"Fast Switching" or NIC-to-NIC communications AND channel bondingdiscouragement

[Sami YOUSIF]

Brian Dushaw wrote:


>
> MY SYMPATHIES..... :)  THERE SEEMS TO BE A MAZE OF TULIP DRIVERS OUT
> THERE (TO GO WITH THE MAZE OF TULIP CARDS), SO THAT SOME PEOPLE TALK OF
> "TULIP-DRIVER CONNOISEURS WHO PREFER THE 0.91 DRIVER, WHICH IS HARD TO
> FIND"  [QUITE AN AMUSING STATEMENT, IF YOU ASK ME....]  MY EXPERIENCE IS
> THAT EACH FLAVOR OF TULIP CARD HAS ITS OWN FLAVOR OF DRIVER, AND THAT
> THE NEWEST DRIVERS DON'T ALWAYS WORK WITH OLDER CARDS - THE SOLUTION
> SEEMS TO BE TRIAL AND ERROR BY TRYING DIFFERENT DRIVER VERSIONS UNTIL ONE
> FINDS ONE THAT WORKS.  THE LINKSYS CARDS I HAVE WORK QUITE WELL WITH THE
> LINKSYS PROVIDED TULIP DRIVER, BUT NOT VERY WELL WITH MOST OF THE OTHER
> DRIVERS I TRIED (I THINK THE NEWEST DRIVERS WORK O.K.).  I GATHER THAT THE
> NEXT KERNEL RELEASE IS TO HAVE A COMPLETELY REVAMPED "TULIP SYSTEM."
> PERHAPS THIS WILL SOLVE MANY OF THESE PROBLEMS.
>
> I SUPPOSE THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THEY ARE VERY CHEAP CARDS....
>
> B.D.
>

Um... Your CAPS lock seems to be stuck...

The problem is not in the "True" tulip chipsets, but more in the alternative
chip sets (LiteON, etc...) that the manufacturers decided to go with insead of
"real" DEC (or Intel as they are now) chips... The clones were supposed to be
both programatically and wire compatible, but are not so...

At this time, from what I understand (someone will surely correct me... :-) ),
there are three main tulip "trees".. The one in the kernel, the stable one from
cedsis (Donald), and the development one from cedsis (Donald). Any others
(linksys/etc...)  are hacks to get a specific network card to work. The one in
the kernel may be modified as well to include features from other network
subsystems like fast-switching..

Those hacks may or may not be mergable into one of the other tulip trees.

In my personal view, they should rename the driver for those cards to something
else to stop this confusion since  in some cases the .91 for linksys does not
work with some other drivers that the kernel .91 works with... etc.. Of course
they should follow Donalds recommendations on stuff like this wrt copyright
notices... etc..

Compare them to the differences between Cyrix/AMD chips and Intel chips.... they
fit in the same slot, and most programs made for one work with the other, but
not at full capacity and may need some tweaks..

The biggest problem is that many network card manufacturers change the chips in
their cards, and keep the same version/model number. A perfect example of this
is Linksys where one of their cards has three different versions that are
incompatible with each other, and use different drivers, but has the exact same
name/model number. This is another item that leads to confusion on the part of
the consumers.. "but I thought that the card was supported under Linux..Says so
right on the box... but I couldnt get it to work"... who end up blaming either
Linux, or the included drivers for not working... [makes network installs a
little harder to do] {3com also did something similar; so its not just the
"Cheap" cards}

Luckily for most true DEC chips, there are actually two drivers that may work.
The Tulip driver or the de4x5 driver (I have an Adaptec ANA6911A-TXC with a dec
chip that works great with the DE driver, but does not work at all with the
Tulip driver;and no, the Starfire/duralan driver is not the one for it either).
The clones may only work with the tulip driver...

- --
- ---
Sami Yousif
mailto:syousif@iname.com
http://www.mav.net/teddyr/syousif/ Personal Page
http://www.alug.org/    Amarillo Linux Users Group
http://killjoy.mydot.com/    Amarillo SystemAddicts' LAN parties.

[eMail sent to any of my addresses is subject to the Conditions
outlined in https://www.mav.net/teddyr/emailtos.shtml]

[heard somewhere: "You have the right to remain clueless. Anything you
 know may be used against you in a court of law"]

I can no longer in good faith recommend WTAMU as an educational
institution.

Another day, so many more LARTS to go. [BOFH, BUFH, JOAT]

"Understanding is a three edge sword: Our side, Their Side, and the
 Truth" Babylon 5



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