Shared IRQ clarifications for Vortices/Adaptecs et al.

[Chris Richards]

>d)   The ThunderLAN driver tlan.c seems to only call request_irq with
>SA_INTERRUPT if its sa_int flag is set for the instance in question.
>It seems this is set according to where the memory map for the card sits,
and
>hence whether it is or is not capable of sharing interrupts?
>Hence this driver seems to be immune from the problem - perhaps!

For the prebuilt kernel that comes with RedHat 5.2 (2.0.36) I had to use
sa_int=1.  I specified it as a module option.

I was unable to share my 3c59x and my ne2k-pci.  My Compaq routes all PCI
cards through IRQ 11 (video, ncr58* scsi, and the three nics).  It was
painful...

I was planning on compiling the 2.2 kernel so I put away my nic fun and
games.  After compiling the kernel (still using nics as modules) I was able
to use all of the cards without any special sharing instructions (ie, no
sa_int=1).  It was probably the bloated kernel and its extra probes that
were somehow confusing my system.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth.

cjr