Re: Realtek ethernet (was Re: recent mobo recommendation)
briand@aracnet.com put forth on 4/14/2010 10:35 PM:
> running 2.6.32-trunk on an Atom/Intel board and I'm not seeing any
> problems.
Which 2.6.32? Apparently this bug was fixed in 2.6.32-3. I'm not sure if
this firmware bug affected all RTL chips or even all RTL 8168/9 chips.
Count yourself lucky.
Here's the bug report:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=561309
> RTL8111/8168B is what's listed via lspci
>
> I'm getting 1GB performance
That's impossible. GigE wire speed is 1Gb/s. Please learn the difference
between [B]yte and [b]it quantities.
And, I guarantee you are not getting 1Gb/s transfers between hosts with RTL
chips. There's a big difference between link speed and data transmission
speed/throughput. I've seen guys with serious hardware horsepower not be
able to get even close to 500Mb/s with RTL chips. On the same machines,
using an Intel GigE interface, they were getting over 900Mb/s. Intel
ethernet chips cost about 5 times what RTL chips do. Performance is one of
the reasons.
> I do see the firmware messages:
>
> r8169 requesting rtl8169-1.fw
>
> so I'm not sure why it doesn't seem to be a problem.
You're probably running a kernel that has the patch, or a chip/driver combo
that doesn't barf when the firmware can't be loaded because neither need
that firmware.
> There is a disturbing trend on the part of HW manufacturers to have
> these customize firmware blobs, and that's not good.
That's not the problem. Firmware blobs are very necessary. They allow
manufacturers to fix flaws in hardware devices or introduce enhancements
after they've already shipped the products. Soft firmware blobs are a good
thing. There's nothing disturbing about it, but for your lack of
understanding of the subject. No offense intended, just stating facts.
The problem is that Realtek apparently didn't release this particular
firmware code under an appropriate free software license such as the GPL.
This bug isn't technical in nature. The fix is, but the cause isn't. The
cause is the fact that Realtek didn't make the firmware source "free".
--
Stan
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