SuSE Linux: Version 8.2
insmod ieee1394 insmod ohci1394 insmod raw1394as well as the eth module:
insmod eth1394After that, Ethernet is available via a Firewire interface that automatically receives the next higher device number. You can use "ifconfig" to display all the Ethernet interfaces configured so far:
ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:48:54:13:79:44 inet addr:10.2.107.134 Bcast:10.2.107.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:1434660 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:499127 errors:10 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:10 collisions:110386 txqueuelen:100 RX bytes:1463923958 (1396.1 Mb) TX bytes:44535480 (42.4 Mb) Interrupt:11 Base address:0xa800The following command:
ifconfig eth1 192.168.11.11 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.11.255configures the interface with the values given above. The interface is then ready for use.
Restrictions:
Ethernet connections via FireWire only work so far among Linux PCs. In spite of being available for Windows, too, a different protocol is used, thus making it impossible to connect a Windows 2000 or XP machine to a Linux PC this way.
The reason: The Organization for Standardization provides for three (in fact almost four) transmission possibilities for IP via FireWire:
1. Direct IP via FireWire
2. Ethernet via FireWire without Ethernet encapsulation
3. Ethernet via FireWire with Ethernet encapsulation
4. Token-Ring via FireWire with Token-Ring encapsulation
The first approach only allows IP traffic via FireWire, excluding IPX, SNA, etc.
Approaches 2 and 3 allow everything Ethernet can do and differ from each other in the way data are transmitted through the FireWire bus. According to the second approach, data are wrapped in different FireWire packets depending on the Ethernet packet. In the third approach, data are first wrapped in an ordinary Ethernet packet and then transmitted via FireWire. For this purpose, a tunnel through FireWire is built for the Ethernet packets.
As far as we know, approach number 4 has not been implemented yet.
Windows 2000 and XP use approach number 2 to transmit Ethernet packets, whereas Linux uses approach number 3. The alternative driver "ip1394" (not included in SuSE Linux) uses approach number 1. Thus, it is currently not possible to connect a Windows 2000/XP PC with a Linux PC via FireWire.