linux-drivers/
drivers/net/ethernet/dlink

D-Link DL2000, Sundance Alta, and IC Plus IP1000A PCI Ethernet NICs

A group of late-1990s and early-2000s PCI Ethernet cards, including the D-Link DGE-550T gigabit adapter (DL2000/IP1000A chipset) and the DFE-550TX/580TX 10/100 adapters (Sundance Alta/IC Plus IP100A chipsets). They were common as cheap add-in NICs for desktops and small servers before gigabit Ethernet was standard on motherboards.

keep-annotate conf=0.85 last_sold=2012 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=net category=networking-ethernet
85%

recommendation

Worth keeping but documenting its niche, because although the cards themselves were discontinued by D-Link in 2012 and aren't sold new today, the code is still demonstrably in use. The dl2k portion saw real bug-fix activity as recently as January 2026, and when maintainers tried to delete the Sundance driver in October 2024, an actual user surfaced and the removal was reverted in September 2025. That makes deletion premature, but the directory should be flagged as legacy, low-deployment hardware so future cleanup efforts know what they're looking at.

repository signals

5 files
4,316 source lines
28 commits, 5y
+2,172 / −2,143 lines added / removed, 5y
12 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 28 total · active in 19/61 months
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sources

  1. lore.kernel.org

    dl2k saw substantive upstream maintenance in January 2026, indicating the directory is not dormant.

  2. lore.kernel.org

    There was an upstream attempt in October 2024 to remove the Sundance driver because it looked old and apparently unused.

  3. lore.kernel.org

    That removal was reverted in September 2025 after a user report, showing at least some real-world deployment remains.

  4. support.dlink.com

    D-Link marks the DGE-550T as discontinued and says technical support ended on 09/01/2012, supporting that the hardware is long out of new-sale mainstream circulation.

  5. cateee.net

    LKDDb identifies DL2K as support for DL2000/TC902x/IP1000A-based gigabit PCI cards including the D-Link DGE-550T.

  6. cateee.net

    LKDDb identifies SUNDANCE as support for Sundance Alta / IC Plus IP100A-class 10/100 PCI cards such as D-Link DFE-550TX/FX and DFE-580TX.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Obtained local hardware IDs/chip names from shell inspection of Kconfig and PCI ID tables in the directory; lore evidence came from `lore_file_timeline` and `lore_message`; product-discontinuation and LKDDb pages came from `web.search_query`. The hardware family is clearly legacy PCI NIC silicon from the 10/100 and early gigabit era, not plausibly sold new in 2025. But upstream activity is still real: dl2k received bug fixes in 2026, and sundance survived a removal attempt after a reported user surfaced in 2025. That combination argues against deprecate/remove today; keep it, but annotate as legacy/low-deployment hardware.