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GPL'ed Drivers For NVIDIA nForce Ethernet Devices

Posted by timothy on from the makes-sff-even-more-attractive dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Manfred Spraul has released a GPLed driver for the ethernet device found in motherboards based on the Nvidia Nforce/Nforce2/Nforce3 chipsets. Drivers provided by Nvidia on the other hand, are closed. Andrew Morton has integrated this driver in the 2.6.9-mm2 release of his mm tree. And if you are using a 2.4x kernel, you may want to check out this post."

4 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. 2.6.9? by jamessan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, I didn't know the kernel left -test status and increased 9 versions since yesterday. Andrew Morton must be on top of things to get a -mm patch out that quick, too.

    Good job editors. ;)

  2. Re:Thats nice! by schapman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    yes... im picking up an nForce2 board shortly, and its nice to know that when i install linux, I'll have an option. I have found in the past that certain manufacturers make crappy drivers (Creative + SBlive platinum + winxp) and its nice to see that the people out there w/ the skills are willing to contribute. Also, a pro-open source and pro-linux site like slashdot is a great place for these people to be recognized for their work.

    --
    Wouldnt you like to be a pepper too?
  3. Re:nvidia ethernet drivers aren't backwards compat by MBCook · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not only is skipping the PCI bus important for speed, but even for slower things (like 10/100 ethernet) not being on the bus is good. It means that the chip can talk to memory or the CPU without waiting for the PCI bus to be free for it to use. Basically, it gets to skip the bus contention.

    A good analogy would be there are 5 people all trying to call one guy, and Mr. Ethernet is one of the people. By being in the chipset and not on the bus, he doesn't have to keep trying to call and getting a busy signal, he can just say his message. This is because Mr. CPU could talk to 3 or 4 people at a time (he's that fast), but the phone (PCI bus) only has one line. He just skipps the problem.

    OK, that's a bit simplified, but the fact is that not waiting on bus contention is good. The ethernet doesn't have to wait for/fight against the sound card, the tv tuner, and the add in raid controller.

    On a side note, while NE2000 is a standard, it's for ISA, and as far as I know the NE2000 PCI standard never got big. I could be wrong. And even then, that's like using VESA to controll your GeForce FX video card. You can do it, but you could lose alot of the performance and features that you paid for because VESA doesn't know about 'em.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  4. And now, a chart. by ActiveSX · · Score: 5, Funny

    How much I care on the Y, title index on the X.
    ____
    / |
    / |
    1.0| / |
    | / |
    0.5| / |
    | _________________/ |
    0.0|/_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|_ _
    GPL'ed Drivers for NVIDIA nForce...

    Way to get my hopes up, Slashdot. I guess my kernel will continue to be tainted.