1da177e4c3
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history, even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about 3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good infrastructure for it. Let it rip!
210 lines
8.8 KiB
Text
210 lines
8.8 KiB
Text
Linux and the 3Com EtherLink III Series Ethercards (driver v1.18c and higher)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This file contains the instructions and caveats for v1.18c and higher versions
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of the 3c509 driver. You should not use the driver without reading this file.
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release 1.0
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28 February 2002
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Current maintainer (corrections to):
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David Ruggiero <jdr@farfalle.com>
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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(0) Introduction
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The following are notes and information on using the 3Com EtherLink III series
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ethercards in Linux. These cards are commonly known by the most widely-used
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card's 3Com model number, 3c509. They are all 10mb/s ISA-bus cards and shouldn't
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be (but sometimes are) confused with the similarly-numbered PCI-bus "3c905"
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(aka "Vortex" or "Boomerang") series. Kernel support for the 3c509 family is
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provided by the module 3c509.c, which has code to support all of the following
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models:
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3c509 (original ISA card)
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3c509B (later revision of the ISA card; supports full-duplex)
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3c589 (PCMCIA)
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3c589B (later revision of the 3c589; supports full-duplex)
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3c529 (MCA)
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3c579 (EISA)
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Large portions of this documentation were heavily borrowed from the guide
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written the original author of the 3c509 driver, Donald Becker. The master
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copy of that document, which contains notes on older versions of the driver,
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currently resides on Scyld web server: http://www.scyld.com/network/3c509.html.
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(1) Special Driver Features
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Overriding card settings
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The driver allows boot- or load-time overriding of the card's detected IOADDR,
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IRQ, and transceiver settings, although this capability shouldn't generally be
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needed except to enable full-duplex mode (see below). An example of the syntax
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for LILO parameters for doing this:
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ether=10,0x310,3,0x3c509,eth0
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This configures the first found 3c509 card for IRQ 10, base I/O 0x310, and
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transceiver type 3 (10base2). The flag "0x3c509" must be set to avoid conflicts
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with other card types when overriding the I/O address. When the driver is
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loaded as a module, only the IRQ and transceiver setting may be overridden.
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For example, setting two cards to 10base2/IRQ10 and AUI/IRQ11 is done by using
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the xcvr and irq module options:
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options 3c509 xcvr=3,1 irq=10,11
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(2) Full-duplex mode
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The v1.18c driver added support for the 3c509B's full-duplex capabilities.
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In order to enable and successfully use full-duplex mode, three conditions
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must be met:
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(a) You must have a Etherlink III card model whose hardware supports full-
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duplex operations. Currently, the only members of the 3c509 family that are
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positively known to support full-duplex are the 3c509B (ISA bus) and 3c589B
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(PCMCIA) cards. Cards without the "B" model designation do *not* support
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full-duplex mode; these include the original 3c509 (no "B"), the original
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3c589, the 3c529 (MCA bus), and the 3c579 (EISA bus).
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(b) You must be using your card's 10baseT transceiver (i.e., the RJ-45
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connector), not its AUI (thick-net) or 10base2 (thin-net/coax) interfaces.
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AUI and 10base2 network cabling is physically incapable of full-duplex
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operation.
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(c) Most importantly, your 3c509B must be connected to a link partner that is
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itself full-duplex capable. This is almost certainly one of two things: a full-
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duplex-capable Ethernet switch (*not* a hub), or a full-duplex-capable NIC on
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another system that's connected directly to the 3c509B via a crossover cable.
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/////Extremely important caution concerning full-duplex mode/////
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Understand that the 3c509B's hardware's full-duplex support is much more
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limited than that provide by more modern network interface cards. Although
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at the physical layer of the network it fully supports full-duplex operation,
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the card was designed before the current Ethernet auto-negotiation (N-way)
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spec was written. This means that the 3c509B family ***cannot and will not
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auto-negotiate a full-duplex connection with its link partner under any
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circumstances, no matter how it is initialized***. If the full-duplex mode
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of the 3c509B is enabled, its link partner will very likely need to be
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independently _forced_ into full-duplex mode as well; otherwise various nasty
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failures will occur - at the very least, you'll see massive numbers of packet
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collisions. This is one of very rare circumstances where disabling auto-
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negotiation and forcing the duplex mode of a network interface card or switch
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would ever be necessary or desirable.
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(3) Available Transceiver Types
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For versions of the driver v1.18c and above, the available transceiver types are:
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0 transceiver type from EEPROM config (normally 10baseT); force half-duplex
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1 AUI (thick-net / DB15 connector)
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2 (undefined)
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3 10base2 (thin-net == coax / BNC connector)
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4 10baseT (RJ-45 connector); force half-duplex mode
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8 transceiver type and duplex mode taken from card's EEPROM config settings
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12 10baseT (RJ-45 connector); force full-duplex mode
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Prior to driver version 1.18c, only transceiver codes 0-4 were supported. Note
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that the new transceiver codes 8 and 12 are the *only* ones that will enable
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full-duplex mode, no matter what the card's detected EEPROM settings might be.
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This insured that merely upgrading the driver from an earlier version would
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never automatically enable full-duplex mode in an existing installation;
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it must always be explicitly enabled via one of these code in order to be
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activated.
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(4a) Interpretation of error messages and common problems
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Error Messages
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eth0: Infinite loop in interrupt, status 2011.
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These are "mostly harmless" message indicating that the driver had too much
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work during that interrupt cycle. With a status of 0x2011 you are receiving
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packets faster than they can be removed from the card. This should be rare
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or impossible in normal operation. Possible causes of this error report are:
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- a "green" mode enabled that slows the processor down when there is no
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keyboard activitiy.
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- some other device or device driver hogging the bus or disabling interrupts.
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Check /proc/interrupts for excessive interrupt counts. The timer tick
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interrupt should always be incrementing faster than the others.
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No received packets
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If a 3c509, 3c562 or 3c589 can successfully transmit packets, but never
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receives packets (as reported by /proc/net/dev or 'ifconfig') you likely
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have an interrupt line problem. Check /proc/interrupts to verify that the
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card is actually generating interrupts. If the interrupt count is not
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increasing you likely have a physical conflict with two devices trying to
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use the same ISA IRQ line. The common conflict is with a sound card on IRQ10
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or IRQ5, and the easiest solution is to move the 3c509 to a different
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interrupt line. If the device is receiving packets but 'ping' doesn't work,
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you have a routing problem.
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Tx Carrier Errors Reported in /proc/net/dev
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If an EtherLink III appears to transmit packets, but the "Tx carrier errors"
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field in /proc/net/dev increments as quickly as the Tx packet count, you
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likely have an unterminated network or the incorrect media transceiver selected.
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3c509B card is not detected on machines with an ISA PnP BIOS.
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While the updated driver works with most PnP BIOS programs, it does not work
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with all. This can be fixed by disabling PnP support using the 3Com-supplied
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setup program.
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3c509 card is not detected on overclocked machines
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Increase the delay time in id_read_eeprom() from the current value, 500,
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to an absurdly high value, such as 5000.
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(4b) Decoding Status and Error Messages
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The bits in the main status register are:
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value description
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0x01 Interrupt latch
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0x02 Tx overrun, or Rx underrun
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0x04 Tx complete
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0x08 Tx FIFO room available
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0x10 A complete Rx packet has arrived
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0x20 A Rx packet has started to arrive
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0x40 The driver has requested an interrupt
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0x80 Statistics counter nearly full
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The bits in the transmit (Tx) status word are:
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value description
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0x02 Out-of-window collision.
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0x04 Status stack overflow (normally impossible).
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0x08 16 collisions.
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0x10 Tx underrun (not enough PCI bus bandwidth).
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0x20 Tx jabber.
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0x40 Tx interrupt requested.
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0x80 Status is valid (this should always be set).
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When a transmit error occurs the driver produces a status message such as
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eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82
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The two values typically seen here are:
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0x82
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Out of window collision. This typically occurs when some other Ethernet
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host is incorrectly set to full duplex on a half duplex network.
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0x88
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16 collisions. This typically occurs when the network is exceptionally busy
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or when another host doesn't correctly back off after a collision. If this
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error is mixed with 0x82 errors it is the result of a host incorrectly set
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to full duplex (see above).
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Both of these errors are the result of network problems that should be
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corrected. They do not represent driver malfunction.
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(5) Revision history (this file)
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28Feb02 v1.0 DR New; major portions based on Becker original 3c509 docs
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