# via velocity driver in 2.6.8

## bendy

Hi,

Is anyone using the via velocity network driver which has been added to kernel 2.6.8?

I've been using an old ne2k network card whilst waiting for the velocity driver to be added to the kernel.  Today I compiled gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8-r3, and compiled support into the kernel for the via network adapter.

However, when I boot into the new kernel it dies with a coredump just after "Bring lo up......", and the dump makes reference to the velocity driver (sorry, not smart enough to understand anything else it said).

I then need to use the "alt-sys rq" magic key sequence to sync, unmount and reboot.

Compiling the velocity driver as a module allows me to boot up as normal, but modprobing it results in a segfault.

I have an Abit KV8 Pro motherboard with the K8T800 Pro chipset (hence the via velocity NIC onboard).  My system is compiled with gcc-3.4.1 and -march=athlon64.

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## camouflageX

That was probably a kernel oops. I get the same and I have the same mainboard using gentoo-amd64. Linux 2.6.9-rc1 didn't help either...

I am using a PCI NIC at the moment. :/

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## atmos

I get the same thing with 2.6.8-gentoo

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## atmos

I got this working on my KV8 PRO after trying the suggested 2.6.8 kernel version.

Device Drivers -> Networking support -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) -> <M> VIA Velocity support

after rebooting I just ran 'modprobe via-velocity'

# uname -a

Linux nemesis 2.6.8-gentoo #2 SMP Sun Aug 29 19:39:58 EDT 2004 x86_64 12  GNU/Linux

# dmesg | grep eth0

eth0: VIA Networking Velocity Family Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Do you know how to get the onboard sound on this motherboard to work?

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## bendy

 *atmos wrote:*   

> I got this working on my KV8 PRO after trying the suggested 2.6.8 kernel version. 
> 
> Device Drivers -> Networking support -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) -> <M> VIA Velocity support 
> 
> after rebooting I just ran 'modprobe via-velocity' 
> ...

 

I'm glad someone got it to work!  Which version of the kernel are you using?  Is it the latest gentoo-dev-sources-r3, or an earlier version?

The kernel will assign the eth0 interface to the velocity network adapter, the problem is that is crashes when it tries to bring the interface up.

 *atmos wrote:*   

> Do you know how to get the onboard sound on this motherboard to work?

 

That I can help with.  On-board sound is working fine with alsa and the snd-via82xx kernel module.  Follow the alsa guide in the docs section of the gentoo web site, and add:

```
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
```

 into /etc/modules.d/alsa as instructed.

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## atmos

I'm assuming you've added via-velocity to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and this will cause the symoops on boot, I just ran into this myself.  For now comment it out and manually invoke it after the system is up

'modprobe via-velocity'

gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8.ebuild as of today

Works here  :Very Happy: 

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## ghostn9e

hmm, how stable is the via-velocity driver in gentoo-dev-sources? Because i tryed the 2.6.9-rc1-mm kernel, and that driver only halfed worked. network connection was extremely unstable...   :Sad: 

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## atmos

I can only vouch for the 2 days or so that I've been using it, but outbound connections to the world seem perfectly fine.  Local transfers are fast etc.

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## mangobrain

I'm not entirely sure how or why, but my KV8 Pro works. The problem seems to be with lo, not eth0.

I have removed both lo and eth0 from the boot sequence, yet mysteriously, I just noticed that ifconfig is working, reports an up eth0, and lsmod reports that the via_velocity driver has been loaded.

All I can assume is that hotplug - which I have emerged and added to runlevel boot, 'cos I'm using udev without a device tarball - caused the module to load. I don't know whether or not it's necessary to build support in as a module - I switched over from having it built-in and it still crashes on starting lo.

So, remove net.lo from runlevel boot, and try again!

Q: Is there any disadvantage in not having an lo?

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## bendy

A quick update - I have via-velocity working now.

I made the following changes:

1) Updated to gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8-r4, from -r3.

2) I compiled a manual kernel, instead of using genkernel.

3) I created an fbsplash initrd, instead of bootsplash which didn't work with 2.6.8 anyway.

4) via-velocity is complied as a module.

I noted, as did mangobrain, that the via-velocity module is being automatically loaded somehow, maybe by hotplug (I haven't added it to modules.autoload).

However, unlike mangobrain, I have no problems with lo.

I am using devfs, not udev.

Hope this helps others!!

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## ghostn9e

who uses genkernel?

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## ppc52776

You need two patch to have via-velocity work fine in kernel-2.6.8

George Georgalis 's patch:

http://www.fr.zoreil.com/people/francois/misc/20040815-2.6.8-via-velocity-test.patch

From: http://lkml.org/lkml/2004/8/15/97

and

Tejun Heo 's patch:

http://mail.cs.nchu.edu.tw/~ppc52776/patch/20040912-2.6.8-via-velocity.patch

From: http://lkml.org/lkml/2004/9/12/59

after using two patches , everything works fine.

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## mangobrain

I'm using 2.6.8.1, unpatched, with udev & hotplug. Found out the hard way that there are indeed drawbacks to not having a loopback device, it basically means 127.0.0.1 is non-existant  :Rolling Eyes: 

What I've done now is added net.lo back into the startup sequence, but removed net.eth0; this gives me a loopback device that doesn't crash. Then later on, once the machine's finished booting, manually modprobing via_velocity causes eth0 to come up, again without crashing. The problem seems to lie in starting the loopback device and eth0 in quick succession.

I may test out the patches mentioned above when I get home, but seeing as I have found a workaround, I was originally planning to just wait for future kernel versions (as a general rule I can't be bothered fiddling with patched kernel versions, the most exotic I'll go is development-sources).

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## ghostn9e

official driver released

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=1581110

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