xref: /pciutils/README (revision 40e253d7)
1This package contains the PCI Utilities, version @VERSION@.
2
3Copyright (c) 1997--2010 Martin Mares <[email protected]>
4
5All files in this package can be freely distributed and used according
6to the terms of the GNU General Public License, either version 2 or
7(at your opinion) any newer version. See http://www.gnu.org/ for details.
8
9
101. What's that?
11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12The PCI Utilities package contains a library for portable access to PCI bus
13configuration registers and several utilities based on this library.
14
15In runs on the following systems:
16
17	Linux		(via /sys/bus/pci, /proc/bus/pci or i386 ports)
18	FreeBSD		(via /dev/pci)
19	NetBSD		(via libpci)
20	OpenBSD		(via /dev/pci)
21	GNU/kFreeBSD	(via /dev/pci)
22	Solaris/i386	(direct port access)
23	Aix		(via /dev/pci and odmget)
24	GNU Hurd	(direct port access)
25	Windows		(direct port access)
26	CYGWIN		(direct port access)
27	BeOS		(via syscalls)
28	Haiku		(via /dev/misc/poke)
29
30It should be very easy to add support for other systems as well (volunteers
31wanted; if you want to try that, I'll be very glad to see the patches and
32include them in the next version).
33
34The utilities include:  (See manual pages for more details)
35
36  - lspci: displays detailed information about all PCI buses and devices.
37
38  - setpci: allows to read from and write to PCI device configuration
39    registers. For example, you can adjust the latency timers with it.
40    CAUTION: There is a couple of dangerous points and caveats, please read
41    the manual page first!
42
43  - update-pciids: download the current version of the pci.ids file.
44
45
462. Compiling and (un)installing
47~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
48Just run "make" to compile the package and then "make install" to install it.
49Please note that GNU make is needed on most platforms.
50
51If you want to change the default installation location, please override
52the PREFIX variable specified in the Makefile -- e.g., you can use
53"make PREFIX=/opt/pciutils install" to create a separate installation
54not interfering with the rest of your system.  Setting the DESTDIR variable
55will allow you to install to a different directory from the one you intend
56to eventually run it from.  This is useful for people who are packaging
57pciutils to install on other computers.
58
59There are several options which can be set in the Makefile or overridden
60when running make:
61
62  ZLIB=yes/no	Enable support for compressed pci.ids (requires zlib).
63		If it is enabled, pciutils will use pci.ids.gz in preference to
64		pci.ids, even if the pci.ids file is newer.  If the pci.ids.gz
65		file is missing, it will use pci.ids instead.  If you do not
66		specify this option, the configure script will try to guess
67		automatically based on the presence of zlib.
68
69  DNS=yes/no	Enable support for querying the central database of PCI ID's
70		using DNS.  Requires libresolv (which is available on most
71		systems as a part of the standard libraries) and tries to
72		autodetect its presence if the option is not specified.
73
74  SHARED=yes/	Build libpci as a shared library.  Requires GCC 4.0 or newer.
75  no/local	The ABI of the shared library is intended to remain backward
76		compatible for a long time (we use symbol versioning to achieve
77		that, like GNU libc does).  The value `local' includes the
78		right directory name in the binaries, so the utilities can be
79		run without installation.  This is not recommended for any
80		production builds.
81
82"make install-lib" installs the library together with its header files
83for use by other programs.
84
85When you are bored of dumping PCI registers, just use "make uninstall".
86
87
883. Getting new ID's
89~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
90The database of PCI ID's (the pci.ids file) gets out of date much faster
91than I release new versions of this package.
92
93If you are missing names for any of your devices or you just want to stay
94on the bleeding edge, download the most recent pci.ids file from
95http://pciids.sf.net/ (e.g., by running the update-ids utility).
96
97Alternatively, you can use `lspci -q' to query the central database
98for new entries via network.
99
100If your devices still appear as unknown, please send us their ID's and
101names, the detailed instructions for submissions are listed on the
102sf.net web page.
103
104
1054. Getting new versions
106~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
107New versions of pciutils are available at the following places:
108
109	ftp://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/pub/linux/pci/
110	ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/utils/pciutils/ (expect a couple of hours delay)
111	ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/hardware/ (expect a couple of days delay)
112
113There is also a public GIT tree at:
114
115	git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/pciutils/pciutils.git
116
117
1185. Using the library
119~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
120So far, there is only a little documentation for the library except for the
121general introduction in the pcilib(7) man page. If you want to use the
122library in your programs, please follow the comments in lib/pci.h and in
123the example program example.c.
124
125
1266. Feedback
127~~~~~~~~~~~
128If you have any bug reports or suggestions, send them to the author.
129
130If you have any new ID's, I'll be very glad to add them to the database, but
131please take a look at http://pciids.sf.net/ first and follow the instructions.
132
133If you want, subscribe to [email protected] (take a look at
134http://vger.kernel.org/ for instructions).
135Release notes about new versions will be send to the list and problems with
136the Linux PCI support will be probably discussed there, too.
137
138
1397. Miscellanea
140~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
141You also might want to look at the pciutils web page containing release
142notes and other news: http://mj.ucw.cz/pciutils.shtml .
143
144There also exists a utility called PowerTweak which is able to fine tune
145parameters of many chipsets much better than the Bridge Optimization code
146in Linux kernel (already removed in 2.3.x). See http://powertweak.sf.net/
147for more information.
148
149					Have fun
150							Martin
151