why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Eric Belhomme]

Hi,

I was I trouble with my 3c940 gigabit NIC on my Debian Sid this latest 
kernel 2.6.15 self-compiled...
I wondered why ethtool was not able to get/set WoL status while the 
readme available on the sysKonnect website says sk98lin supports WoL :
http://www.syskonnect.com/syskonnect/support/driver/readme/linux/sk98lin.
html

So I looked at Documentation/networking/sk98lin.txt on my 2.6.15 tree :

sk98lin.txt created 13-Feb-2004
Readme File for sk98lin v6.23

And on drivers/net/sk98lin/h/skdrv1st.h :

 * Name:        skdrv1st.h
 * Project:     GEnesis, PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
 * Version:     $Revision: 1.4 $
 * Date:        $Date: 2003/11/12 14:28:14 $
 * Purpose:     First header file for driver and all other modules

But on the syskonnect website, I downloaded a really more recent revision 
(Version: 8.28.1.3, Date: 29:09:2005) at this url :
http://www.skd.de/e_en/support/driver_searchresults.html?navid=13
&action=search&configurationId=e_en.downloads_support&term=typ.treiber+Li
nux+SK-9521&searchTerm=&produkt=SK-9521&typ=typ.treiber&system=Linux

A look on drivers/net/sk98lin/h/skdrv1st.h from this archive :

 * Name:	skdrv1st.h
 * Project:	GEnesis, PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
 * Version:	$Revision: 1.5.2.6 $
 * Date:	$Date: 2005/08/09 07:14:29 $
 * Purpose:	First header file for driver and all other modules 


So this archive is more recent than sources included in stock kernel, but 
older than 2.6.14 kernel, so I wonder why this revision of sk98lin is not 
included in kernel ?
I firstly thinked about some GNU license violation, but header files 
still refer to GNU license... So what's the matter with this driver ?

Thanks for your attention,

-- 
Rico

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Chase Venters]

On Thursday 12 January 2006 03:09, Eric Belhomme wrote:
> So this archive is more recent than sources included in stock kernel, but
> older than 2.6.14 kernel, so I wonder why this revision of sk98lin is not
> included in kernel ?

Eric,
	IIRC, the SysKonnect official GPL driver attempts to support two different 
chipsets / possibly has other coding issues as well. I think this is the 
reason SysKonnect's driver is still out of tree. I think some netdev folks 
might be working on newer drivers, but I haven't been keeping track honestly.

Cheers,
Chase

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Reuben Farrelly]

On 12/01/2006 10:39 p.m., Chase Venters wrote:
> On Thursday 12 January 2006 03:09, Eric Belhomme wrote:
>> So this archive is more recent than sources included in stock kernel, but
>> older than 2.6.14 kernel, so I wonder why this revision of sk98lin is not
>> included in kernel ?
> 
> Eric,
> 	IIRC, the SysKonnect official GPL driver attempts to support two different 
> chipsets / possibly has other coding issues as well. I think this is the 
> reason SysKonnect's driver is still out of tree. I think some netdev folks 
> might be working on newer drivers, but I haven't been keeping track honestly.

Yes, look at the skge driver in 2.6.15 and the upcoming sky2 in 2.6.16.

I think you'll find those drivers much better than sk98lin and support most if 
not all of the cards that the sk98lin driver works with.  Certainly those two 
replacement drivers are better maintained.

My understanding is that is that sk98lin is in the process of being deprecated.

reuben

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Eric Belhomme]

Reuben Farrelly <reuben-lkml@reub.net> wrote in
news:43C63361.103@reub.net: 

> Yes, look at the skge driver in 2.6.15 and the upcoming sky2 in
> 2.6.16. 
> 
> I think you'll find those drivers much better than sk98lin and support
> most if not all of the cards that the sk98lin driver works with. 
> Certainly those two replacement drivers are better maintained.
>
oh i didn't looked at this driver !
it may be a better choice for my NIC... I'll test it tomorrow ;)
 
> My understanding is that is that sk98lin is in the process of being
> deprecated. 
> 
I're probably right... thanks for your help ;)

-- 
Rico

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Nerijus Baliunas]

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 23:45:53 +1300 Reuben Farrelly <reuben-lkml@reub.net> wrote:

> Yes, look at the skge driver in 2.6.15 and the upcoming sky2 in 2.6.16.
> 
> I think you'll find those drivers much better than sk98lin and support most if 
> not all of the cards that the sk98lin driver works with.  Certainly those two 
> replacement drivers are better maintained.

Which one is better and what is a difference between them? Which one
will support Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8050 Gigabit Ethernet Controller
(rev 17)? skge in 2.6.14 does not support it.

Regards,
Nerijus

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Daniel Drake]

Nerijus Baliunas wrote:
> Which one is better and what is a difference between them? Which one
> will support Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8050 Gigabit Ethernet Controller
> (rev 17)? skge in 2.6.14 does not support it.

skge supports Yukon
sky2 supports Yukon-2

88E8050 is Yukon-2.

Daniel

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Harald Dunkel]

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Daniel Drake wrote:
> Nerijus Baliunas wrote:
> 
>> Which one is better and what is a difference between them? Which one
>> will support Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8050 Gigabit Ethernet
>> Controller
>> (rev 17)? skge in 2.6.14 does not support it.
> 
> 
> skge supports Yukon
> sky2 supports Yukon-2
> 
> 88E8050 is Yukon-2.
> 

Probably you need some testers for sky2. The -mm kernel would be a
little bit too experimental for me, but it seems to be in -git10.
Does this mean that it might appear in 2.6.15.1, or do I have to
wait for 2.6.16?


Regards

Harri

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Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[Adrian Bunk]

On Sat, Jan 14, 2006 at 06:39:44PM +0100, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> Daniel Drake wrote:
> > Nerijus Baliunas wrote:
> > 
> >> Which one is better and what is a difference between them? Which one
> >> will support Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8050 Gigabit Ethernet
> >> Controller
> >> (rev 17)? skge in 2.6.14 does not support it.
> > 
> > 
> > skge supports Yukon
> > sky2 supports Yukon-2
> > 
> > 88E8050 is Yukon-2.
> > 
> 
> Probably you need some testers for sky2. The -mm kernel would be a
> little bit too experimental for me, but it seems to be in -git10.
> Does this mean that it might appear in 2.6.15.1, or do I have to
> wait for 2.6.16?

2.6.15-git10 will become 2.6.16.

There won't be new drivers added in 2.6.15.x.

> Regards
> 
> Harri

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

Re: why sk98lin driver is not up-to date ?

[John W. Linville]

On Sat, Jan 14, 2006 at 06:39:44PM +0100, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> Daniel Drake wrote:
> > Nerijus Baliunas wrote:
> > 
> >> Which one is better and what is a difference between them? Which one
> >> will support Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8050 Gigabit Ethernet
> >> Controller
> >> (rev 17)? skge in 2.6.14 does not support it.
> > 
> > 
> > skge supports Yukon
> > sky2 supports Yukon-2
> > 
> > 88E8050 is Yukon-2.
> > 
> 
> Probably you need some testers for sky2. The -mm kernel would be a
> little bit too experimental for me, but it seems to be in -git10.
> Does this mean that it might appear in 2.6.15.1, or do I have to
> wait for 2.6.16?

If you happen to be a Fedora user, sky2 is available in the kernels here:

	http://people.redhat.com/linville/kernels/fedora-netdev/

Hth!

John
-- 
John W. Linville
linville@tuxdriver.com