Enable ethernet networking devices

[frno7]

The PlayStation 2 expansion bay and later PlayStation 2 models with built-in hardware support the ethernet networking technology. Device driver starting points are drivers/ps2/smap.c and drivers/ps2/smaprpc.c, that are not quite working in the latest versions of the kernel. These two drivers should probably be combined into a single device driver.

In the meantime, USB network devices can be used as an alternative, but see #17. See also #11 and #18.

[sp193]

The SMAP itself is not faultless. FYI, If you ever manage to make it go fast: ps2dev/ps2sdk@dc918c3#diff-a275d0f23cde1dd3f6c9d427a99f73be
It starts to exhibit stability problems once frames start transferring above 7MB/s.

[frno7]

Oh, many thanks @sp193, that was very helpful to learn.

[Arch91]

So... How it goes at this forefront?)
Do it requires a special IOP module? If yes, is this module united for both FAT and SLIM or there have to be a two (three? - for DTL...) of them?
At the first message there is a note that

are not quite working in the latest versions of the kernel

but there was never even a chance to test it...

[frno7]

Yes, we’d need an IOP module for Ethernet. I’m hoping we could have the same network driver support all PlayStation 2 hardware variants, since that’d be easier for people, to not have to worry about which driver to use.

are not quite working in the latest versions of the kernel

but there was never even a chance to test it...

4.x and 5.x Linux kernels have a lot of generic network subsystem changes, and so some updates are needed to compile the old drivers. Plus, the Sony BIOS isn’t available in these Linux kernels any more.