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$Id$

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General Information
===================

This is an Open-Source EtherCAT master implementation for Linux 2.6.

For more information, see

http://etherlab.org

or contact

Florian Pose <fp@igh-essen.com>
Ingenieurgemeinschaft IgH
Heinz-Baecker-Str. 34
D-45356 Essen
http://igh-essen.com

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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.

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Building and installing
=======================

1) Create a copy of the configuration template:

  $ cp ethercat.conf.tmpl ethercat.conf

2) Adjust the Variables in the configuration file to your needs.

3) Build the EtherCAT master and network device driver modules:

  $ make

4) Install the the EtherCAT master (as root):

  # make install

  This will create the following files and directories:
    - /etc/sysconfig/ethercat (configuration file)
    - /etc/init.d/ethercat    (startup script)
    - /usr/sbin/rcethercat    (link to startup script)

  The modules will be placed in /lib/modules/<KERNEL>/kernel/drivers/net
  (where <KERNEL> is the Linux kernel version configured in ethercat.conf).

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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 <DEV>).

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