something. In which case you have a 'family'
of controller chips that all have the same driver API, but may be different at
other levels (say a twisted pair NIC vs. a Coax NIC, like some old 3COM NICs,
which came in versions with either a thin coax connector, or a RJ45, or a
15-pin tranceiver [thick coax] connector, but otherwise were all the same
otherwise). In the case of the aic7xxx driver, it is for a whole slew of
Adaptec SCSI controllers, with three different bus interfaces (EISA, VLB, and
PCI, both as add in boards and built onto the motherboard), with different
SCSI-bus configurations (narrow (8bit), wide (16bit), SE, differencial,
low-voltage differencial (LVD), standard speed, fast speed, ultra [fast]
speed) and different types of connectors (internal, external, etc.) -- each
flavor had its own model number and product id, but the same driver works for
all of them.

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not for general discussions | JUL 19, 2014 | 12:35PM EDT 



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not for general discussions | JUL 18, 2014 | 10:42AM EDT 

At Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:27:39 -0400 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I found from nm-tool output that my system is using Driver:  r8169.
>
> lspci showed this text:  "*RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet
> controller*"
>
> I searched over the Internet "r8169" and found that the above text
> occurring in http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/R8169.html. but saying
> "device: 8136"
>
> Q) How can an "8169" work well for "8136"? If it does and if I'm to compile
> for any other chipset, how would I know if the exact device/driver no.
> isn't going to appear?


Many NICs (from various makers) have 'common' parts or the things that vary
are minor or on the 'far side' of the interface or something (not 'visible' to
the software). In which case one software driver can manage with whole
families of NIC board/chipsets. The RealTek 8100 series NIC is a case of this.
There are several variations, from motherboard based versions to plain PCI and
PCI Express, boards etc. The basic set of device registers are all much the
same, with maybe minor variations. In many cases the core NIC controler 'chip'
might be the same in several different boards and the boards only vary in
things like form factor or type of bus interface. In other cases, different
board level makers have bought chips from a common chip maker and had the
vendor/product ids changed, but the chips are otherwise exactly the same, and
so are completely interchangable from an software driver POV. RealTek makes
the chips, but generally does not make the boards.

>
> Q) Also, there are many "device: <other numbers>" in the quote below. Does
> it mean that all these devices work well with the driver I'm using?

Yes.  See above.

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not for general discussions | JUL 18, 2014 | 08:28AM EDT  | Original message 

Hi,

I found from nm-tool output that my system is using Driver:  r8169.

lspci showed this text:  "*RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet
controller*"

I searched over the Internet "r8169" and found that the above text
occurring in http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/R8169.html. but saying
"device: 8136"

Q) How can an "8169" work well for "8136"? If it does and if I'm to compile
for any other chipset, how would I know if the exact device/driver no.
isn't going to appear?

Q) Also, there are many "device: <other numbers>" in the quote below. Does
it mean that all these devices work well with the driver I'm using?

> Help text
>
> Say Y here if you have a Realtek 8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
>
> To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module will be
> called r8169. This is recommended.
> Hardware PCI
>
> Numeric ID (from LKDDb) and names (from pci.ids) of recognized devices:
>
>    - vendor: 0001, device: 8168
>    - vendor: 10ec ("*Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.*"), device: 8129 ("
>    *RTL-8129*")
>    - vendor: 10ec ("*Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.*"), device: 8136 ("*RTL8101E/RTL8102E
>    PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller*")
>    - vendor: 10ec ("*Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.*"), device: 8167 ("*RTL-8110SC/8169SC
>    Gigabit Ethernet*")
>    - vendor: 10ec ("*Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.*"), device: 8168 ("*RTL8111/8168/8411
>    PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller*")
>    - vendor: 10ec ("*Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.*"), device: 8169 ("*RTL8169
>    PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller*")
>    - vendor: 1186 ("*D-Link System Inc*"), device: 4300 ("*DGE-528T
>    Gigabit Ethernet Adapter*")
>    - vendor: 1259 ("*Allied Telesis*"), device: c107
>    - vendor: 16ec ("*U.S. Robotics*"), device: 0116 ("*USR997902
>    10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Card*")
>    - vendor: 1737 ("*Linksys*"), device: 1032 ("*Gigabit Network Adapter*
>    ")
>
> Please ask for more details if necessary.

 <http://about.me/shashank.computers>



S.V.R.S.N. Shashank
about.me/shashank.computers
    <http://about.me/shashank.computers>

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