Re: question

[Marcin Dębicki <neo777n@poczta.onet.pl>]

Lennart Sorensen kiedys napisal:

> On Sat, May 07, 2005 at 07:41:06PM +0200, Marcin D?bicki wrote:
>> I have nForce 3 250 chipset for now and I really have no idea what nForce
>> Network Adapter it is. Probably a kind of Marvell (and I use forcedeth
>> for it). Also as a secondary there is Marvell Yukon which works fine with
>> sk98lin. While using sk98lin it sees only Yukon.
>> The strange thing is that most Marvell's used with nForce can be run with
>> sk98lin but there is a group of a few adapters which can work only with
>> forcedeth or original nForce drivers.
> 
> forcedeth runs the network MAC built into the nvidia chipset.  It is of
> no relation to the Marvell Yukon, which is a gigabit chip that is
> popular as an add on chip, which certainly Asus likes to include on many
> boards.
> 
> For example the A7N8X-E-DX has a 10/100 nforce network port and a
> gigabit marvell yukon port.  I believe many of the K8 nforce boards are
> made the same way.
> 
> The A8V-DX has just a marvell yukon, but of course that is a via chipset
> so it never would have anything nvidia in the first place. :)
> 
> sk98lin will run the Yukon, and forcedeth will run the nforce chip.
> Which driver you need depends entirely on which MAC the board maker
> decided to use (the builtin, an add on marvell, or both if using two
> ports).  Boards with PCIe seem to have trouble with the sk98lin driver
> currently in the kernel for some reason when using the marvell.

I just wanted to say that the primary adapter I call this device is a device
like Marvell Yukon (not Yukon) but nForce has an API used to hide real
interface from OS. True adapter driver is on nvidia chipset because only
chipset sees what adapter is installed. So if you are using forcedeth then
you are really telling chipset what to do. Chipset translates your order
and tells adapter what you want. Using forcedeth you are not talking to
adapter directly but only to nForce chipset.

> 
>> As i see there could be an explanation for it. Promary adapter is
>> communicating with OS via chipset while secondary isn't (that is on
>> nForce scheme's). So the explanation is that primary adapter is driven by
>> chipset intarface which is working with forcedeth (and that interface is
>> the same or almost the same for every nForce2/3/4 chipset).
>> It everything is on net (pictures describing my nForce3 architecture are
>> in manual for my motherboard). The conclusion is that when you are trying
>> to get help for Marvell you must write if it is secondary or primary
>> adapter on you mobo.
>> Of course there is an issue that some secondary Marvell adapters works
>> with forcedeth whil should with sk98lin. And tah thing is strange
> 
> The primary isn't always using the internal nforce controller.
> Sometimes the nforce controller isn't enabled at all (maybe nvidia ships
> chipsets without that feature at reduced cost).
> 
> Len Sorensen
> 
Yes, some are with disabled internal adapter but it is not very often
situation. And if it is then nvidia doesn't cut the adapter from chipset
but onli disables it

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