[KLUG Hardware] Re: posting regarding ECS K7S5A NIC -- get RedHat 2.4.9-31 (7.2) or 2.4.18-3 (7.3)

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2002-05-06 at 12:59, John Lange wrote:
> Sorry to bother you but I came across a posting you made to a mailing list
> where you described how to get the on-board LAN to work on an ECS K7S5A
> motherboard by downloading the drivers from the ECS site.
> Try as I may, I can not find any drivers on the ECS site. Under the
> drivers for that mainboard, there is only Windows drivers. I must be
> looking in the wrong place and I was wondering if you could help me out?
> Thanks in advance,

First off, SiS no longer puts its Linux drivers on its web site.  They
are directly working with the kernel team now.  I'm sure this has to do
with the "issues" in with of Linus' mid-kernel changes that aren't
exactly source-compatible -- i.e. all drivers in 2.2.x seem to work with
any version, but not so with 2.4.x (for a variety of reasons).

As such, I've just been sticking with RedHat's kernels.  For the moment,
I'll assume you are using RedHat (let me know if you aren't).  I've been
meaning to document this for others, so here's the deal ...

_All_ of the ECS K7S5A mainboards I have worked with work _best_ with
either:
   - 1.07.x drivers (e.g., 1.07.11 dated April 2, 2001)
OR - 1.08.03 (February 1, 2002)

RedHat 7.1's kernel 2.4.3 worked _fine_ with this mainboard _because_ it
shipped a 1.07.x driver.

Unfortunately, RedHat 7.2's kernel 2.4.7 thru early 2.4.9 updates did
*NOT* work well because they used the 1.08.00-1.08.01 drivers which I
had a _heck_ of a time getting to work!

Eventually someone got smart at RedHat and decide to revert back to the
1.07.11 driver as sis900.c and rename 1.08.00-01 releases as
sis900_new.c in the latest 2.4.9 kernels (e.g., 2.4.9-31).

Most of the newer Rawhide kernel 2.4.18 releases (e.g., I have seen it
in 2.4.18-0.13, -0.16, -0.22 and -0.26) now include 1.08.03 which also
seems to work.  Although I haven't tested it yet myself, the latest
RedHat 7.3 ships with 2.4.18-3 and _should_ including that version, or
later.

I think the stock 2.4.19 kernel also ships with a late SiS900.c driver,
but I haven't checked.

-- Bryan

P.S.  I do *NOT* recommend using that NIC for a heavy used workstation
or, God help you, server -- _regardless_ of OS.  I've run into a
crapload of issues and it is virtually a Realtek 8139 variant at the
core, which helps explain this.

-- 
The US government could be 100x more effective, and 1/100th the
Constitutional worry, if it dictated its policy to Microsoft as
THE MAJOR CUSTOMER it is, and not THE REGULATOR it fails to be.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, SmithConcepts, Inc.   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
Engineers and IT Professionals     http://www.SmithConcepts.com