1. cardbus_lan.zip Driver
2. README File Contents

README Driver File Contents (cardbus_lan.zip)

@(#)README	1.5	01/03/25 GED

ADMtek Fast Ethernet README
===========================

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
-------------------------------
This driver is in a prerelease (beta) state.  I've verified basic
functionality on my system, but there is still stuff to do.
THIS IS A BETA-RELEASE QUALITY DRIVER ONLY, AND YOU ARE
TAKING RISKS WITH THE HEALTH OF YOUR SYSTEM BY USING IT.  THIS
IS KERNEL SOFTWARE, AND PROBABLY CONTAINS BUGS AS YET UNFOUND.  SUCH
BUGS MAY CRASH YOUR SYSTEM OR RENDER IT UNUSABLE.  DO NOT USE THIS DRIVER
UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED FOR SUCH RISK -- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKUPS OF
ANY CRITICAL DATA AND ALTERNATE BOOT MEDIA AVAILABLE.  YOU SHOULD **NOT**
INSTALL THIS DRIVER UNLESS YOU POSSESS SYSTEM RECOVERY SKILLS, OR ARE
WILLING TO REINSTALL YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM!!!

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
-------------------------------

IF YOU DID NOT READ THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH, DO SO NOW!!   IT IS VITAL
THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE INFORMATION IT CONTAINS!

This driver supports several different chips:

	* ADMtek Centaur
	* ADMtek Comet
	* Accton EN2242
	* LiteOn PNIC-II (experimental)
	* Accton EN1217 (experimental)
	* Macronix MX98715 (A, AEC, BEC -- all are experimental)
	* Macronix MX98725 (experimental)
	* Macronix MX98713A (experimental)
	* Macronix MX98713 (*very* experimental)
	* Compex 9881 (*very* experimental)

The ADMtek chips (and relabeled Accton) are the only "stable" variants
at the moment.  The others have code support but may not be tested
or may have only minimal testing done on them.  Your mileage may vary!
(I would *really* like to have test reports from users with these chips.)

The only *cards* that I have experience with are:

	* LinkSys LNE100TX v4.1	(Centuar chip), v4.0 probably will
	  work as well.  Earlier variants probably won't work.
	  (The very first variants are supported by the stock dnet driver.)

	* ADMtek Centuar-B evaluation board (masquerading as an ACCTON
	  card).

	* Kington KNE111TX (PNIC-II chip).  I have had varying degrees
	  of success with this.  Sometimes lockups are seen, but this may
	  be a flaky card or system configuration.

It should be apparent from this that I do not have much hardware to test
with.  I'd appreciate donations from vendors, and test reports from users
and vendors alike.

Include the output from "/opt/GEDafe/bin/afediag" with your test report.

Note, only Solaris 8 is tested at this point.  Solaris 7 will likely
work without incident, but I strongly doubt that Solaris 2.6 will be
successful (this driver uses kernel APIs introduced in Solaris 7).
If you need a port for Solaris 2.6, please contact me.  (Its almost a
no-brainer to make a port, but I won't do it unless somone needs it.)

This driver is still a work in progress, so YMMV!

Note that this driver does not support network booting (as a client, you
can still use this driver for boot servers).  The reason for this is that
for Intel platforms a special real-mode driver must be developed, and for
SPARC platforms you have to have special fcode (Forth programs) on your
adapter's ROM.  While I may eventually be able to figure out how to provide
a real-mode driver for Intel platforms, there is no way for me to provide
fcode for the adapters.  If you need to boot client machines, you'd be
better off paying some extra $$ and get an Intel or 3COM card (for Intel
platforms) or use the built-in hme, le, or eri interface (for SPARC
platforms).

There is another hurdle with real-mode drivers -- you have to have a DOS
or Windows development environment.  I don't have one right now.  If someone
wants to donate a set of compilers, then maybe I can try to craft something
up -- but I don't want to be obligated to do this either, as I may not have
time to get to it for a while.  Contact me if you are interested in either
funding me to do this work, or doing it yourself.

	-- Garrett D'Amore <garrett@damore.org>