Intel’s new NIC 82563EB
We’re testing a new server from our primary vendor, one which uses Xeon 5130 chips, on the SuperMicro X7DVL-E motherboard. This board uses Intel’s new onboard 82563EB NIC. For some reason Intel designs their NICs to not be backwards compatible in any way, and so each new NIC release seems to require a brand new version of their drivers — I guess we’re using bleeding edge ethernet technology!!!1!1!
Unfortunately, Intel themselves only offer a Windows driver. Searches on Intel for “82536EB linux” and similar queries turn up nothing (Update May ’08: I typo’d. You can indeed find them by searching for 82563EB. I don’t remember if that was the case in ’06.). Strangely, the only place you can find the Linux driver is at Supermicro’s FTP site. The driver is not in to the most recent Linux kernel (2.6.17.8 at the time of this posting).
Loosely following the directions to install Debian on Areca-based RAIDs, I’ve made an ISO that will let you net-install Debian Sarge 3.1 (r0a) on a server with a 82563EB chip. The only differences between this CD and Debian’s official CD are an updated e1000 driver in the nic-extra-modules udeb, in the kernel-image-2.6.8-2-386.deb and in the initrd image. If you choose to upgrade or replace the kernel, you’ll want to rebuild the e1000 driver using the source code found at the FTP server mentioned above.
I can’t provide any support for this ISO, of course. At your own risk, yadda yadda.
FreeBSD users: The mailing lists indicate that driver support for this card is now available in 6.1-STABLE (so install -RELEASE from a CD, and then I guess cvsup on another server, burn the contents of /usr/src/sys to another CD, and sneakernet it over to your new box?), but I still don’t see any notes about it in the CVS commit logs (and they do usually list the chips that are newly supported).
(Updated: It’s not the 82536, it’s the 82563.)