Device Driver Community News
June 30, 2009
Nicdrv 2.0 is ready in OpenSolaris
The Solaris driver testing team is excited to announce the availability of NICDRV-2.0. NICDRV-2.0 introduces many new features along with many improvements.
Major New Improvements
- Added a new test case to cover IPMI feature(Intelligent Platform Management Interface).
- Provides an HTML conversion tool,which convert test log into HTML format so that end user can review log quickly and conveniently.
- Support opensolaris 0906.
- Enhanced vlan and vnic test with configurable parameters.
- Normal user can configure and execute test case instead of login as root user.
- Add a new stress test on transmission with a large number of sessions
About 20+ bugs and RFEs have been fixed in this build. The whole test suite becomes more robust and more efficient
The test source tarballs and packages can be downloaded at: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/device_drivers/projects/nicdrvtest/stcnv-nicdrv-src-20090629.tar.bz2
Source code is also available from the STC2 Mercurial repository at: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/test-dev/repositories
The test suite source can be browsed at: http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/test/ontest-stc2/src/suites/net/nicdrv (coming soon)
More information on this test suite is at NIC driver test suite.
Questions about the this test suite can be sent to the device drivers discussion forum.
The mail list of nicdrv is NICDRV-interest@sun.com
November 19, 2008
Nicdrv 1.7 is ready in OpenSolaris
The Solaris driver testing team is pleased to announce the availability of NICDRV-1.7.NICDRV-1.7 introduces many new features along with many improvements.
Some of the highlights:
- New test case added to coverage the VNIC feature of crossbow.
- New test case added to coverage the Brussels project and Jumbo frame feature.
- New test case added to coverage the DR (dynamic reconfiguration) feature.
- Vlan test case need to be changed due to removing of ppa hacks in Crossbow.
- Ping.auto display more precise.
About 20+ bugs and RFEs have been fixed in this build.The whole test suite becomes more robust and more efficient
The test source tarballs and packages can be downloaded at: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/device_drivers/ontest-nicdrv-src-20081019.tar.bz2
Source code is also available from the STC2 Mercurial repository at: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/test-dev/repositories
The test suite source can be browsed at: http://cvs.opensolaris.org/source/xref/test/ontest-stc2/src/suites/net/nicdrv
More information on this test suite is at NIC driver test suite.
Questions about the this test suite can be sent to the device drivers discussion forum.
July 10, 2008
A new project has been formed around the LSI MegaRAID sas driver. If you're interested in contributing, click on the links above and get involved. Goals of the project include adding FMA support, adding basic cfgadm support, support for power management, hotplug, 64 bit DMA and driver performance.
June 4, 2008
An updated release of driver e1000g was put back into OpenSolaris (corresponding to ON build 91) which now supports Intel Controller Hub 9Mobile (ICH9m) and one ICH10 (0x10de) NIC devices. These network interfaces can be found on new and recently shipping mobile laptops and some volume x64/86 servers which leverage the onboard NIC that come with the Intel's ICH9 and ICH10 chipsets. The driver is generously provided to us by Intel and Sun under the CDDL. Driver support for new ICHC9m and ICH10 devices will appear in formal commercially support Solaris 10 in an upcoming update release.
May 13, 2008
For laptops and USB stick WiFi 802.11 devices that use the Ralink RT2500USB series of chipsets, we are happy to announce the availability of a Solaris driver. The ural driver is based on GLDv3 framework, you can easily use it by dladm or nwam. Note that ural supports security mode of none/wep/wpa-psk.
May 12, 2008
A new driver ixgbe has been checked into the latest Solaris Nevada build90 source. It will hopefully appear in the SXCE b90. This driver enables the Intel ® 10GbE Oplin 82598 controller. This NIC offers 1 and 2 optical ports on a single PCIe card. ixgbe is a GLDv3-based driver, supporting DLPI, Solaris datalink administrative features, VLAN and Trunking via 802.3ad. This driver is the result of collaboration from Intel's LAN Access Division and Sun. Intel LAD provided the intial common driver code and the port of a first working driver. Sun's Beijing driver team delivered Solaris ndd and DataLink integration, testing and sponsorship to putback the driver into Nevada. The driver is generously provided to us by Intel and Sun under the CDDL. Look for formal support coming soon in OpenSolaris as well as an upcoming Solaris 10 Update release.
April 14, 2008
A new driver mega_sas has been checked into the latest Solaris Nevada build88 source. The mega_sas driver supports the LSI SAS1078 SAS RAID Storage Adapters and Dell PERC 5/E, 5/i, 6/E, and 6/i, and CERC 6/i RAID Controllers, with RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 6, and RAID spans 10, 50, and 60. The driver supports supports up to 240 SAS or 3Gb/s SATA drives, or a combination of both. Note that SAS and SATA drives cannot be combined together in a virtual drive. Also, if you want to install to a drive attached to a mega_sas HBA, you should create the virtual drive first from the BIOS before running Solaris install. The mega_sas driver is generously provided through a collaboration of LSI and Sun Microsystems, and issued under a BSD-style Open Source License.
March 3, 2008
The OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards Contest kicked off officially. We had some IT availability issues and haggling between Sun IT and external contractor to host a contest registration system. Sun's web folks helped us out and got us awards.opensolaris.org running on Nevada in a zone.
Contest is open to individuals and teams; Sun, it's partner companies, and employees and direct relatives are ineligible.
A lot of us really think that some of the drivers contributed by individuals or portions of drivers that have added value to OpenSolaris would make great entries. Please visit the contest registration website for more details.
Janurary 7, 2008
A new driver igb has been checked into the latest Solaris Nevada build81 source. Folks should see this in the the Community edition Nevada release. This driver enables the Intel® Zoar 82575 Gigabit NIC. Dual and Quad port cards are supported by this controller. igb is GLDv3-based.
This driver is the result of collaboration from Intel who provided the intial common code base and porting of the first working driver, and Sun's Beijing driver team for Solaris driver integration and testing. The driver is generously provided to us by Intel and Sun under the CDDL. Look for formal support coming soon in OpenSolaris as well as an upcoming Solaris 10 Update release.
May 11, 2006
Fault Management Architecture is becoming a requirement for all device drivers in Solaris.
There are new requirements for device drivers where Fault Management Architecture (FMA) support needs to be added for any drivers going back into Solaris. In some cases a waiver may be granted. A waiver will only be good on a temporary basis until the actual support can be added. If you're writing a device driver that you would like to get back into Solaris, please make sure you're aware of the support required.
In build 39 of OpenSolaris, the Broadcom GigE (bge) driver has changes to support FMA. Please refer to this driver for a real world example at this time until a document can be prepared for OpenSolaris.org.
All drivers are subject to having support, with no exceptions.
May 11, 2006
There is currently work underway to putback Masa Murayama's Broadcom 10/100 Fast Ethernet driver into OpenSolaris. This will be the first of several of Murayama's drivers, which have been a great asset to the OpenSolaris community.
The driver has been known to the community as the bcf driver. This will change as it goes back into OpenSolaris and will be known as the bfe driver (Broadcom Fast Ethernet), which aligns with the Broadcom GigE (bge) which is already in OpenSolaris.
Do you have a driver you would like to see included in OpenSolaris? Please let us know if you do and we'll do what we can to get it putback, so that everyone will have access to it in future builds.