elxl(7D)							      Devices								  elxl(7D)

NAME

       elxl - 3Com Ethernet device driver

SYNOPSIS

       /kernel/drv/elxl

DESCRIPTION

       The elxl driver currently supports the following network cards: EtherLink XL (3C900-TPO, 3C900-COMBO, 3C900B-TPO, 3C900B-COMBO, and 3C900B-
       TPC), EtherLink XL 10/100 (3C905-TX Fast, 3C905-T4 Fast, 3C905B-TX Fast, 3C905B-T4 Fast, and 3C905C-TX-M Fast), and EtherLink Server 10/100
       (3C980-TX Fast and 3C980C-TXM).

       The  elxl Ethernet driver is a multi-threaded, loadable, clonable, STREAMS hardware driver supporting the connectionless Data Link Provider
       Interface, dlpi(7P).  Multiple EtherLink XL controllers installed within the system are supported by the driver. The elxl  driver  provides
       basic  support  for  the  EtherLink hardware. Functions include chip initialization, frame transmit and	receive, multicast and promiscuous
       mode support, and error recovery and reporting.

       The cloning, character-special device /dev/elxl is used to access all EtherLink devices installed within the system.

       The elxl driver is dependent on /kernel/misc/gld, a loadable kernel module that provides the elxl driver with the DLPI  and  STREAMS  func-
       tionality required of a LAN driver. See gld(7D) for more details on the primatives supported by the driver.

       The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK primitive in response to the DL_INFO_REQ from the user are as follows:

	 o  Maximum SDU is 1500 (ETHERMTU).

	 o  Minimum SDU is 0. The driver will pad to the mandatory 60-octet minimum packet size.

	 o  The dlsap address length is 8.

	 o  MAC type is DL_ETHER.

	 o  The  sap length value is -2, meaning the physical address component is followed immediately by a 2-byte sap component within the DLSAP
	    address.

	 o  The broadcast address value is Ethernet/IEEE broadcast address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF).

PRECONFIGURATION

   Supported Settings
	 o  Media Type: Auto Select

   Known Problems and Limitations
	 o  3C905B cards in a Compaq ProLiant 6500 can fail to generate interrupts. There is  no  known  workaround  for  this	problem.  However,
	    because  some  slots  appear to be more prone to the problem than others, try correcting the problem by moving the card to another PCI
	    slot. If that fails, try rebooting the machine a number of times to free the card from the wedged state.

	 o  Early versions of the 3Com 3C905C-TX-M adapter firmware do not support PXE network boot on Solaris systems. If you are using a version
	    earlier  than  4.11,  upgrade  the firmware. The PXE version is indicated by the Managed Boot Agent version number. This number is not
	    normally displayed during boot, but is shown on the PXE configuration screen.

CONFIGURATION

       The /kernel/drv/elxl.conf file supports the following tunable properties that you can set in the  elxl.conf file:

       tx_start_thresh

	   Minimum number of bytes in transmit FIFO (if lower			       then the packet size), before NIC starts the  frame  trans-
	   fer.  The higher the value, the less chance for a transmission underrun error that triggers a transmission retry. Default value is 250,
	   maximum value is 1514.

       recv-descriptors

	   The number of frames the device may receive from the network without system attention before the device  begins  dropping  the  frames.
	   Valid range is 1 to 256. Default is 24.

       xmit-descriptors

	   The	number	of  outgoing  frames that the system can queue			       on the driver queue before blocking a send request.
	   Valid range is 1 to 512. Default is 128.

       min-recv-data-buffers

	   Minimal number of allocated receive data buffers.			     Must be equal or  greater	than  effective  number  of  recv-
	   descriptors. Default (max value) is 128.

       max-recv-data-buffers

	   Maximum number of allocated receive data buffers.			     Must be equal or greater then min-recv-data-buffers number.

       inter-frame-space

	   Amount  of time in addition to the standard inter-frame			   time used by IEEE 802.3 deference rule. Expressed in 32
	   multiples of bit time. Used only in half-duplex context. This small IFS is to make the defer-after-transmit time slightly  longer  than
	   the	defer-after-receive  time.  This greatly reduces the high collision rate seen with heavy TCP traffic (almost exactly one collision
	   per ACK), giving slightly improved overall throughput in half-duplex mode. Default IFS is 32. This property is ignored  in  full-duplex
	   mode.

       full-duplex

	   When set, it forces full-duplex mode for NIC capable of working in full-duplex mode. If this property is set, the auto-negotiation fea-
	   ture (if supported) of the network controller is disabled. For full duplex operation use  full-duplex=1.  For  half	duplex	use  full-
	   duplex=0. Half-duplex operation provides better results on older 10-Mbit networks.

       speed

	   Link  speed	in Mbps. Valid values are 10 and 100. If this property is set, the auto-negotiation feature of the network controller  (if
	   supported) is disabled.

FILES

       /dev/elxl		       Special character device

       /kernel/drv/elxl.conf	       Configuration file for elxl driver

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       |Architecture		     |x86			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       attributes(5), gld(7D), streamio(7I), dlpi(7P).

SunOS 5.10							  16 October 2003							  elxl(7D)