Alteon AceNIC Tigon I/II Ethernet controllers
This page describes how to enable support for AceNIC Ethernet controllers on Debian systems.
Contents
acenic is a module for Alteon AceNIC Tigon I and II gigabit Ethernet controllers, included in the mainline Linux kernel. Supported devices are listed at the end of this page.
In linux-2.6 2.6.23-1, the binary-only firmware for this driver was removed (see the package changelog), due to discovered firmware licensing issues. The driver was disabled at this time. It was re-enabled in linux-2.6 2.6.26-1 when the request_firmware patch was applied.1
Installation
Lenny
Firmware is required to be obtained and installed prior to device operation:
Install the git-core package:
aptitude update aptitude install git-core
Acquire the AceNIC Tigon firmware from the linux-firmware GIT tree:
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git
Install the firmware:
cp linux-firmware/acenic/tg1.bin /lib/firmware/acenic_tg1.bin cp linux-firmware/acenic/tg2.bin /lib/firmware/acenic_tg2.bin
Reload the acenic driver:
modprobe -r acenic ; modprobe acenic
Configure your network interface, see NetworkConfiguration.
Etch
2.6.18 kernel
Firmware is present within the driver included in Debian 2.6.18 kernel images. Configure your network interface, see NetworkConfiguration.
2.6.24 kernel
The acenic module is not included in Debian 2.6.24 (EtchAndAHalf) kernel images.
You can either use the stock 2.6.18 kernel, or install a 2.6.26 kernel from Debian Backports. Once your sources are configured: apt-cache search linux-image-2.6.26 and install a package appropriate for your system.
Restart your system with this kernel, then continue using the 2.6.26 kernel procedure below.
2.6.26 kernel
Firmware is required to be obtained and installed prior to device operation:
Install the git-core package:
aptitude update aptitude install git-core
Acquire the AceNIC Tigon firmware from the linux-firmware GIT tree:
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git
Install the firmware:
cp linux-firmware/acenic/tg1.bin /lib/firmware/acenic_tg1.bin cp linux-firmware/acenic/tg2.bin /lib/firmware/acenic_tg2.bin
Reload the acenic driver:
modprobe -r acenic ; modprobe acenic
Configure your network interface, see NetworkConfiguration.
Supported Devices
The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.
The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo acenic on Lenny.
PCI: 1011:001A Digital Equipment Corporation Farallon PN9000SX Gigabit Ethernet PCI: 10A9:0009 Silicon Graphics, Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet PCI: 10B7:0001 3Com Corporation 3c985 1000BaseSX (SX/TX) PCI: 12AE:0001 Alteon Networks Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet PCI: 12AE:0002 Alteon Networks Inc. AceNIC Gigabit Ethernet (Copper) PCI: 12AE:00FA Alteon Networks Inc. Farallon PN9100-T Gigabit Ethernet PCI: 1385:620A Netgear GA620 Gigabit Ethernet PCI: 1385:630A Netgear GA630 Gigabit Ethernet
Broadcom Tigon3 Ethernet controllers are supported by the tg3 driver.