FreeBSD 7.0 and the nfe driver

[map7]

I've just upgraded from FreeBSD 6.2 to FreeBSD 7.0 (in stages, using the freebsd-update tool) in the hope that it will have the driver for my onboard network interface.

I'm running the ASUS P5N-EM HDMI motherboard which runs the Nvidia 630i chipset and requires the if_nfe driver.

Do I have to manually compile the driver for FreeBSD 7.0?
I've looked in the kernel and it has 'device nfe' uncommented in the GENERIC kernel (which I'm running). I cannot find a if_nfe.ko file on my computer though.

Should I upgrade to FreeBSD 7.1?
Can I upgrade to FreeBSD 7.1 through the binary method (using the freebsd-update tool)? As it's much faster.

[graudeejs]

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?q...SE&format=html

you need to compile custom kernel
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...nelconfig.html


or add if_nfe_load="YES" to loader.conf

[phoenix]

device nfe is part of the GENERIC kernel in 7.0+. No need to compile a custom kernel. You can confirm this by running kldload if_nfe which will return "already exists" errors, as it's already part of the kernel.

If it's still not being detected, then the nfe(4) driver in 7.0 doesn't support it. You can try an update to 7.1-PRERELEASE to see if the version of the driver in there supports that chipset. The update might be supported by freebsd-update. If not, you'll have to do a buildworld cycle using tag=RELENG_7 (there's no RELENG_7_1 tag as yet).

Do any errors appear in dmesg output? How about if you boot with verbose logging enabled? Does the BIOS have options to change how the network chipset appears? On some nvidia boards, you can select between pin-strap (the default) and mii modes. The mii mode is more standard and better supported.