Update to Forcedeth 0.56 required

[WillyTP]

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6-amd64-k8

On both Dapper and Edgy, it's included nvidia networking module forcedeth 0.54
Please update it to the lastest public available version 0.56
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.11.html
to support more motherboard's integrated NICs.

[WillyTP (willytp)]

Forcedeth 0.60 is available
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.21.html

[WillyTP (willytp)]

I've been able to update to the latest forcedeth 0.60 in the following way I'm going to describe.

Before all:
-I'm using kernel 2.6.15-27-amd64-k8, so change version numbers accordingly to yours;

1)Download latest nvidia nforce package
2)For Dapper, I suggest you using forcedeth.c file contained under Fedora5 folder of the downloaded package
3)Install build-essential plus linux-headers-2.6.15-27-amd64-k8
4)Copy forcedeth.c into some folder, e.g. /home/willytp/forcedeth
5)Into this folder, make a file called "Makefile" containing the following line:
obj-m := forcedeth.o
6)Into this folder, execute the following command:
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.15-27-amd64-k8/ SUBDIRS=$PWD modules
7)Copy the just created forcedeth.ko module into
/lib/modules/2.6.15-27-amd64-k8/kernel/drivers/net/
overwriting the old one
8)Execute this command: sudo depmod -a
9)Make a new initrd image: go into /boot/ folder, locate your initrd image, save it name, delete the file, and execute the following command:
mkinitramfs -o initrd.img-2.6.15-27-amd64-k8
10)Cross fingers and reboot ;)

Hoping to help someone, I've attached a file here, containing the appropriate forcedeth.c, the Makefile, a little script to build and the binary file which will work *only* for 2.6.15-27-amd64-k8 kernel.

[WillyTP (willytp)]

This is the patch against ubuntu-dapper git tree to update forcedeth module to 0.60 version.

[WillyTP (willytp)]

I'm attaching a properly patched forcedeth.c file too.
I cleaned it of unnecessary parts used for older kernels (<2.6.15). It should be ok for edgy too.

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

forcedeth 0.59 is in dapper-proposed linux-source-2.6.15.

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

forcedeth 0.59 is in edgy-proposed linux-source-2.6.17

[Kyle McMartin (kyle)]

This is one of the drivers I will be tracking carefully in -proposed. 0.59 is the most recent snapshot, but I will be updating it regularly.