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Linux Network Drivers

This is the primary site for information on and updates to the Linux Ethernet device drivers.

Users looking for a PCI driver update SRPM can go directly to the Driver Update page at http://www.scyld.com/network/updates.html.

Linux has driver support for almost all current production, mass-market PCI Ethernet and Fast Ethernet chips as of November 2002. While a few specific boards are not supported because e.g. of unique transceiver interfaces, they are rare exceptions.

Most common Gigabit Ethernet adapters are supported as well.

Index

Cluster Adapters.
Gigabit Ethernet.
PCI and CardBus Ethernet device drivers.
USB Ethernet device drivers.
ISA, EISA, parallel and other Ethernet Device Drivers.
Unsupported hardware

Note: Updates to CardBus drivers are distributed as part of the PCI Driver Update package. PCMCIA (the old 16 bit PC Card standard) device drivers are tied to a particular Socket Services version and thus are distributed only with David Hinds' PCMCIA package from Sourceforge or ftp://sourceforge.org/pub/pcmcia/.

A few of these drivers were not written by me, even though most include my name on the author list by virtue of starting from my skeleton driver or including generic code. You should contact the other listed authors for updates or bugfixes for those drivers.

--Donald Becker

Other Major Sites for Linux Network Information

Gigabit Ethernet

The Alteon AceNIC driver (3Com 3c985, Netgear GA620) is available in the Linux 2.2.0 kernel distribution or from the CERN AceNIC Linux driver page.
The SysKonnect driver is available directly from the SysKonnect web site.
Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit. Contact Intel directly for the Linux driver for their gigabit card. They have a e1000 driver distributed under license terms that have changed over time.
Packet Engines "Hamachi" GNIC-II.
Packet Engines "Yellowfin" GNIC, and the related 100Mbps-only Symbios SYM885 SCSI+Ethernet chip.

PCI and CardBus Ethernet Adapters

Intel/Digital DC21*4* Tulip chip based cards, and work-alike chips from ADMtek, Lite-On, LinkSys, MXIC and ASIX.
3Com PCI EtherLink PCI and EISA cards, the 3c590 and 3c900/905 series.
Intel EtherExpress Pro100B, Pro100+ and Pro10+ PCI (Note: This driver is for PCI cards only!)
SMC EtherPower II (EPIC/100 83c170 chip) driver.
RealTek RTL8129/8139 driver. Supports various low-end private-label boards, including the SMC-1211 and Accton EN1207D-TX (Note: the 1207C uses tulip.c).
VIA Rhine (VT86C100A and 3043) driver. Note: The D-Link DFE-530TX board uses this driver, while the DE-530TX board uses the Tulip driver.
Winbond w89c840 driver. The Compex RL100ATX board uses this driver. (Most other Compex boards are NE2000 clones).
TI ThunderLAN driver updates, the driver was written by James Banks with updates Torben Mathiasen at http://tlan.kernel.dk.
Hewlett Packard 100VG driver updates (external link -- Yaroslav).
Adaptec DuraLAN (AKA "Starfire") driver.
Davicom Semiconductor directly distributes their Linux DM9102 driver. Note: the DM9101 is a transceiver, not a controller.
Sundance Technologies "Sundance Alta" driver.
The SiS 7016 and SiS 900 driver is available directly from SiS or in the 2.2.13 and later kernels.
PCI NE2000 driver (local page) Note: This driver supports the RTL8029. Do not use the 'rtl8029.c' driver which just a improperly renamed copy of an old 'ne.c' driver.
PCI NE2000 updates (remote link)
Lite-On LC82c168 PNIC driver, Now merged with the Tulip driver.
ADMtek Comet, ASIX, Lite-On PNIC, Macronix, and STmicro drivers are now merged with the Tulip driver.

Note: ISA boards based on the DP83800 are not supported due to the non-availability of documentation for this chip.

ISA and EISA Ethernet Drivers (New and updated versions)

Many additional drivers are in the current kernel. If an update is available here, it is to fix a specific problems, or add an enhancement.

3c515 ISA Fast EtherLink card. This is the only supported ISA 10/100 Ethernet adapter.
Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 PCI driver (remote link).
3c509/3c529/3c579 ISA/MCA/EISA EtherLink III driver update. The driver detects multiple cards when loaded as a module. Most features of this driver are in the 2.2 and later kernels. This driver is an enhancement to the 2.0 and prior versions.
AMD LANCE/PCnet driver update. The driver is now usable as a loadable module in 2.0 and prior versions.
Cirrus/Crystal/IBM CS8900 series driver (remote link).

Note: ISA boards based on the DP83800 are not supported due to the unavailability of documentation for this chip.

Parallel Port "pocket" Ethernet Adapters

Pocket Ethernet based on Realtek chips. Driver updated to load as a module, use the standard "ethN" name, and work with new adapters using the RTL8012 chip.
Accton parallel port ethernet driver. This driver is maintained by Nils.Faerber@unix-ag.org, with additional support from Matthias Kasimir. Earlier contributions were from Michael Engel, Ron Smits and Volker Meyer-zu-Bexten, with contributions by Richard Krakhofer.
An older version of the driver is retained locally as accton.tgz.

Cluster Drivers

The following adapters are designed for very high speed, short distance networking. They are typically used in computational clusters, server farms, or storage systems.

Common Problems and Fixes

Support Programs

Support Information

Fast Networking technology information

More information on PCI Ethernet Device Drivers

Digital "Tulip" driver for DEC 21*4*-based boards.: This page contains the instructions and updated drivers for SMC EtherPower and others PCI Ethernet and Fast Ethernet adatpers. Driver development is reported on the Tulip development.
"Vortex" and "Boomerang" EtherLink III PCI/EISA (3c590 3c592 3c595 3c597 3c900 and 3c905) driver.: This is a driver for the 3Com 100Mbs PCI and EISA ethercards.; With a description and instructions.; Written by me, Donald Becker.
Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 driver.: This is a new driver for the Intel EtherExpress Pro 100B and PCI Pro/10+ boards with the i82557 chip.; Note that this is not for the older Pro 10 or Pro 100A boards.
Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 PCI (w/ i82596 chip) driver -- NEW!.: This is a driver for the Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro/10 with the i82596 chip written by John Stalba, stalba@raster.ed.ray.com.; Note that this is not for the Pro/10+ boards that use i82557 chip (use the EEPro100 driver instead) , or for the ISA EEPro10 with the i82595 chip (see the ISA section below).
TI ThunderLAN driver (external link -- Caldera/James Banks).: The "TLAN" TNETE100PCE chip, rarely seen except on the Compaq "Integrated NetFlex-3 10 T UTP Module"
PCI NE2000 driver.: See also the PCI NE2000 updates (remote link).
Packet Engines "Yellowfin" G-NIC driver
SMC EtherPower II (EPIC/100 83c170 chip) driver.
RealTek RTL8129/8139 driver.
Adaptec DuraLAN (AKA "Starfire") driver.

Pointers to Other Ethercard Drivers

Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 ISA (i82595) driver information and updates
Crystal/Cirrus/IBM-EtherJet CS89[02] device driver.: A Linux driver for Crystal LAN Ethernet chips, as used on several IBM products, written for and maintained by Crystal Semiconductor. Written By Russell Nelson of Crynwr Software.
Updated 3Com EtherLink (3c5*9) driver with Plug-and-Play patch.: With a description and instructions. This update is only needed with the 1.2.* kernel and the 3c509B.; Written by me, Donald Becker.
A driver for the 3Com 3c515 ISA Fast EtherLink card.: Written by me, Donald Becker.
NI5010 driver: Written by Jan-Pascal van Best .
Updated SMC Ultra / SMC EtherEZ driver for 1.2.13.: Now with Programmed-I/O (in addition to the original ISA "high memory") support.; This driver update source file is for kernels 1.2.13 through 1.3.90. This is a drop-in replacement for drivers/net/smc-ultra.c. The 2.0.0 and later kernels already include these changes.; Written by Donald Becker.

Non License-Conforming Drivers

Several drivers have been distributed that are little more than renamed versions of my drivers. Some have my name, the copyright notice or the Gnu GPL license notice removed. The less flagrant violations merely fail to note that the driver has been modified from the original version. (The GPL requires such a note.) Here is a mapping from the bogus driver name to the official name:

mpx5030.c rtl8139.c

smc1211.c rtl8139.c

rtl8029.c ne2k-pci.c

Unsupported boards

Linux now supports almost every current-production PCI Fast and Gigabit Ethernet chip!

The exceptions are generally unique boards based on supported chips:

Boards using the Digital Tulip chip must have a correct media table in the EEPROM. The Tulip driver has explicit support for almost all boards with old-style EEPROM contents, but this isn't assured.
There is no plan to support the obsolete Intel EtherExpressPro 100A, which hasn't been produced in years.
No board with an on-board processor is supported, because these invariably have a proprietary/undocumented interface. (EEPro Server and Matrox multiport PCI switch cards fall into this category.)
The discontinued Essential Communications Gigabit Ethernet board is not supported.
The Intel Gigabit Ethernet board is supported by an Intel-written driver. Contact Intel directly for more information.
The 3Com encrypting network adapter is supported by an 3Com-written driver. Contact 3Com directly for more information.

Of course we can't make any claims about not-yet-introduced chips.

Token Ring

The 2.0 and later kernels include support for most common ISA adapters. All Token Ring information is now maintained at the Linux Token Ring Project web page at http://www.linuxtr.net.

Olicom driver

Other resources

Gigabit/100mbps Networking (Fast Ethernet) Technologies
10mbps Ethernet Technologies
Charles Spurgeon's 100Mbs Ethernet Guide
Dan Kegel's Fast Ethernet page
U.N.H. Fast Ethernet Consortium
An Introduction to Auto-Negotiation (nee NWay) media type auto-selection scheme, written by Bill Bunch of National Semiconductor.
The CERN High-Speed-Interconnect page

Linux Network Drivers Page
SCYLD information.
Author: Donald Becker
See the drivers for the contact email address. Do not bother sending email to zinc.anode@scyld.com, as email to that address adds your domain or IP address to the known-spammer list.