[tulip] tulip & kernel 2.4 (structure has no member named `tbusy')

Donald Becker becker@scyld.com
Mon, 9 Apr 2001 15:37:42 -0400 (EDT)


On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, Erik Steffl wrote:

> Bogdan Costescu wrote:
> > On Sun, 8 Apr 2001, Erik Steffl wrote:
> > 
> > >   I get the same errors when compiling it on another machine with debian
> > > testing with 2.4.2 kernel, on that particular system I was able to
> > > compile the tulip.c without problems with kernel 2.2.17. I guess tulip.c
> > > does not work with 2.4 kernels - is that true? or is there something
> > > wrong with my system?
> > 
> > The drivers from scyld.com do not work with kernel 2.4 and I have no ideea
> > if/when they will. They work for sure with 2.2 and supposedly with older
> > ones.
>
>   anybody knows more detials about future of scyld drivers? Are they
> going to be 'ported' to 2.4?
> 
>   are the issues minor (the struct members were renamed, structs were
> reorganized a bit or something like that) or did the network interface
> changed A LOT in kernel 2.4 (compared to 2.2)?

The network interface API changed dramatically on the way to 2.4.  That
caused major problems;
   It takes weeks to test my drivers, and yet I had no control over when
   or how the network driver interface changed through the 2.3 develment
   series.

   More than just no concern for backwards compatibility, there was a
   deliberate effort to break backwards compatibility in order to force
   development to take place only on 2.3/2.4.  

So we are in the curious situation of having network drivers that are
compatible with kernels 1.1.73 through 2.2.*, about six years and three
major kernel series, but no clean way to make them compatible with 2.4.
You only option is to use the modified drivers that are included with
the 2.4, and update your kernel until you find a driver set that works
together.

Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993