Networking/Discussion/Networking Drivers/devn-micrel8841.so/List of Posts
 
Forum Topic - devn-micrel8841.so: (7 Items)
   
Update
Malte Mundt(deleted)
11/19/2008 6:15 AM
post16859
devn-micrel8841.so   
6.4 comes with a driver for the Micrel8841, but it seems to be an io-net driver (devn, not devnp). A customer is 
interested in this driver for 6.3. Can it be made available? 


- Malte
Andrew Boyd(deleted)
11/19/2008 10:05 AM
post16889
RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
Hiya Malte!

> 6.4 comes with a driver for the Micrel8841, but 
> it seems to be an io-net driver (devn, not devnp). 

That's correct.

> A customer is interested in this driver for 6.3. 
> Can it be made available? 

Not sure I understand ... for 6.3, wouldn't you
use io-net?  If you want to use io-pkt, the
devn-micrel8841.so io-net driver "just works"
with the shim, albeit with an extra thread
switch on receive.  You still get pretty good
throughput, though, with the shim.

If you want a devnp (io-pkt) port of the micrel
driver (to reduce cpu utilization, and to increase
performance on a slow cpu) then I guess Rob Craig is
the guy to talk to.

--
aboyd
Robert Craig
11/19/2008 10:10 AM
post16891
RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
I thought exactly the same thing until I remembered that 6.4 links
against libc.so.3 instead of libc.so.2 so the 6.4 devn-micrel.so won't
work on 6.3 (you'll get a run-time link error).

  It's possible that the micrel driver was already released as part of a
separate driver patch for 6.3.  I'll have a look and see.

	Robert. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Boyd [mailto:community-noreply@qnx.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:06 AM
To: drivers-networking
Subject: RE: devn-micrel8841.so


Hiya Malte!

> 6.4 comes with a driver for the Micrel8841, but it seems to be an 
> io-net driver (devn, not devnp).

That's correct.

> A customer is interested in this driver for 6.3. 
> Can it be made available? 

Not sure I understand ... for 6.3, wouldn't you use io-net?  If you want
to use io-pkt, the devn-micrel8841.so io-net driver "just works"
with the shim, albeit with an extra thread switch on receive.  You still
get pretty good throughput, though, with the shim.

If you want a devnp (io-pkt) port of the micrel driver (to reduce cpu
utilization, and to increase performance on a slow cpu) then I guess Rob
Craig is the guy to talk to.

--
aboyd


_______________________________________________
Networking Drivers
http://community.qnx.com/sf/go/post16889
Robert Craig
11/19/2008 10:12 AM
post16892
Re: RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
That was quick:

http://www.qnx.com/developers/articles/rel_2634_1.html


contains devn-micrel8841.so


    Robert.
Andrew Boyd(deleted)
11/19/2008 10:28 AM
post16894
RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
> 6.4 links against libc.so.3 instead of libc.so.2 
> so the 6.4 devn-micrel.so won't work on 6.3 (you'll 
> get a run-time link error).

urgh - good point.  Because they are compiled on 6.4,
all of the devn-*.so "io-net" drivers CANNOT be used
with io-net (on 6.3) - they are now "io-pkt-only"
drivers, which can only be used on 6.4, since there
is no io-net for 6.4.

This is really a serious issue only for NEW drivers,
and Rob's patch should help you out there for 6.3.

Argh.  I just had a chilling thought.  Let's say
a customer, running 6.3, comes to us with a bug in
an io-net driver.  We say no problem, that's fixed
in the new devn- driver shipped with 6.4.  But oops - 
he can't run the fixed devn- driver on 6.3 because
of the libc link problem.  And I really don't think
he's going to want to upgrade his ENTIRE system to
6.4, just to fix a network driver.

I think we are going to need to re-compile ALL of
the devn- drivers on 6.3, and make them available
for future support of io-net on 6.3.  The testing 
of all of these driver binaries, on all cpu 
architectures, however, is non-trivial.

I'm going to go drink heavily, now.

--
aboyd
Robert Craig
11/19/2008 10:42 AM
post16896
RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
As a follow on to this...  

When you try to run io-net with a 6.4 devn driver, you end up with the
error "Library can't be found" which makes sense considering it's trying
to pull in libc.so.3 (which can't be found).  However, this is ALSO the
error that you get when you type in the wrong driver name.  So the moral
of the story is... Don't do that (:->>). 

  We'll try and figure out what the next steps are.

     Robert.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Boyd [mailto:community-noreply@qnx.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:28 AM
To: drivers-networking
Subject: RE: devn-micrel8841.so


> 6.4 links against libc.so.3 instead of libc.so.2 so the 6.4 
> devn-micrel.so won't work on 6.3 (you'll get a run-time link error).

urgh - good point.  Because they are compiled on 6.4, all of the
devn-*.so "io-net" drivers CANNOT be used with io-net (on 6.3) - they
are now "io-pkt-only"
drivers, which can only be used on 6.4, since there is no io-net for
6.4.

This is really a serious issue only for NEW drivers, and Rob's patch
should help you out there for 6.3.

Argh.  I just had a chilling thought.  Let's say a customer, running
6.3, comes to us with a bug in an io-net driver.  We say no problem,
that's fixed in the new devn- driver shipped with 6.4.  But oops - he
can't run the fixed devn- driver on 6.3 because of the libc link
problem.  And I really don't think he's going to want to upgrade his
ENTIRE system to 6.4, just to fix a network driver.

I think we are going to need to re-compile ALL of the devn- drivers on
6.3, and make them available for future support of io-net on 6.3.  The
testing of all of these driver binaries, on all cpu architectures,
however, is non-trivial.

I'm going to go drink heavily, now.

--
aboyd


_______________________________________________
Networking Drivers
http://community.qnx.com/sf/go/post16894
Malte Mundt(deleted)
11/24/2008 7:58 AM
post17153
Re: RE: devn-micrel8841.so   
Thanks for looking into this. I'll inform my existing 6.3 customer about the Micrel driver in the 6.3 SP3 Network Driver
 Patch - good info. 

- Malte

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