Gigait nic on Slackware

Ook · 03-12-2005, 11:37 AM

I have a Netgear GA311. When I use it on Windows, it is sensed by my switch as a 100mbps nic until Windows boots and loads the drivers. I'm guessing that the drivers switch it to 1000mbps mode. Does anyone know if this card will work with Slackware 10, and if it will switch to 1000mbps mode?

Linux.tar.gz · 03-14-2005, 02:09 AM

It's more a matter of kernel than distro. What is the chipset of this stuff?

win32sux · 03-14-2005, 04:04 AM

i think the card uses a realtek 8169 chipset, which should work... i'm not sure about the 1000Mbps mode, though...

look at this thread (specially the posts at the end):

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/f...hreadId=517018

if push comes to shove, you would probably be able to use the NDIS drivers that come with the card by using driverloader or maybe ndiswrapper:

http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

just my two cents...

Ook · 03-16-2005, 10:34 PM

So I slap one in. Reboot. My switch says it sees a gigabit adaptor out there, but the box has no network connectivity at all. I've done a bit of research and found where some people have gotten it to work at 100mbps, so there is hope.

So, I boot to Win98 and install Windoze driver. It kicks into 1000mbps mode, works great, thereby verifying integrity of hardware install. I boot back to Slackware 10.0, and now the card is running in 1000mbps mode! I copied a large file and got peaks of 230mbps. Since this is an old PIII/800 with old Maxtor 10GB and smaller, I think that is pretty good.

So, what is going on here? Did the Windows drivers "activate" the card, and that is why Linux started to not only see it, but actually connect at 1000mbps?

I found some 8169 drivers on Realtek's site, but when I compiled them they generated several compile errors, so I'm hesitant to go any further with the, especially since the card seems to be working.

Linux.tar.gz · 03-18-2005, 02:53 AM

Forget realtek's drivers... Use the ones in the kernel.
Take a look at the ethtool command.
Don't forget that if you want 1000mb/s you need to connect this card to another 1000mb/s

Enjoy.

hagabaka · 05-31-2006, 07:15 PM

It works for me with the tg3 (Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver) kernel module on 2.6.16.19 and 2.4.31. I tried r8169 that came with the kernel source, and an r1000 from Realtec's website; the NIC gets detected, but I couldn't make it connect, at least on the 10Mbit network at home. (This card has 1000/100/10 "autosensing".)