diff -r 8d7bd5082ed5 -r 1053a25af575 README --- a/README Wed Apr 12 12:04:27 2006 +0000 +++ b/README Tue Apr 18 13:41:17 2006 +0000 @@ -23,9 +23,25 @@ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Installation +Requirements ============ +1) Software requirements + +Configured sources for the Linux 2.6 kernel are required to build the EtherCAT +master. + +2) Hardware requirements + +The EtherCAT master needs a RTL8139 (or compatible) network interface card to +run. Drivers for other widespread devices (i. e. Intel PRO/100) will be +implemented soon. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Building and installing +======================= + 1) Create a copy of the configuration template: $ cp ethercat.conf.tmpl ethercat.conf @@ -45,6 +61,20 @@ - /etc/init.d/ethercat (startup script) - /usr/sbin/rcethercat (link to startup script) - The modules will be placed in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net. + The modules will be placed in /lib/modules//kernel/drivers/net + (where is the Linux kernel version configured in ethercat.conf). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Realtime & Tuning +================= + +Realtime patches for the Linux kernel are supported, but not required. The +realtime processing has to be done by the calling module (see API +documentation). The EtherCAT master code itself is (except for the free-run +mode) completely passive. + +To avoid frame timeouts, deactivating DMA access for hard drives is +recommented (hdparm -d0 ). + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------