Adding PCI Express Ethernet Card

The utility is to set the speed (1x or 4x) in the slot it uses. Then go to Network control panel prefs and add the ports so you can use and configure them.

Unknown means the vendor/chipset and is not likely reason for alarm or that there is a problem. It should show in System Profile under PCI Cards, and under Network.

Is this PCI card actually compatible with a Mac Pro with EFI rather than Open Firmware (in the PowerMacs)?

Hi sumomo;

I just check the ethernet cards available from Apple and they say that they require Intel Mac OS X Server. I wonder if you have to have the Server to get the drivers required?

Why do you need additional ethernet port over the two provided on the MacPro?

Allan

First thing first ,

Mac os X can run multiple network cards at the same time , if you are using for example 2 internet connections you can run them both configuring the cards without using mac os x server .. on the other hand if you want to run a DHCP network on your mac you can use mac os X server to run that DCHP service on your machine and enabling the use of your mac as a routing service machine.

Drivers part of you question , mac os x and mac os x server share the same set of drivers what will work on mac os X client will work on mac os X server your card may bear some specific part of code to fully enable your card's capacities but there are no special differences in between the two.

Side note if you are looking for a great series of ethernet cards you can look here : They are pci-e and work great.

http://www.small-tree.com/

It all depends on the intended use of your second card ,

If it is to provide service to a home network over DHCP then mac os x server is highly recommanded though i suspect there are some utlities out there enabling the feat and that would run on your machine. Mac os X server is a BIG pacakage and will surely get you there but it is like swatting a fly with a boeing 747 ... it will sure kill the fly mind you and without you thinking twice about it either. On the other hand keep in mind Mac os X server's set of services works great on fixed IP networks , if you reside on one of those and have a fixed ip for your machine you can use that machine to host your online stuff host your websites seamlessly run your own blog server using the weblog services serve AFP FTP SMB DNS MAIL Open Directory NFS , host the user partition of your other home machines , setup your security using its built in Firewall and even host the Apple software update service for your other macs.

If this is just to setup two different interfaces that will work independantly then you can press on with mac os X client.

Apple will surely recommend you upgrade to mac os X server keeping in mind you will want at some point expand your capabilities which is a good thing in itself . Mac os X server sports a gateway Setup assistant making the setup very easy.

Another possibility altogether is looking up the following offering :

http://sustworks.com/site/prodipnrxoverview.html

or

http://www.menandmice.com

which provide utilities for setting up both DNS and DHCP services.

If you are a fan of web browser interfaces there is a company named tenon providing a set of utilities derived from X11 named Itools that will run on mac os X and or mac os X server .. the address would be :

http://www.tenon.com

My personnal recommandation :

Full server deployment (the full treatment) : DNS service by men and mice and mac os X server ...

Great stuff all already there : Mac os X server .

Good stuff that runs seamlessly : Tenon Itools.

Small utility that provides just the services you need : Sustainable softwork's ipnetrouterX and their full line of products ...

I hope this answered your questions and helped .

Best regards.

MacPro 3.00 16GB Ram 4*500GB X1900XT Mac OS X (10.4.8) Mac os X server 10.4.8 Universal.

sorry i have been away from the forums a bit these days , i would advise you to go for a fully supported ethernet card since the 2 built in cards are busy .. smalltree makes great multiple port cards for 1Gbit traffic... Pcie and 6 ports on a Pcie Card shall meet all your needs .. the cards are a no brainer to install and have been automaticly detected on my machines ... no extra setup at all .. just slide the card in reboot and i was up and running.

For DNS Setup , men and mice seems your best bet all around since i guess you might be editing the records time and again and you need a stable solution that runs over time ... i have not tested the DCHP service from men and mice , but i have positive comments on both products.

Concerning the invisible ethernet card i have some suspicions i would like to clear , can you precise the card's manufacturer , if this is CometLabs they are notorious for having problems and i dont think Apple supports these anymore. On the other hand i would like you to do a small manipulation ... go to system preferences network port configurations delete the unknown ethernet card entry reboot the machine and check back as soon as server reboot the detected hardware ; some cards some glitches and if you had previously installed a 3rd party card it may cause problems. I met the problem a long time ago in 10.4.7 and doing this simply solved the issue.

The card may be DOA (dead on arrival) This is a very rare case but it may just have happenned i would go to the closest Apple Store with the cards and have them tested there ... please make sure you have the copy of the receipt of the card to bring along with you , if they have a macpro on hand they will be able to test it immediately.... this might be a rare occurance. I wish i could further help but this looks like a hardware failure on the card , not from the machine nor the system per se ...

Hoping this helps... please see to run hardware check as well to see if the ethernet card is detected as active the Apple closest store will have the software on hand as well (it is a requirement) .

I am having the same problem Sumomo is. I have a Mac Pro running OS 10.4.5 that is to be the head node for a Beowulf cluster. The 2 built-in ports are used for the processing backplane, so we added an Apple dual-port gigabit PCI-Express card for connections with the rest of the network.

When I first plugged the card in, I got the hardware profiler message telling me that a PCI Express card (labelled "Unknown ethernet Controller" was in a 1x slot rather than an 8x slot and would be running at decreased performance levels. OK. I then moved the card to the 8x slot and rebooted.

Upon reboot, I got no errors or warnings of decreased PCI-Express performance. But when I tried to configure the port in the Network panel, the ports don't even show up. I can see the two built-in ports (both showing a pleasant green, happy color), but those are the only connections that show up.

Thinking that perhaps I did not have up-to-date drivers, I downloaded them from this site, but upon trying to install them I was informed that no installation could take place because the drivers were already present.

I even tried removing the key extensions and key caches and rebooting (forcing the machine to "look again" and generate a new hardware list), but still no joy.

This is an Apple card in an Apple machine. Why is this not a plug-and-play operation?

You must have a typo. The Mac Pro requires 10.4.7+ and likely came with 10.4.8 if it was in the last couple months.

You need to reconfigure and change the PCI slot's number of lanes is all. You can run it on your own. It is located in

/System/Library/Core..../

I can't see where, I'm on Vista right now... but there is a utility, and you can option + drag and make a copy if you want to your /Utilities folder.

There are options to set/leave your video card as 16x and then make your ethernet card 4x I assume will be fine, or 8x.

Yes, you are correct about my fat fingers. The OS is 10.4.7

I found the Utility you were referring to that allows you to configure your PCI lanes. That is exactly the app that automagically came up when I first installed the card, and which led me to switch the slot in which the card was installed. When I run this app, the lane configuration I currently have shows both PCI cards (i.e. my video card and the new Ethernet card) as installed and running green. That is, both have enough lanes to operate at peak performance. Again, the Apple Ethernet card shows up as "Unknown Ethernet Controller Card."

But the ports are not available in the Network section of the System Preferences app. I can see the two built-in connections (en0 and en1), but nothing else.

Further, if I go to the System Profiler app and look under Hardware -> PCI, only my video card shows up. Which leads me to ask the obvious question - how can the PCI config utility see the card, yet the System Profiler cannot?

Any ideas?