1. GA621v20.zip Driver
2. README File Contents

README Driver File Contents (GA621v20.zip)

CHAPTER   LINUX DRIVER SOFTWARE

This chapter provides information about the RedHat Linux driver software. 
Use the software if you installed the NETGEAR Model NETGEAR GA621 Gigabit 
Fiber Adapter Driver in a PC that is operating in a Linux environment.




Installing the Driver Software

Your GigPhyter PCI Adapter must be physically installed in the server 
before installing the software driver.  If you are installing more than one
GigPhyter PCI Adapter, you must perform the following procedure for each 
card.


Files in this release
---------------------

The following files are included in the /LINUX/RH60-71 directory

ga.c            -Linux Network OS Specific Module File
ga621.h	        -Driver header file
hsm.c		-Hardware Specific Module File
hsm.h		-Hardware Specific Module Header File
nsm.h		-HSM related data structures
nsmtypes.h	-Definition type define
sp.c		-Tunable Parameters
makefile	-Rules to compile and install the driver.


INSTALLATION
--------------

To install the driver software if you are operating in a Linux environment:

This version of the driver requires a base RedHat Linux ver 6.x with linux 
kernel version 2.4.x, basic utilities and the C development system.

1.  To install the driver, login as root, insert the floppy disk with the 
    GA621 driver, and mount the disk into the system with the following 
    command.

	# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt

2.  Copy the files from floppy into an appropriate directory.

	# mkdir ga621
	# cd ga621
	# cp /mnt/linux/* .

3.  To create a new driver object module and install the current driver 
    object module in the file system run

	# make 
	# cp gam.o /lib/modules/2.2.12-20/net

4.  To Make the driver load when the system boots up, the following lines 
    needs to be put in any of the startup scripts like /etc/rc.d/rc.local 
    or /etc/rc.d/init.d/network

	# /sbin/insmod /lib/modules/2.2.12-20/net/gam.o
	# /sbin/ifconfig <interface-name> <ip-addr>


The driver can be dynamically loaded and unloaded from a running kernel 
with the following commands

	# insmod gam.o
	# rmmod gam.o

To install and test the driver, shutdown the network stack, install the 
driver,and re-start the startup the stack again.

	# sh /etc/rc.d/init.d/network stop
	# insmod gam.o
	# sh /etc/rc.d/init.d/network start

The tunable parameters of the driver like the Receive and Transmit 
buffers are put in the file nsm.h under the heading "Tunable parameters".
The default value of RX_QUEUE_SZ is 100, on a high end system putting 
a value of 200 for RX_QUEUE_SZ can give better performance.

To try jumbo frames, the mtu size can be increased using the ifconfig 
utility, as follows 

        # ifconfig <interface-name> mtu <mtu-size>
        eg: ifconfig eth0 mtu 3000

The BUF_SIZE_MAX value in nsm.h (Tunable parameter) should be changed to
4096. 

<mtu-size> can be increased upto 4000 bytes for sane operation.




FUNCTIONALITY TESTING
------------------------

When the driver is loaded into the system via `insmod' it probes the
PCI bus to locate all GA621 devices, and creates control structures
for each. The driver logs a couple of messages available in
`/var/log/messages' for each device with information about its PCI
geographic location, IRQ, IO address, and some basic debug information 
(addresses of some important structures).

All the devices on the PCI bus can be listed by,

	# cat /proc/pci

IRQ and IO address information from this can be correlated with the
information displayed by the driver in `/var/log/messages'

When the TCP/IP stack is initialized, it opens all configured ethernet 
devices, and initializes them for use. At this time, the driver will
perform autonegotiation and log information about the link status.
The driver can then be tested by running ping, telnet, ftp, NFS etc.