Dell 1955 Blade - Broadcom NIC not detected (BCM5708S)

[Conrad Burger]

On 01/11/06, David Christensen <davidch at broadcom.com> wrote:
> > >  > >> Oops, you're right.  I've been accidentally ignoring
> > this anyways, I'll
> > >  > >> take care of it.  Thanks!
> > >  > >>
> > >  > >> Scott
> > >  > >>
> > >  > >
> > >  > >Thanks the kernel now recognizes the network interface.
> > >  > >
> > >  > >But it fails to "attach" the driver to the interface
> > and gives the
> > >  > >following error.
> > >  > >"bce0 if_bce.c(531) SerDes controllers are not supported!"
> > >  > >
> > >  > >What now .... is there anything else I can try?
> > >  > >
> > >  > >Regards
> > >  > >Conrad
> > >  > >
> > >  >
> > >  > In if_bce.c  I found the following comment "/* DRC -
> > ToDo: Add SerDes
> > >  > support. */".
> > >  >
> > >  > Looks like the SerDes code for the BCE driver still
> > needs to be developed :(
> > >  >
> > >  > If someone could finish the SerDes code for the driver,
> > I will spend
> > >  > as much time as needed to test each code change that is
> > attempted to
> > >  > get the SerDes stuff working :)
> > >  >
> > >  > If needs be I will hook a console up to the system to make it
> > >  > accessible over the internet.
> > >  >
> > >
> > > Because I don't the hardware and datasheet for the chip I can't make
> > > any further changes for you. Sorry. But you can ask the
> > driver author
> > > for a plan for SERDES transceiver support. CCed to David
> > Christensen,
> > > the author of the driver.
> > >
> >
> > I might try to take a look at this.  I wonder if the Linux driver
> > already has support.
> >
> > Scott
> >
>
> Yes, the Linux bnx2 driver does support SerDes.  I don't have the
> bandwidth to tackle this feature until after the first of the year,
> though a few other people have also considered looking into adding
> the support.
>
> Dave
>
>

How hard would it be to use the linux driver code base to add tthe
SerDes support to the FreeBSD driver? I am not a C programmer, but I
can copy and paste ;)

Cheers
Conrad