[tulip] LNE100TX and SMP : What price success?

[David Shochat]

"Frank Schmuck, CFO" wrote:
> 
> ... The Linux driver set included with the LinkSys cards
> (even the new ones) contain complete directions on how to compile and how to
> install the tulip drivers.

I find the phrase "Linux driver set included with the LinkSys cards"
very puzzling. I have two of these which I bought very recently. Version
4.0 if that helps. The only
relevant thing I could find on the driver diskette was a linux directory
containing a readme.txt. That file (which has no mention of SMP) says:

> Step 1 : Get the source code from the following site;
>
>	FTP://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/kern-2.3/tulip.c
>	FTP://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/kern-2.3/kern_compat.h

etc. There is no tulip.c in that FTP directory. However there is the
following README which I finally found today:

> The latest released, development and test versions of the Linux drivers
> are available at
>    ftp://scyld.com/network/
> 
> This directory contains only older versions of drivers.
>
>                        Donald Becker

I don't call this including drivers with the cards. 
The packaging has a nice "Tested with Linux" badge but when you
look at the documentation, you find only a little "Linksys does not
provide technical support for LINUX ..." etc. and a pointer to their web
site. I eventually found information in the "support"
area as promised (not in the "drivers" area), which points you to
ftp://scyld.com/network (and does talk about SMP). I think
that is how I finally found the drivers. The Linksys Linux support page 
makes no mention of pci-scan.c. I figured out I needed that after I got
unresolved symbol references in tulip.o.

My point is that, based on my experience, Linksys provides neither Linux 
drivers nor accurate information. Neither included with the card nor on 
their web site. Only a few flawed clues which, if you are persistent
enough, 
will finally lead you to the solution. Of course it could be worse. 
Like so many vendors, they could have been silent on the subject of
Linux.

I should stress that once I finally found (and compiled) the right
driver code, everything worked great.