NetBSD/share/man/man4/ep.4

.\"	$NetBSD: ep.4,v 1.15 1997/04/10 06:36:28 jeremy Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Jonathan Stone
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.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Herb Peyerl
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.\"      This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone
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.Dd February 16, 1997
.Dt EP 4
.Os NetBSD
.Sh NAME
.Nm ep
.Nd Ethernet driver for 3Com Etherlink III (3c509, 3c579, 3c59x)
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "ep? at isa?  port ? irq ?"
.Cd "ep* at isapnp?"
.Cd "ep* at eisa? slot ?"
.Cd "ep* at pci?  dev ? function ?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm ep
device driver supports the 3Com Etherlink III family of cards on Alpha
and i386 CPUs.  Supported Etherlink III cards include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width xxxxxx
.It 3c509
ISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport variants
.It 3c509B
ISA plug-and-play  10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport variants
.It 3c515
ISA 10Mbit and 10/100 card with busmastering capability (untested)
.It 3c579
EISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and muiltport variants
.It 3c592
EISA 10Mbit card with busmastering capability
.It 3c597
EISA 10/100Mbit card with busmastering capability
.It 3c590
PCI 10Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability
.It 3c595
PCI 10/100Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability
.It 3c900
PCI 10Mbit card  in UTP and multiport variants
.It 3c905
PCI 10/100Mbit cards
.El

The
.Nm ep
driver provides full support for the 10Mbit-only cards.
Due to limitations in 
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
the
.Nm ep
driver does not provide  full support for  selecting and switching
media  on the 10/100 cards. (In all other respects, the
.Nm ep
driver supports the 10/100 cards as completely as the 10Mbit cards.)
The
.Nm ep
driver also works with 3c589 PCMCIA cards, if pre-configured to
work as ISA devices. NetBSD does not include PCMCIA support at this time.
.Sh 10MBIT MEDIA SELECTION
Various models of these cards come with a different assortment of
media. Supported 10Mbit Ethernet media include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.It AUI/DIX
Standard 15 pin connector
.It 10Base2
BNC, also known as thin-net
.It 10BaseT
UTP, also known as twisted pair
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm 
driver defaults to using the BNC port.
To choose an alternative port,
use the following media flags with
.Xr ifconfig 8
or in your /etc/ifconfig.ep? file.
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.It 10base2/BNC
Use the BNC port (default).
.It 10base5/AUI
Use the AUI port.
.It 10baseT/UTP
Use the UTP port.
.El
.Pp
If there are multiple cards in the computer, they are searched for
in the following order:
The 3c579 EISA cards are searched for first -- they will be found
in EISA slot# order.
Next, the 3c509 ISA cards are searched -- they are found in increasing
ethernet address order.
This is an example of how they will probe:
.Pp
ep0 at isa0 port 0x6000-0x600f irq 10: aui/bnc address 00:60:8c:70:e5:c5
ep1 at isa0 port 0x300-0x30f irq 3: aui/bnc/utp address 00:20:af:10:62:ab
.Pp
You may specify the port and irq numbers that the cards are expected
to be found at, but it is not necessary.
The cards are sufficiently intelligent to tell us where they
actually live on the ISA bus.
.Pp
Some models of 3c5x9 have all three connectors on them.
In the case of these cards; you must configure the transceiver type
with the 3Com supplied DOS configuration disk before the link0/link1
flags will operate correctly. (This is a bug).
.Pp
.Sh 100MBIT MEDIA SELECTION
Supported 100Mbit Ethernet media include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.It 100baseTX
100Mbit Ethernet over Cat-5 unshielded twisted pair
.It 100baseFX
100Mbit Ethernet over fibre-optic media
.It 100baseT4
100Mbit Ethernet over all four pairs of Cat-3 UTP
.It MII
Media Independent Interface connector.
.El
.Pp
.Xr ifconfig 8
does not properly support selecting 100Mbit media. To
change media, you must configure the desired media with the 3Com
supplied DOS configuration disk before booting or installing NetBSD.
Set the media you want to use as the default in the config utility.

Even then, the link0/link1 flags will have no effect on 100Mbit cards.
.Sh NOTES
The 3c509 card has no jumpers to set the address.
3Com supplies software to set the address of the card in software.
To find the card on the ISA bus, the kernel performs a complex
scan operation at IO address 0x100.
Beware!
Avoid placing other cards at that address!
.Pp
The 3Com configuration utilities can `autosense' the active media and
save it as default.  The saved default medium is the media active at
the time the configuration utility was run.  The
.Nm ep
driver does not yet re-autosense the active media at boot time;
it simply uses the media type sensed and saved when the configuration
utility was run.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
ep0: reset (status: %x)
.in +4
the driver has encountered a FIFO underrun or overrun. The driver will reset
the card and the packet will be lost. This is not fatal.
.in -4
ep0: eeprom failed to come ready
.in +4
The eeprom failed to come ready.  This probably means the card is wedged.
.in -4
ep0: 3c509 in test mode. Erase pencil mark!
.in +4
This means that someone has scribbled with pencil in the test area on the
card.  Erase the pencil mark and reboot.  (This is not a joke).
.in -4
.Sh BUGS
.Xr ifconfig 8
and the link0/link1/link2  interface flags need to be extended to handle
the four additional media types available with Fast (100Mbit)
Ethernet. 
The requirement to pre-configure combo cards should be removed.
Support for autosensing the active media should be added to the driver.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr ed 4 ,
.Xr eg 4 ,
.Xr el 4 ,
.Xr ie 4 ,
.Xr le 4
.Sh STANDARDS
are great. There's so many to choose from.