ep(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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EP(4)                     NetBSD Programmer's Manual                     EP(4)


NAME

     ep - device driver for 3Com Etherlink III family


SYNOPSIS

     ep0 at isa? port ? irq ?
     ep* at isapnp?
     ep* at eisa? slot ?
     ep* at pci? dev ? function ?
     ep* at pcmcia? function ?


DESCRIPTION

     The ep device driver supports the 3Com Etherlink III family of Ethernet
     cards.  Supported Etherlink III cards include:

           3c509   ISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport variants

           3c509B  ISA Plug-and-Play 10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport vari-
                   ants

           3c579   EISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and muiltport variants

           3c592   EISA 10Mbit card with busmastering capability

           3c597   EISA 10/100Mbit card with busmastering capability

           3c590   PCI 10Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability

           3c595   PCI 10/100Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability

           3c900   PCI 10Mbit card in 10baseT and multiport variants

           3c905   PCI 10/100Mbit cards

           3c562   PCMCIA modem/10Mbit Ethernet combo card with dongle

           3c589   PCMCIA 10Mbit card with dongle

     The 3c515 is an ISA 10/100 card with busmastering capability.  The
     chipset is similar to that of the 3c905, with some changes to make it
     work with the more limited ISA bus address space.  This card is not cur-
     rently supported.


MEDIA SELECTION

     Various models of these cards come with a different assortment of media.
     Supported 10Mbit Ethernet media include:

           10base5     AUI, standard 15 pin connector

           10base2     BNC, also known as thin-net

           10baseT     UTP, also known as twisted pair

     The 100Mbit cards each support exactly one of the following 100Mbit stan-
     dards:

           100baseTX   100Mbit over cat-5 UTP

           100baseT4   100Mbit over all four pairs of cat-3 UTP

           100baseFX   100Mbit over fiber

           MII         MII connection to external 100Mbit PHY


     Note that the 100baseTX and 100baseT4 cards can also run as 10baseT.

     The ep driver defaults to using the port selected via the vendor-supplied
     configuration utility.  To choose an alternate port, use the following
     media flags with ifconfig(8) or in your /etc/ifconfig.ep? file.

           10base2     Use the 10base-2 BNC port.

           AUI         Use the AUI port.

           10baseT     Use the UTP port in 10base-T mode.

           100baseTX   Use the builtin 100base-Tx PHY on the UTP port.

           100baseFX   Use the builtin 100mbit fibre-optic PHY.

           100baseT4   Use the builtin 100base-T4 PHY on the UTP port.

     The ep driver no longer supports changing media via the link0/link1/link2
     flags.

     You may specify the port and irq numbers that ISA cards are expected to
     be found at, but it is not necessary.  The cards are sufficiently intel-
     ligent to tell us where they actually live on the ISA bus.


NOTES

     Etherlink III cards have 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!

     The 3Com configuration utilities can `autosense' the active media and
     save it as default.  The saved default medium is the medium that was  ac-
     tive atthe time the configuration utility was run.  The ep driver does
     not yet re-autosense the active media at boot time.  If the EEPROM au-
     tosense bit is set, the driver simply uses the media type sensed and
     saved when the configuration utility was run.


DIAGNOSTICS

     ep0: reset (status: %x)  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.

     ep0: eeprom failed to come ready  The eeprom failed to come ready.  This
     probably means the card is wedged.

     ep0: 3c509 in test mode. Erase pencil mark!  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).


BUGS

     Support for autosensing the active media should be added to the driver.


SEE ALSO

     ifconfig(8),  intro(4),  isa(4),  isapnp(4),  eisa(4),  pci(4),  pcmcia(4)
     

NetBSD                         October 20, 1997                              2