Hardware

Hi Everyone,

First time here on Unix.com forums. I've been trying to install Nexenta on a new server machine that I built. The MotherBoard is a Gigabit GA-G41MT-S2P and the LAN chip is an AR8151.

I understand that the AR8151 isn't natively supported by the Solaris kernel, but I'm wondering if there's another way of getting it to work. I have a few old USB to Ethernet adapters that I can plug in to get a network connection, but they are only 10/100. But with using the adapter is it possible to download something to enable the on-board LAN controller?

Hi,

I'm in the same exact boat with you. I also have Gigabyte G41MT-S2P with the on board LAN AR8151.

I might have some success. After I installed SXE11 I tried to make the chip work by cheating it's pci-id and vendor-id in /etc/driver_aliases.

However, this is what I've done:

1. prtconv -pv | more
2. You can find the pci-id and vendor-id to be: pci1969,1073.
3. vi /etc/driver_aliases
4. search for the string 1969
5. You will find a two lines that read something like: atge "pciex1969,xxxx".
6. Add a new line after these two lines that reads: atge "pci1969,1073"
7. Save and exit vi.
8. update_drv atge0
9. devfsadm -i atge0
10. init 6

After doing this, I could see the LEDs of the RJ-45 blinking, which made me believe that I had succeeded in making the NIC to work. I also gripped atge from dmesg output, and I could see the NIC is up and uses full-duplex mode. However, ifconfig atge0 gives an error saying no such device.

I noticed a warning message at booting time that says atge is attached to unknown device with id 6506,4211. This could message could be an indicator to something, but I'm not sure. I'm still trying to get this thing running, but I thought I'd share my work until now.

I wonder what are the USB->LAN chip you used, in case I had to buy one. I'm not fuzzy about the gigabit speed for now, so, 10/100 USB will be an option to me.

Regards.