XL(4)

NAME
xl - 3Com EtherLink XL and Fast EtherLink XL 10/100 Ethernet device

SYNOPSIS
xl* at pci?
xl* at cardbus?
amphy* at mii?
bmtphy* at mii?
exphy* at mii?
nsphy* at mii?
tqphy* at mii?

DESCRIPTION
The xl device driver supports the 3Com EtherLink XL and Fast EtherLink XL family of Ethernet cards, and embedded controllers based on the 3Com “boomerang” and “cyclone” bus master EtherLink XL chips. This includes, among others, the following models:

3C555
    EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C556
    EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C556B
    EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C575
    10/100 LAN CardBus PC Card
3C656
    10/100 LAN+Modem CardBus PC Card
3C900
    EtherLink XL PCI
3C900B
    EtherLink XL PCI
3C905
    Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C905B
    Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C905C
    Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C980
    Fast EtherLink Server NIC
3CSOHO
    OfficeConnect Fast Ethernet NIC
9201
    NVIDIA nForce2 integrated 3Com 9201 (nForce2-ST, nForce2-GT)
920BEMB
    3c920B-EMB-WNM Integrated Fast Ethernet.

It also supports embedded 3C905-TX and 3C905B-TX Ethernet hardware found in certain Dell OptiPlex and Dell Precision desktop machines, as well as some Dell Latitude laptop docking stations.

Category 3, 4 or 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable should be used for RJ-45 (10baseT), thick Ethernet coaxial (RG59 B/U, 50 ohm) for AUI/DIX, and thin Ethernet coaxial (RG58 A/U or C/U, 50 ohm +/- 4) for BNC (10base2). Some 3Com NICs also support MII connectors (switchable 10/100Mbps UTP). The 3C905B-FX and other similar cards are capable of 100Mbps over fiber.

Hardware receive IP/TCP/UDP checksum offload for IPv4 is supported on the 3C905B.

The xl driver additionally supports Wake on LAN (WoL). See arp(8) and ifconfig(8) for more details.

The following media types and options (as given to ifconfig(8)) are supported:

media autoselect
    Enable autoselection of media type and options. Note that this media type is only available with adapters that have external PHYs or built-in autonegotiation logic. For 3C900 and 3C900B adapters, the driver will choose the mode specified in the EEPROM. This can be changed by adding media options to the appropriate hostname.if(5) file.

media 100baseFX mediaopt full-duplex
    For those cards that support it, force full-duplex 100Mbps operation over fiber.

media 100baseFX mediaopt half-duplex
    For those cards that support it, force half-duplex 100Mbps operation over fiber.

media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
    Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation and force full-duplex mode.

media 100baseTX mediaopt half-duplex
    Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation and force half-duplex mode.

media 10baseT mediaopt full-duplex
    Set 10baseT (UTP) operation and force full-duplex mode.

media 10baseT mediaopt half-duplex
    Set 10baseT (UTP) operation and force half-duplex mode.

media 10base5
    Set 10base5 (thick-net) operation (half-duplex only).

media 10base2
    Set 10base2 (thin-net) operation (half-duplex only).

For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). To view a list of media types and options supported by this card try ifconfig <device> media. For example, ifconfig xl0 media.

DIAGNOSTICS

xl%d: couldn't map memory A fatal initialization error has occurred.

xl%d: couldn't map interrupt A fatal initialization error has occurred.

xl%d: device timeout The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable).

xl%d: no memory for rx list The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the receiver ring.

xl%d: no memory for tx list The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the transmitter ring when allocating a pad buffer or collapsing an mbuf chain into a cluster.

xl%d: command never completed! Some commands issued to the 3C90x ASIC take time to complete: the driver is supposed to wait until the “command in progress” bit in the status register clears before continuing. In some instances, this bit may not clear. To avoid getting caught in an infinite wait loop, the driver only polls the bit a finite number of times before giving up, at which point it issues this message. This message may be printed during driver initialization on slower machines. If this message appears but the driver continues to function normally, the message can probably be ignored.

xl%d: chip is in D3 power state -- setting to D0 This message applies only to 3C905B adapters, which support power management. Some operating systems place the 3C905B in low power mode when shutting down, and some PCI BIOSes fail to bring the chip out of this state before configuring it. The 3C905B loses all of its PCI configuration in the D3 state, so if the BIOS does not set it back to full power mode in time, it won't be able to configure it correctly. The driver tries to detect this condition and bring the adapter back to the D0 (full power) state, but this may not be enough to return the driver to a fully operational condition. If this message appears at boot time and the driver fails to attach the device as a network interface, a second warm boot will have to be performed to have the device properly configured.

Note that this condition only occurs when warm booting from another operating system. If the system is powered down prior to booting OpenBSD, the card should be configured correctly.

xl%d: WARNING: no media options bits set in the media options register! This warning may appear when using the driver on some Dell Latitude docking stations with built-in 3C905-TX adapters. For whatever the reason, the “MII available” bit in the media options register on this particular equipment is not set, even though it should be (the 3C905-TX always uses an external PHY transceiver). The driver will attempt to guess the proper media type based on the PCI device ID word. The driver makes a lot of noise about this condition because the author considers it a manufacturing defect.

SEE ALSO
amphy(4), arp(4), bmtphy(4), cardbus(4), exphy(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), nsphy(4), tqphy(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
The xl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0. OpenBSD support was added in OpenBSD 2.4.

AUTHORS
The xl driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.