1. Introduction

This is Attansic L1/L2 and Atheross AR81 family driver for Solaris. It is distributed under the BSD license.

2. Specification of the driver

File name of the driver:
/kernel/drv/atge
/kernel/drv/amd64/atge
/kernel/drv/sparcv9/atge (for sparc 64bit kernel) Special file name:
/dev/atgeN (where N is a unit number, typcally 0 for first card) For example
% ifconfig atge0

Tested chips and cards

Attansic L1 (ASUS P5KPL-VM)

Attansic L1E (ASUS P5KPL-CM)

Atheros L2

Atheros L2C

Atheros L1C (Gigabyte GA-G31M ES2L)

3. Prepare for installation

(1) Copy source and binary files.

# gunzip -cd atge-x.x.x.tar.gz | tar xf - (2) Add hostname for the NIC card into the /etc/hosts file

(3) Make links to correct binary directory and Makefile according to your

configuration. amd64 and gcc are default.
% cd /.../atge-x.x.x
% rm obj Makefile
% ln -s Makefile.${KARCH}_${COMPILER} Makefile
% ln -s ${KARCH} obj
where ${KARCH} is the result of `isainfo -n`, and ${COMPILER} is "gcc" or "suncc" which you want to use to make the driver.

(4) Making binaries with GLD v3 only for OpenSolaris users. Atge driver likely work with GLD v3 in OpenSolaris, known as Nemo. You can enjoy the new functions by recompiling atge source code. To do this, you need to download the source code of OpenSolaris and modify ONUTSDIR macro in Makefile.config_gld3 to refer the uts directory After that, compile atge according with followings.

% rm Makefile.config
% ln -s Makefile.config_gld3 Makefile.config
% /usr/ccs/bin/make

4. Testing
# cd /.../atge-x.x.x
# /usr/ccs/bin/make install
# ./adddrv.sh
# /usr/ccs/bin/make uninstall (don`t do this for Solaris7)
# modload obj/atge
# devfsadm -i atge ( for solaris7, use drvconfig and reboot with -r option )
# ifconfig atgeN plumb ( where N is unit number, typcally 0 for first card)
# ifconfig -a ( you will see an entry for atge0, ensure ethernet address is correct)
# ifconfig atgeN HOSTNAME
# ifconfig atgeN ( ensure IP address is correct)
# ifconfig atgeN up ( and then you can test with ping, telnet, ftp ...)

5. Installation After you ensure that the atge driver is fully functional, install it.

(1) install the atge driver into kernel directory

# cd /.../atge-x.x.x
# /usr/ccs/bin/make install

If you did not test atge driver yet, execute the following commands:

# ./adddrv.sh
# devfsadm -i atge ( for Solaris7 use drvconfig and reboot with -r option )

(2) Configure the network interface. Create and/or modify the following files:

/etc/hostname.atgeN

If you want to use atge with dhcp, you also need to create a empty file below to get an assigned IP address automatically from a dhcp server at boot time.

/etc/dhcp.atge0

(3) Reboot the system.

# init 6

6. Troubleshooting

Q. Following message is printed in the /var/adm/messages file

NOTE: atgeN: link up but auto-negotiation failed.

A. This massage appears when the link partner does not have auto negotiation capability. Please disable auto negotiation capability for your NIC card by specifying the correct media mode in /kernel/drv/atge.conf with the following syntax:

full-duplex=[1|0] speed=[1000|100|10];

For example

full-duplex=1 speed=100; # full-duplex 100Mbps
full-duplex=0 speed=10; # half-duplex 10Mbps

Q. The driver cannot be unloaded because the device is busy, and the following message appears in /var/adm/messages file:

NOTICE: atgeN: atge_detach: buffer is busy

A. Wait for a little while until some modules in the kernel release receive buffers which were allocated by the atge driver.

. The system does not boot after the driver is installed.

A. Uninstall the NIC card and reboot solaris. Then, unregister the driver:

# rem_drv atge

Or boot solaris with -a option and use /etc/system.noatge instead of default [etc/system]. This inhibits loading the driver.

/etc/system.noatge is automatically generated when executing 'make install'

Q. Solaris boots, but the network interface does not work.

A. Is the network interface running?

Execute 'ifconfig -a'. If you see an entry for atgeN, the driver is loaded and working correctly. Please check the configuration of the network interface.

Is an ethernet cable connected properly?

Please check if the network interface is receiving packets.

% snoop -P -d atgeN

If Solaris panics while testing, please send me the following information:

(1) /var/adm/messages

(2) Output of prtconf -pv

(3) Output of prtconf -vD

(4) Output of adb

Solaris core dump consists of unix.N and vmcore.N which are created in

/var/crash/YOUR-HOST-NAME/ .

Execute 'adb -k unix.N vmcore.N' and type the following subcommands.

$c (stack trace back will be printed)
$msgbuf (last messages are printed)
^D (To quit adb, type control-D)

Download Attansic L1/L2 and Atheross AR81 family driver for Solaris