Sundance ethernet card configuration

victorh · 01-07-2006, 10:30 PM

Hi everybody!. Today I started a most wanted project for me. The setup and configuration of a house network, this is very exciting for me as I was reading a lot on this issue in the last months, unfortunately I hit some problems, hope you can give me some advices. For now my network has two PCs (will scalate it in the future) this are the characteristics of the PCs:

- 3.2 GHz Intel Processor
D915PCY Motherboard
1 GB RAM ( 2x512 DDR2 )
160 GB SATA Hitachi HD
Encore Ethernet Card (Sundance chip)
OS: SuSE Linux

- 2.65 GHz Intel Processor
D845PESV Motherboard
1 GB RAM ( 2x512 DDR)
120 GB ATA Maxtor HD
Encore Ethernet Card (ViaRhine chip)
OS: Debian Sid/Ubuntu

The configuration of the network is quite simple: I'm using a switch and the two PCs are connected to the switch, this switch is also connected to an ADSL modem so I have internet in both PCs.

Mi first problem: I bougth an etherned card Encore for the first PC, BUT I forgot to check the chip

So the Ethernet card with the Sundance chip was not recognized by SuSE, I even try other distros but no avail the same situation. I was doing some search of this particular etherned card, it seems for me that it's configurable in Linux but I have no luck on this. I used YaST and I don't know what happens but refuse to create eth0, I recall that it complains about the driver not being found and said that will use some driver of the kernel

This is the result of typing in the console lspci -vb (I copy the main part from the first PC)

Code:

VicNet:/home/victor#lspci -vb
06:02.0  Ethernet: Sundance Technology Inc: Unknown device 0200 (rev 31)
         Subsystem: Sundance Technology Inc: Unknown devie 0201
         Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
         I/O: ports at bc00
         Memory at ff510000 (32-bit, non-prtetchable)
         Expansion ROM at ff500000 [disabled]
         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

Do somebody have any thoughts? Should I stay with this card or just get another one?
What do you think of having different distros on the PCs, is this good? or should I use only one distro?

Thanks for your advices, I really need them

bulliver · 01-08-2006, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Do somebody have any thoughts? Should I stay with this card or just get another one?

This card is in the kernel at:
Device Drivers --> Network Devices --> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) --> Sundance Alta support

The module is called 'sundance'.

Quote:

What do you think of having different distros on the PCs, is this good? or should I use only one distro?

There is nothing wrong with having different distros, or even operating systems in your network. My home network has boxes running at least 5 different Linux distros, plus FreeBSD, Solaris, and OS X.

victorh · 01-09-2006, 09:54 AM

Thanks Bulliver, I've tried to use the Sundance Alta driver but it is not the right one for this card, it was very suspicious since the SuSE kernel 2.6.13-15 has been compiled with this driver and it couldn't use it for this card. One thing that was ironic is that in the floppy of this card there is a directory with the drivers for Linux, I tried to use it following the instructions but I couldn't compile the driver. I tried to compile it in SuSE and in Debian, the same result, there were some errors in compiling the source code. So I decided to give up with this card, and from what I've read in other forums, this type of Ethernet Card is just a piece of junk!.

I bought a new ethernet card and I'm happy now, it's working very well.

So be aware of this Ethernet card, and avoid it by all means!

folkenfanel · 11-06-2006, 09:59 PM

My boss just bought one

Too late

osvaldomarques · 11-07-2006, 05:06 PM

Hi victorh,

Here in Brazil these encore cards showed already. They are not sundance. They are based on the sundance but have a few differences. It was submitted a source to lkml but it was not accepted because of source duplication. The manufacturer is IC Plus Corp, and the chipset is ip100a.

I would suggest you try to return the card and exchange it on the shop. If you can't, you can access www.icplus.com.tw, download the driver source and compile it. Don't forget that you will have to maintain it for all the new installations until the linux kernel maintainers enter in an agreement with IC Plus technical encharged. You can read the whole story here: http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/7/27/46