			Linux Driver Disk Readme
			   For RHEL3_U9
			Version 1.25 [Mar. 20th,2007]
			=============================


INTRODUCTION
============
This archive provides drivers for PATA, SATA and LAN controller of NVIDIA nForce 550/570/590,
NVIDIA nForce professional 3600/3400/3050 and NVIDIA nForce4 professional.

Some older distributions do not contain NVIDIA LAN support. If a LAN driver
is needed for installation (for example, if the OS need to be installed by network),
the drivers need to be loaded during the OS installation process via the
provided driver disks. Refer to section 1 for how to create a driver diskette.

Section 2 provides instructions for installing SATA and LAN drivers onto an existing Linux 
installation.

Section 3 provides instructions on how to compile a new kernel with an updated PATA driver. 
This will increase performance for PATA devices if your kernel is not already aware of 
nForce device IDs by allowing DMA capability. 

Section 4 list the miscellaneous problem and information when running the RHEL4 on NVIDIA platform.

1) INSTALL Linux to a SATA drive
================================
Prepare a SATA driver diskette and load the driver during OS installation

1.1) Copy all the files located at ./floppy-files/32bit or ./floppy-files/64bit to a formatted
     diskette.

1.2) Disable SATA RAID in BIOS and start the Linux Installation with RHEL3 disc.

1.3) At the first installation screen, a prompt
     labeled "boot:" will appear at the bottom of the screen.

1.4) Please append parameters "linux dd"("linux dd askmethod" for network installation) 
     at the "boot:" prompt then press the Enter key.

1.5) At the "Driver disk" dialog box, press "Yes".

1.6) Next, if "Driver Disk Source " dialog box appears, select "fd0" and press "OK".
  
1.7) At the "Insert Driver disk" dialog box, insert your SATA driver diskette into 
     floppy drive and press "OK" to continue;

1.8) Continue with the installation as normal.

2) Install the SATA and LAN driver package on existing system
==============================================================
  
2.1) If you install the RHEL3 Update9 before, you just need to run below command:

      in 32bit OS: rpm -ivh nvlan-rhel3.9-0.62-1.25.athlon.rpm
                   rpm -ivh nvsata-rhel3.9-0.11-1.25.athlon.rpm
      in 64bit OS: rpm -ivh nvlan-rhel3.9-0.62-1.25.x86_64.rpm 
                   rpm -ivh nvsata-rhel3.9-0.11-1.25.x86_64.rpm 
      Please append '--replacefiles' or '--force' parameter if it reports file conflict.

note:
    1.in case you want to add the 'mptscsih' module to initrd image file so that it can be loaded
      when os boot, please run the following command after installing the rpm package:
      
      mkinitrd -f /boot/initrd-2.4.21-55.EL.img 2.4.21-55.EL
      mkinitrd -f /boot/initrd-2.4.21-55.ELsmp.img 2.4.21-55.ELsmp

    2.'initrd.img' file will be updated as part of the installation of the SATA driver rpm 
      package so that the new SATA driver will be combined into the pre-existing 'initrd.img' 
      image file, the original file will be backuped with '-nv' extension,
      for example: initrd-2.4.21-55.EL.img-nv, please specify the old initrd image file in grub 
      options if encounter the problem with the new one.

3) UPGRADE the PATA driver
==========================
Build a new kernel with the source code of drivers 

3.1) Copy ./source/amd74xx.c to /usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/ide/pci
     Copy ./source/amd74xx.h to /usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/ide/pci
     Copy ./source/sata_nv.c to /usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/scsi
     Copy ./source/forcedeth.c to /usr/src/linux-2.4/drivers/net
     Remember to backup the original files

3.2) cd /usr/src/linux-2.4

3.3) make mrproper

3.4) make oldconfig

3.5) make dep;make modules;make modules_install;make install
   
3.6) reboot system. After you boot into Linux again, the full feature nVidia PATA driver is migrated.

4) Miscellaneous
===============================
4.1) If LAN controllers fail to initialize when load the driver, please disable the APIC option in
     system BIOS, or append the 'noapic' parameter in grub line then try again.

4.2) If need compile the sata_nv.ko file from source we provided with your Makefile, please make sure
     the necessary Kernel header files ('scsi.h','scsi_typedefs.h','scsi_obsolete.h') are copied from 
     the Kernel source directory. (For RHEL3U9, you can select to install the kernel source when OS
     installation)
     For forcedeth.ko, just copy the forcedeth.c and Makefile to same directory then make it.

4.3) List the driver modules for your information:

sata_nv.ko: nVidia SATA controller driver, locate at /lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/kernel/drivers/scsi/
forcedeth.ko: nVidia LAN controller driver, locate at /lib/modules/2.4.21-50.EL/kernel/drivers/net/
