Subject: adding support for new PHY?
To: None <netbsd-help@netbsd.org>
From: Johan A.van Zanten <johan@giantfoo.org>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 01/26/2007 07:52:00
 Which mailing list is best for discussions about adding support for a new
 PHY?

 I recently bought a couple of Rosewill RC-400 gigabit Ethernet
interfaces, hoping they would work with NetBSD because they are based on
the Realtek 8169S.  They are recognized by 3.1_STABLE on alpha or i386:

re0 at pci0 dev 14 function 0: RealTek 8169S Single-chip Gigabit Ethernet
re0: interrupting at dec 6600 irq 35
re0: Ethernet address 00:e0:4c:77:79:80
re0: using 512 tx descriptors

Unfortunately, i suspect there might be a problem with the cards' PHY,
which is matched by the Generic PHY driver:

ukphy0 at re0 phy 7: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface

 I can't get the card to work with my Netgear GS724T gigabit switch, even
when i set the media and mediaopts to "Ethernet 1000baseT full-duplex" and
set the port accordingly on the switch.

 So i suspect the problem may be that the ukphy driver doesn't work well
 with the RC-400's PHY, which is a "TAIMAG IH-002."

http://www.rosewill.com/RosewillPhoto/RC400-640.jpg

 I am not a programmer, but i'm wondering how difficult it would be to try
and write a PHY driver for the IH-002.  The files for the various PHY
drivers are too big. :)

 -johan