RE: Driver for via-velocity gigabit NIC

> On Mar 7, 2006, at 10:17 PM, Timothy Legge wrote:
> > Well, I found the issue or more correctly I ripped out the method I 
> > was using for 64 byte alignment of the rings and buffers 
> and replaced 
> > it with the method I used with the r8169 driver.  Afters hours of 
> > wasted effort, the tried and true method worked in just a few 
> > minutes...
> 
> As much as I am glad to see a new driver, this troubles me.  
> The fact that the driver "works" is nice, but the fact that 
> you don't know why it was failing is not good.  I don't mean 
> to be overly harsh, but getting something to work is not 
> nearly enough in this case.  The next person who looks at 
> your driver and compares it to the Linux driver will wonder 
> why you changed what you changed.

Considering that Etherboot and Linux differ a lot in the way buffers are
created and used that is not a problem.  

The difference is that in this version, I changed from attempting to use
the method the the current Etherboot via-rhine driver uses for alignment
to the method I used in the etherboot r8169.  It was my original method
but I only used the other process when I ran into problems early in the
creation of the driver (over a year ago).  I like the current method
better.  That being said, I fully plan to review how my current method
differs from the method that did not work.  As you said in a previous
email the problem is probably small and will be useful as a learning
experience.

> Assuming the code worked in the Linux driver you were 
> porting, it should work in Etherboot.  If it does not, we 
> should know why.

Completely irrelevant.  As above, this has to do with how the rings and
buffers are aligned.  Linux just depends on a lot of they lower level
memory functionality to do the alignment.  I did not need to change the
transmit and poll or anything other than the specific section that did
at 64-byte alignment of the rings and buffers (in all probably less than
30 lines of code).

Tim

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