ClearFoundation

Hi all,

I'm new to ClearOS and just trying it out to see whether it fits my needs. So far I'm loving it - looks great! However, I have an ADSL2+ PCI modem card I'm hoping (with some help) I can get to work under ClearOS. The card can be seen here.

The card has 4 ADSL ports, each controlled by a Conexant Solos D ADSL2+ chipset which interfaces to the PCI bus through an FPGA (apparently). Also according to the README file the solos driver is included in the Linux kernel version 2.6.29 and later. I’ve had a look with modinfo and solos-pci does not seem to be included in the kernel. This being the case, I hope to be able to compile the driver provided (separately from the kernel).

The manufacturer provides a driver on Sourceforge.net which I think should work. It’s supposed to be compatible with Linux kernel versions 2.6.23 and later. However I think it does require the kernel to include ATM support:

CONFIG_ATM=y
CONFIG_ATM_BR2684=y

As far as software utilities goes – it just needs linux-atm which includes br2684ctl.

Apart from “will my card work?”, I have the following questions and would be grateful for any help.

Q1) Generally, what is ClearOS like in terms of support for ADSL PCI modem cards? And could anyone suggest a better choice that’s supported / recognised out-the-box?

Q2) Does anyone know if the ClearOS kernel support ATM (RFC/2684 bridged protocol)? I hope so – otherwise I would need to recompile the kernel! And unless well documented – I’m not even going to attempt that!

Q3) Does anyone know what the best way to install linux-atm is? From source or is there a way to install it through yum?

Cheers,
Andy

I tied installing:

- kernel-devel
- gcc

gcc also pulled in dependencies...

- cloog-ppl
- cpp
- glibc-devel
- glibc-headers
- kernel-headers
- libgomp
- mpfr
- ppl

...all of which I installed and then rebooted before trying 'make clean' on the driver. The below was the outcome.



Why does the build directory not exist? Do I need the kernel sources? If so, does anyone know how to get them?

Cheers,
Andy

If it is anything like 5.2 I would guess there is a mistake in one of the rpm's - possibly the kernel rpm. In 5.2 there is a symlink folder called /lib/modules/2.6.18-308.1.1.v5/build/ which points to /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-308.1.1.v5. There is also a symlink folder /lib/modules/2.6.18-308.1.1.v5/source/ which points to the same place. In 6.2 these symlinks are not folders. Also the /lib/modules/2.6.32-220.13.1.v6.x86_64/source symlink points to the /lib/modules/2.6.32-220.13.1.v6.x86_64/build (which is pretty much the same as pointing to /usr/src/kernels/2.6.32-220.13.1.v6.x86_64/build.

I would guess at trying to recreate the symlink folders as in 5.2 but as I could be miles wide of the mark, I would not recommend you to do the same. Do you have a VM you could check it in?

Looks like someone else has confirmed the problem and given the solution.

[edit]
..... except it does not work as the x64 headers and devel package do not match the running kernel.
[/edit]

This fix should work.

The current kernel would appear to support ATM

The BR2684 module is also present, so you should just be able to load it with 'modprobe br2684'

Whats the output of 'lspci -nn' with it plugged in?

Nick / Tim,

Thanks to both for your help here. Nick, you were right, I changed the Makefile to read:



…and it compiled. However it didn’t work when I tried to insert it:



This seems like the problem you talked about in your follow-up post. I will try the fix you suggested in your last post and then get back to you.

Tim, thanks for answering my question about ATM and showing me how to check the configuration. Also thanks for clearing up the “br2684” issue. On Ubuntu it is “br2684ctl”. I was unsure whether they were the same program. Below is the lspci output you asked for:



Cheers,
Andy

Andy,
Can you remove the el6 kernel-devel package which is the wrong one ("rpm -e kernel-devel"). I had a hunt round last night and found the correct ones in another part of the repo. They can be installed with:Leave off the headers if you do not need them. Then try to recompile.
Nick

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your reply. I ran the command “rpm –e kern-devel” but that did not work as I had both versions installed. I did manage to remove both via yum, rebooted and then re-ran:



I also removed and re-created the “build” soft-link to point to the 64-bit version, 2.6.32-220.13.1.v6.x86_64 (as shown in the link you provided).

I then recompiled the driver without any problems. After running “modprobe br2684” I could then run “insmod solos-pci.ko” without error. The output of “dmesg” shows the device being registered:



However after a reboot I needed to re-run “modprobe br2684”, cd to the driver directory and run “insmod solos-pci.ko”. How do I insert it permanently?

My second question is, how do I install “br2684ctl”? To setup my card (for UK and on port 0), I would expect to run:



Is it included in a package that can be installed via yum?

Cheers,
Andy

OK. I'm getting a bit lost with the new RHEL6/ClearOS6.2 set up and I'm going to have to dig further to understand how it links modules to ethernet adaptors. It appears to have changed significantly since ClearOS5.2.

As an ugly hack any commands you run post boot up can be added to /etc/rc.d/rc.local. It is not the right way as you really want the modem to start much earlier in the boot sequence.

Again with the br2864ctl command, I don't know where you get it from. It almost seems it should be available from yum but it is not.