How to use Ethernet over FireWire (IPv4 over FireWire)

The Ubuntu kernel package already contains the necessary driver modules for IPv4 networking over FireWire. You need the ohci1394 driver for the FireWire controller, and the eth1394 driver to run the IPv4 protocol over FireWire. Although the driver is called eth1394, it does not actually implement Ethernet over FireWire but just IPv4 over FireWire. However, the networking interface is managed the same way as IPv4 networking over Ethernet.

If you compile your own kernel instead of using Ubuntu's default kernel, include the following (statically linked into the kernel, or built as loadable modules):

• ieee1394
• ohci1394
• eth1394

Restart your computer, or run sudo modprobe ohci1394.

Regardless whether default or custom kernel, run

sudo modprobe eth1394

to activate the protocol driver. Your FireWire networking connection should be listed under System-> Administration-> Networking, or you can use ip addr to list your network devices.

You might need ip link set dev eth1 up (or eth2 firewire0, or another number), before you see the interface with ip.

Using a firewire cable and the above commands, you can have a network between two PCs having both a FireWire port.

Automatic loading of eth1394

In the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist there are the lines

# causes no end of confusion by creating unexpected network interfaces
blacklist eth1394

If you want that the eth1394 kernel module is automatically loaded when another IP-over-1394 capable computer (Windows XP or Mac OS X, or a Linux computer on which eth1394 is already loaded) is plugged in into the Linux computer's FireWire port, simply add a '#' to comment out the second line.

Fixme: How to configure eth1394 to be loaded already at each boot?

External Links

• Networking over FireWire - Wikipedia page on IEEE 1394

• Linux FireWire wiki

• Ethernet over USB - Wikipedia page on connecting Ethernet devices via USB, and USB as an Ethernet network.