[realtek] setup program for RealTek 8139

Donald Becker becker@scyld.com
Mon, 19 Jun 2000 14:58:39 -0400 (EDT)


On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Bernd Dammann wrote:

> On Jun 19,  5:33pm, sharkey@ale.physics.sunysb.edu wrote:
> > Subject: Re: [realtek] setup program for RealTek 8139
> > > Is there a setup program for the RealTek 8139, that allows me to do
> > > the following:
> > > 
> > > - enable/disable the BootROM
> > > - change the flow control (Nway, ...)
> > > - other things ....
> > 
> > You read http://www.scyld.com/network/rtl8139.html?
> > 
> > Subsection "Run-time Configuration"?
> > 
> Yes, I did.  I also read the http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
> page.  I scanned the code of both rtl8139-diag.c and mii-diag.c.
> Still no idea how to enable/disable the BootROM.  And setting the NIC
> to do Auto-Negotiation (or any other type like 100BaseTx) does not work
> (-A <type>).

The current diagnostic/setup program will show the EEPROM settings, but does
not allow changing them.

The 8139B allows setting following EEPROM values that we do not support
   Boot ROM size
   Tx and Rx flow control
   An initial forced speed and duplex setting.
   LED meanings
   Initial power state.

It would be trivial to add any of these -- the setup program already
includes the code to write the EEPROM.  But the user interface and
documentation are problems.
    I've already used up most of the good option letters
    The documentation must be consistent across setup programs.
    Many RTL chips (rtl8129, rtl8139, rtl8139A) don't support features such
    as flow control.

Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Annapolis MD 21403