This is the primary site for information on and updates to the Linux
Ethernet device drivers.
Linux now has driver support for all mass-market PCI Ethernet chips as of
January 1999. While a few specific boards are not supported because
e.g. of unique transceiver interfaces, they are rare
exceptions.
This statement was not true for a short period in 1998 as
several new chips became widely available. My driver work in 1998
included new drivers for the Packet Engines "Hamachi" GNIC-II, VIA "Rhine"
VT86c100, and Winbond W89c840. Most of my other PCI drivers were
significantly reworked to support the new 2.2.* kernel structure.
The new probe structure not only allows forward compatibility with the new
kernels, it makes it easier to support branded and work-alike (e.g. clones)
of existing designs. As an example of the wide device support needed in a
single driver, the Tulip driver currently supports six unique chips from
Digital, and Tulip-like chips from Lite-On, Macronix, and ASIX. Branded
versions of these chips are sold by LinkSys, Compex and Netgear.
1998 work also included tested CardBus support for two additional drivers
(EPIC and Tulip), significant extentions to support new hardware with the
3Com PCI and Tulip drivers, and work-in-progress on the HAL Synfinity mesh
adapter.
Index
Note: PCMCIA device drivers are tied to a particular Socket Services version
and thus are separately distributed on
ftp://hyper.stanford.edu/pub/pcmcia/.
A few of these drivers were not written by me, even though most include
my name on the author list by virtue of starting from my skeleton driver or
including generic code. You should contact the other listed authors for
updates or bugfixes for those drivers.
--Donald Becker
becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
Other Major Sites for Linux Network Information
Quick index to driver pages by speed.
Gigabit Ethernet
Fast Ethernet (and FE boards with 10mbps-only transceivers)
Note: ISA boards based on the DP83800 are not supported due to the
non-availability of documentation for this chip.
Many additional drivers are in the current kernel.
If an update is available here it's probably to fix a specific problems,
and not to make major unstable changes in a driver.
Note: ISA boards based on the DP83800 are not supported due to the
unavailability of documentation for this chip.
Parallel Port "pocket" Ethernet Adapters
Common Problems and Fixes
Support Programs
Support Information
-
Digital "Tulip" driver for DEC 21*4*-based boards.
- This page contains the instructions and updated drivers for SMC EtherPower
and others PCI Ethernet and Fast Ethernet adatpers. Driver development is
reported on the Tulip development.
-
"Vortex" and "Boomerang" EtherLink III PCI/EISA (3c590 3c592 3c595 3c597
3c900 and 3c905) driver.
- This is a driver for the 3Com 100Mbs PCI and EISA ethercards.
- With a description and instructions.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 driver.
- This is a new driver for the Intel EtherExpress Pro 100B and PCI Pro/10+ boards with the i82557 chip.
- Note that this is not for the older Pro 10 or Pro 100A boards.
-
Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 PCI (w/ i82596 chip) driver -- NEW!.
- This is a driver for the Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro/10 with the i82596
chip written by John Stalba,
stalba@raster.ed.ray.com.
- Note that this is not for the Pro/10+ boards that use i82557 chip
(use the EEPro100 driver instead) , or for
the ISA EEPro10 with the i82595 chip (see the ISA section below).
-
TI ThunderLAN driver (external link -- Caldera/James Banks).
- The "TLAN" TNETE100PCE chip, rarely seen except on the Compaq "Integrated
NetFlex-3 10 T UTP Module"
- PCI NE2000 driver.
- See also the PCI NE2000 updates (remote link).
- Packet Engines "Yellowfin" G-NIC driver
- SMC EtherPower II (EPIC/100 83c170 chip) driver.
- RealTek RTL8129/8139 driver.
Pointers to Other Ethercard Drivers
-
Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 ISA (i82595)
updated driver
-
Crystal/Cirrus/IBM-EtherJet CS89[02] device driver.
- A Linux driver for Crystal LAN Ethernet chips, as used on
several IBM products, written for and maintained by Crystal
Semiconductor. Written By Russell Nelson of Crynwr Software.
-
Updated 3Com EtherLink (3c5*9) driver with Plug-and-Play patch.
- With a description and instructions. This update
is only needed with the 1.2.* kernel and the 3c509B.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
A driver for the 3Com 3c515 ISA Fast EtherLink card.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
NI5010 driver
- Written by
Jan-Pascal van Best .
-
Updated SMC Ultra / SMC EtherEZ driver for 1.2.13.
- Now with Programmed-I/O (in addition to the original ISA "high memory")
support.
- This driver update source file is for
kernels 1.2.13 through 1.3.90. This is a drop-in replacement for
drivers/net/smc-ultra.c. The 2.0.0 kernels already include these
changes.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
Other Ethercard Drivers
These drivers are either unreleased, in alpha test, incorporated in some
other package, or here for historical reasons.
-
A driver for the 3Com 3c515 ISA Fast EtherLink card.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
A driver for SMC-91c92 PCMCIA ethernet adapters.
- This driver supports the Megahertz X-Jack PCMCIA ethercard, and may
support others with the SMC 9000 series chips as well.
This driver is now distributed as part of David Hind's
PCMCIA package.
You should use that version in preference to the one here.
-
HP PC-LAN+ (27247 and 27252A) driver.
- This is a driver for the recent HP 8390-based ethercards. Don't
confuse these with the PC-LAN-non-'+' or the HP2405J PCnet/LANCE card.
Details of the driver are here.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
Zenith Z-Note and IBM ThinkPad built-in network.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
-
Ansel Communications AC3200 EISA adaptor.
- Written by me, Donald Becker.
Non License-Conforming Drivers
Several drivers have been distributed that are little more than renamed
versions of my drivers. Some have my name, the copyright notice or the Gnu
GPL license notice removed. The less flagrant violations merely fail to
note that the driver has been modified from the original version. (The GPL
requires such a note.) Here is a mapping from the bogus driver name to the
official name:
| mpx5030.c | rtl8139.c |
| smc1211.c | rtl8139.c |
| rtl8029.c | ne2k-pci.c |
Unsupported boards
Linux now supports almost every current-production PCI Fast and Gigabit
Ethernet chip!
The exceptions are generally unique boards based on supported chips:
- The driver for the Adaptec "Starfire" 64 bit Ethernet adapters has
not yet been released. Contact Adaptec for more information.
- Boards using the Digital Tulip chip must have a correct media table
in the EEPROM. (Most common boards with old-style EEPROM
contents do have explicit support in the driver.)
- There is no plan to support the obsolete Intel EtherExpressPro 100A,
which hasn't been produced in years.
- No board with an on-board processor is supported, because these
invariably have a proprietary/undocumented interface.
(EEPro Server and Matrox multiport PCI switch cards fall into this
category.)
- The Essential Communications
Gigabit Ethernet board is not yet supported.
- The new Intel Gigabit Ethernet
board will be supported by an Intel-written driver currently in
preparation.
- The announced (by not yet available) Sun "GEM" Gigabit Ethernet chip
is not supported due to lack of documentation.
Of course we can't make any claims about not-yet-introduced chips.
Token Ring
The 2.0.* kernels include support for most common ISA adapters.
Other resources
Top
Author:Donald Becker
becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
CESDIS
is located at the
NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt MD.
Linux-ATM Site (Werner Almsesberger)
Packet Engines "Yellowfin" GNIC, and the related 100mbps-only Symbios
SYM885 SCSI+Ethernet chip.
Intel EtherExpress Pro100B, Pro100+ and Pro10+ PCI
(Note: This driver is for PCI cards only!)