If you don't want the debugging messages, don't use the debugging versions. In the release folder, try forcedeth.kext first and if that doesn't work, forcedeth-nock.kext

Is anyone experiencing system lockups over large file transfers? I've had it on 2 occasions transferring files in excess of 10MB.

Encountered once when the other PC in my room access the router at the same time

Me too, it happened when I was just surfing the web.

how to i load forcedeth.kext automatically each time the OS is launched? Thanks

I've put up a new version of the driver in the OP that demonstrates better stability than the previous version. The large downloads problem should be solved, but this fix may generate new stability issues, but I haven't run into them yet. Tested with a few gigabytes worth of transfers over my LAN.

Hi and thank's planetbeing for this driver. I have some questions if somone have time.

On my Gigabyte mombo are 2 network cards, according to Gigabyte data it looks like that:


----------------------------------
Dual LAN solution with Gigabit LAN solution integrated

# Marvell 8001 Gigabit Ethernet controller
# ICS 1883 LAN PHY
-----------------------------------

Will this driver possibly work with on or the other.

If I try do I paste the driver intoo IONetworkFamily.kext ?


Thanks.

This looks very good but can someone post a clear instruction manual for this? (Very clear for n00bs)I don't know which files to use and what to do.

edit: Great job now I can play WoW on the mac side :vader breathing:

Ok. Here's a quick howto

1. Get the forcedeth driver
2. Expand the zip file onto the desktop. You should see a forcedeth folder
3. Open terminal
4. In terminal, type in "sudo -s", key in your password
5. Type "chown -R root:wheel ~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release/forcedeth.kext"
6. Type "chmod -R 755 ~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release/forcedeth.kext"
7. Type "kextload -v ~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release/forcedeth.kext"

The LAN should be up at this stage. You can check either through the network utility or via terminal by "ifconfig -a". Do a ping to your router to verify the connection is ok. If you need to unload the driver, do a "kextunload ~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release/forcedeth.kext".

Once you are happy with the performance, you can move it into the main extensions folder and kextload it automatically by adding this line to the top of the /etc/rc file using the nano editor.

"kextload /System/Library/Extensions/forcedeth.kext"

Thanks to planetbeing for writing this driver.

The error you were getting is because the driver does not come chowned to root:wheel and may not have the right permissions. Follow wkweksl's instructions.

Also, the way I make this (and every other kernel extension) load at startup is to run kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions. This clears the extension cache, and tells OS X to recheck that folder for new extensions and load everything in there at startup.

Thanks so much, Planetbeing! You're tha man!
Finally I can now really work with Mac OS X!

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great work

My NForce 4 On board lan work property!!!

(MB MSI K8N Neo4)

just loaded mine and im posting via OSX86 on my A8N SLI Delux

great work man, you must have a very steep learning curve since there seems to be a lotta experienced programmers in these forums yet it was your determined effort that got us network/internet connection...
Congrats and Thanx again...

strike one for the good guys in green

Thanks for the explanation, your driver works but it's slightly unstable compared to the rtl8139
card I used in the mean time. Usually when opening a site in safari or firefox deerpark with a lot of pictures
I get a black screen with the message in different languages that I have to reset the computer...
(looks like kernel crash)

I don't think I or anyone else have ever experienced a kernel panic when using the driver. Please boot up with the -v flag and try to duplicate the error so you can give me the message that actually appears.

@Thor: I'm not sure. It looks like the 10/100 PHY uses the nForce3 MAC which is all the driver should care about. I've never tested it on a nForce3, but technically, if it's not one of the more ancient flavors of nForce3, it should still work fine. Install the driver with wkweksl's instructions, except before doing anything, start a separate console window and type in "tail -f /var/log/system.log". This will give log output from the driver. I've added in every device ID the driver should handle into the kext, so if your motherboard has one of them, it should work fine out of the box. If your motherboard doesn't, then the log should say so.

yup - works for me great top work

@planetbeing

Thanks for your work on the LAN driver! Seems like you have some experience with (driver)-programming. Maybe you could take a look at a SATA driver for the nForce boards. The VIAATA.kext could be a good start as it partially works. Maybe by comparing it to the freebsd and linux sources one could work out the bugs. I tried myself, but gave up as I have no programming experience at all! Just a thought...

Ok after reading wkweksl post I got it to work. My NVidia lan woke up from sleep. The Marvell is still in coma.
Thank's wkweksl and last but not least, thanks planetbeing for this great driver.

This has been my only experience with driver programming, but now the OpenDarwin source code for AppleVIAATA is readable to me, at least. I still don't know what's precisely involved in coding a ATA driver, but the AppleVIAATA source code does look manageable. I dunno, though. If you want, you can start a new thread with bugs that the current AppleVIAATA driver has (what precisely are they?), and I could see if they are fixable.

Cool. Check out these threads: http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=13219
http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=11034

Good luck!

The main problem is prolly irq and nforce4 related when you attach more than 1 drive there's this error

IOATAController device blocking bus

I say it's nforce4 only related because i've 2 sata hds attached to my nforce3 board without problems

I see that error on my nForce4, but my two SATA hard drives work (though I have to mount the NTFS volumes manually). I'd like more details about the error, and how it's a showstopper, but I don't really want to wade through pages of forum posts. If someone can summarize, it'd be great. Also, have people tried using mount_ntfs and mounting the volumes manually? And looking at what Disk Utility says?

I looked in the source and it seems to be coming from IOATAController, which is a superclass of the main portion of the driver. The message is displayed when any type of error happens with the selectDevice function, so it could very well be a misleading error message. There are other debugging messages that can be displayed, but those are disabled. This means to diagnose the error, I'll have to recompile the driver with those debugging messages enabled. Perhaps I'll do that later, but I want to wait on some details about the error to make sure it's not a red herring.

WORK GREAT.....

===> Thx <===




Shuttle SN25P
NForce 4 Ultra
Geforce 7800 GTX
2 Giga
500 Go Sata
Sound Card Muse 5,1


Now All work THX THX THX

I have a Nforce 430 (GA-K8N51GMF-9 - socket 939 w/onboard 6100 video)motherboard with Nvidia gigabit lan. I have changed the Device ID in forcedeth.kext to match my onboard, 0x0269 and the driver loads but I have the problem where it can't send or recieve packets (gets 169.xx Address). I have included my system.log output. I do have the onboard lan hooked to a gigabit switch so it reports that properly...

As far as I can make out from the Linux driver's source code, your particular device is really strange in that it... mandates? 64-bit DMA. So basically, even though all the command codes are pretty much the same, the format for the buffers that handle the packet data are completely different. It's not THAT much work to support it, so it might be in the future (like the error message says), I'm limited by the fact that if I try to add it, I'd be developing for hardware that thousands of miles away from me, so it'll be a very frustrating experience.

So you have a couple of options: Learning xcode and modify my drivers slightly so they work on your adapter, or you can wait for me to get to it, but unless a whole bunch of other people also requests it, don't hold your breath. :/

Thank you for your efforts, even if you don't get to implementing this specific PHY. My 3c905 card is working ok for the time being. I would eventually like to get rid of the card and use the onboard.. so I guess one day when I get the opportunity I'll see about modifying your code..

it's works fine for me very good job

I get an error that says something about the superclass. I have a gigabit lan that says its Nvidia 4 and its on a ASUS A8N5X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail mobo

I followed the instructions on the first page and also have the same problem of "superclass".

I'm currently running 10.4.1 - i dunno if this is the problem ?

I have a DFI lanparty nForce4 Ultra-D motherboard which has two integrated nics:

1) Dual Gigabit LAN - Vitesse VSC8201 Gigabit Phy
2) Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit PCI onboard lan

here is the contents of the debug window:

Last login: Tue Apr 4 22:48:25 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
jhonny-polaks-computer:~ jhonnypolak$ tail -f /var/log/system.log
Apr 4 22:48:23 localhost lookupd[61]: lookupd (version 365.0.81) starting - Tue Apr 4 22:48:23 2006
Apr 4 22:48:23 jhonny-polaks-computer configd[38]: setting hostname to "jhonny-polaks-computer.local"
Apr 4 22:48:23 jhonny-polaks-computer kernel[0]: display: vram [c0000000:10000000]
Apr 4 22:48:23 jhonny-polaks-computer diskarbitrationd[40]: disk0s1 hfs B6C5A448-97C6-343F-A152-4B9B41FEF717 OSx86 /
Apr 4 22:48:23 jhonny-polaks-computer kernel[0]: display: Not usable
Apr 4 22:48:23 jhonny-polaks-computer kernel[0]: display: Not usable
Apr 4 22:48:24 jhonny-polaks-computer /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow: Login Window Application Started
Apr 4 22:48:24 jhonny-polaks-computer mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.
Apr 4 22:48:25 jhonny-polaks-computer loginwindow[73]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Apr 4 22:48:25 jhonny-polaks-computer /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/MacOS/mcxd: MCXD.initializeDirectoryServices: Unable to get the ethernet address
Apr 4 22:51:03 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/chown -R root:wheel forcedeth.kext
Apr 4 22:51:19 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/chmod -R 755 forcedeth.kext
Apr 4 22:51:33 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/kextload -v forcedeth.kext
Apr 4 22:52:02 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[166]: oah750d crashed
Apr 4 22:52:02 jhonny-polaks-computer launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Support/ATSServer"[70]: exited with status: 255
Apr 4 22:52:02 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[167]: ATSServer crashed
Apr 4 22:52:02 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[167]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ATSServer.crash.log
Apr 4 22:52:02 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[166]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/oah750d.crash.log
Apr 4 22:52:43 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/kextunload forcedeth.kext
Apr 4 22:53:18 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/chown -R root:wheel forcedeth-nockd.kext
Apr 4 22:53:40 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/chmod -R 755 forcedeth-nockd.kext
Apr 4 22:53:52 jhonny-polaks-computer sudo: jhonnypolak : TTY=ttyp2 ; PWD=/Users/jhonnypolak/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/sbin/kextload -v forcedeth-nockd.kext
Apr 4 22:54:08 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[175]: oah750d crashed
Apr 4 22:54:08 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[175]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/oah750d.crash.log
Apr 4 22:54:08 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[176]: ATSServer crashed
Apr 4 22:54:09 jhonny-polaks-computer crashdump[176]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ATSServer.crash.log



and here is the contents of the terminal where i typed in the commands:

jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo chmod -R 755 forcedeth.kext
jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo kextload -v forcedeth.kext
kextload: extension forcedeth.kext appears to be valid
kextload: loading extension forcedeth.kext
20com_triton_forcedeth is not compatible with its superclass, 20IOEthernetController superclass changed?
kextload: a link/load error occured for kernel extension forcedeth.kext
load failed for extension forcedeth.kext
(run kextload with -t for diagnostic output)
jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo kextunload forcedeth.kext
kextunload: unload kext forcedeth.kext failed
jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo chown -R root:wheel forcedeth-nockd.kext
jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo chmod -R 755 forcedeth-nockd.kext
jhonny-polaks-computer:~/Desktop/forcedeth/build/Release jhonnypolak$ sudo kextload -v forcedeth-nockd.kext
kextload: extension forcedeth-nockd.kext appears to be valid
kextload: loading extension forcedeth-nockd.kext
20com_triton_forcedeth is not compatible with its superclass, 20IOEthernetController superclass changed?
kextload: a link/load error occured for kernel extension forcedeth-nockd.kext
load failed for extension forcedeth-nockd.kext
(run kextload with -t for diagnostic output)


can anyone help me out ?

Yeah, it's the fact that you have 10.4.1. I think you'd need to recompile it. Unfortunately, this is more complicated than it ought to be. You'll need Xcode, which is a 833 MB DMG file. Open up the project, and just hit build, and that version should work. I think. It's possible there might be compile errors due to the different versions, but those should be trivial to fix.

Though it might be simpler just to upgrade.

First of all thanks for this one...!

Worked from the first second I loaded the driver.
But as another user reported already, I get an kernel panic, too, when I am transferring a big amount of data (Networking, Azureus...).

So here is the debug:



would be nice if someone could help.
I did not quote everything, because it is too much typing 0x.... so I hope this is ok. otherwise I can reproduce the panic again and write down all the stuff.

max respect,
chiras

EDIT:
Ah I forget to mention my mobo: A8N SLI Deluxe
I have an NVidia 6600GT, perhaps this may bring trouble?

What might be the trouble is that you have either a dual-core CPU or otherwise multiple logical processors, and you haven't used the cpus=1 boot option. Is this the case?

nope, sorry
AMD 64 3000+ single CPU
this is not the case.

thx for reply
chiras

What version of the driver do you have? When did you get it?

EDIT: And can I have the rest of the backtrace please? I'm not sure where in MY code this actually happens from the data given. /Library/Logs/panic.log should have it.

I tried both zips, with all kexts I found inside. I downloaded the last release at friday.
running osx 10.4.4

chiras

EDIT: there is no panic.log inside, i will add the missing lines at the next crash ;-)

whomp there it is:



hope no mistakes inside

thanks for your effort
chiras

No problem. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I knew there was something a bit screwy going on with the locking, but I wasn't able to find out what it is: Unlike your computer, mine merely freezes when something goes wrong (except with the latest version - theoretically, all the locking is handled by OS X so theoretically, this sort of thing shouldn't happen). It looks like there's a problem with the functions residing at 0x23d7061a and/or 0x23d70704 as they are calling a function on the IONetworkingController superclass at 0x291b739a. I don't have any experience debugging OS X kernel extensions, so I don't know what exactly these functions are yet. I'll try to wrestle with gdb and find that out later today (when I'm back at my own computer). My guess is the replaceOrCopyPacket part in the rxProcess function though. That matches the profile pretty well and it would be called a ton during massive transfers. Still not quite sure why that particular kernel panic results, though.

Nevermind...

seems to be working 100% for me, straight from the go. downloaded lots of large files already no probs. thanx.

****************


Got some major update!

Im running a A8N-VM Board with nforce 4 410 chipset.


I got all the stuff to work for now BUT, i wont get any ip adress, im just getting the ol 169.254.51.46, when I boot into windows I get an working ip! :/

Posting log when I kextload it



*********************

Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Initializing.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Probing.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: WARNING - your nVidia device 0x10DE:0x0269 is not known to work, but it could be supported in the future. Please contact the coder. Continuing anyway...
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Starting.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: PCI system 0x10DE:0x0269, subsystem 0x1043:0x816A opened.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Mapped from 0xDFFBC000 of length 4096.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Allocated 3072 bytes of contiguous memory for DMA: rx at 0x1b4b2000, tx at 0x1b4b2400, wired at 0x13c43000.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Found nForce4 LAN with MAC: 00:XX:D4:FD:XX:AE.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: forcedeth: Found PHY 0x0000:0x0020 at address 1.
Apr 7 23:50:18 elins-computer kernel[0]: com_triton_forcedeth: Ethernet address 00:xx:d4:XX:Xc:ae"

*********************

Anyone with a solution? Gonna work on this all night long, I REALLY want the net to work in OS X, I got all sound and gfx hooked up so I just need this ;D





Some screens:

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I have an ip and can connect to my router, but i can't connect to the internet. Any ideas?

It detects my card.. link and speed whatnot. Even when I switch from 1Gbit or 100mbs. It detects it. BUT it won't get the correct ip from DHCP. Also, when I force the correct IP, it does not work. But it's a step. Only a little bit more to go!

Thank you for the updated driver (couldn't find a version number, dated march 29) haven't experienced a lock up yet ;-)

thanks a bunch for getting my LAN to work, but as someone else mentioned... it makes the computer randomly freeze a bit while doing things.......

mind fixing that???

Sorry guys, but finals are coming around the corner and I don't have much more time to waste on this. I can't seem to reproduce any of your freezing bugs with the newest version. The kernel panic by rights, should not happen. A secondary interrupt should not prevent me from doing memory allocation, so I can't reproduce that either.

It's extraordinarily difficult for me to fix what I can't duplicate, so if you guys want it fixed on any sort of time frame, you'll have to do it yourselves. As for people who're having trouble connecting, even though it says a connection is made, a pasted log is always much more helpful than telling me "it doesn't work". I think the reason is that you guys probably forced the driver to try to handle a nForce LAN device it doesn't support.

Oh man. I ran the forcedeth-nockd and now it works good job.

weBstalkeR, note down the motherboard you have so other people can have a headsup.

My Motherboard is a DFI nF4 SLi-D
The nF4 LAN works if you use the forcedeth-nockd.kext.