[LiSA-Users] support for vendor hardware?

[Radu Rendec]

On Thu, 2006-12-14 at 17:36 -0900, Glen Johnson wrote:
> Anyone running LiSA on highend 12/24/48-port fabrics (such as
> DSSNetwork's 8261 12-port switch) ?

Except for the developers, there are only 3 members on this list :( I
wish there were so many that at least one were familiar with DSS
Networks hardware and could answer you.

In order to run LiSA on a specific platform, Linux must run on that
platform and the network chips must be supported by the kernel.

Having a quick look at DSS Networks 8261
(http://www.dssnetworks.com/v3/gigabit_cpci_8261.asp), it seems that
they use Broadcom chips. Unfortunately they have a very strict policy
about chipset datasheets (they only give them to hardware manufacturers
under non-disclosure agreements) and thus nobody managed to write an
open-source driver (i.e. a linux driver) for them.

As for the kernel to boot, the CPU must be one of the supported
architectures. A few years ago a project was started at the university
where I used to study, and they managed to boot linux on a Cisco 2924
switch. They aimed at using the switch's ethernet ports from linux but
they got stuck at "talking" to the network chipset. It was visible on
the pci bus, but they had no documentation for it. And guess what: it's
a Broadcom chipset too :(

There is one more issue with these devices: most of them do almost
everything in hardware. And LiSA does almost everything in software.
Running a linux-based Cisco-like CLI on these devices is a different
project (than LiSA). Basically it's only an interface to the chipset's
internal function. Only small parts of LiSA could be useful (the CLI for
instance) and everything else should be rewritten/adapted.

Regards,

Radu