e1000g(7D) e1000g(7D)
NAME
e1000g, e1000 - Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit family of network interface controllers
SYNOPSIS
/dev/e1000g
The e1000g Gigabit Ethernet driver is a multi-threaded, loadable, clonable, GLD-based STREAMS driver supporting the Data Link Provider
Interface, dlpi(7P), over Intel PRO/1000 family of Gigabit controllers. This driver supports multiple Intel Gigabit controllers
installed within the system. The e1000g driver provides basic support including chip initialization, frame transmit and receive, multi-
cast support, and error recovery and reporting.
APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
The cloning, character-special device /dev/e1000g is used to access all Intel Gigabit devices installed within the system.
The e1000g driver is managed by the dladm(1M) command line utility, which allows VLANs to be defined on top of bge instances and for
bge instances to be aggregated. See dladm(1M) for more details.
You must send an explicit DL_ATTACH_REQ message to associate the opened stream with a particular device (PPA). The PPA ID is interpreted as
an unsigned integer data type and indicates the corresponding device instance (unit) number. The driver returns an error (DL_ERROR_ACK)
if the PPA field value does not correspond to a valid device instance number.
The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK primitive in response to the DL_INFO_REQ are as follows:
o The maximum SDU (with jumbo frame) is 16128 (ETHERMTU).
o The minimum SDU is 0. The driver pads to the mandatory 60-octet minimum packet size.
o The dlsap address length is 8.
o The 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).
CONFIGURATION
The e1000g driver does not support the use of shared RAM on the board.
To configure the e1000g driver:
o Use prtconf -v | grep pci8086,[12][01][01][0-F] to obtain the instance number of the driver.
o Use ifconfig e1000ginstance plumb to plumb the controller.
o Use ifconfig e1000ginstance inet ip_address netmask + broadcast + -trailers up to bring up the interface.
o Use the ping(1M) command to contact interfaces on the network to verify that the configuration is operational.
Configuration File Options
The following e1000g.conf configuration options are supported:
AutoNegAdvertised
This is a bitmap for the speeds advertised during autonegotiation.
Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0
Setting| N/A | N/A | 1000F | N/A | 100F | 100H | 10F | 10H
The adapter only autonegotiates to a speed which is advertised. For example: AutoNegAdvertised = 4 causes an adapter to only advertise
autonegotiation at 100 Mbps, full duplex. No other link speeds is accepted or given during autonegotiation. AutoNegAdvertised=47 adver-
tises all speeds available, This is the same as using the default setting of 0.
0-255 Allowed values
0 Default
DmaFairness
When enabled, direct memory access by the driver is fair, meaning transmit and receive have equal priority. When disabled, receive
takes priority over transmit.
The allowed values are:
0 Disable.
1 Enable.This is the default.
FlowControl
Flow control utilizes ethernet XON and unicast and multicast XOFF packets to allow ethernet equipment to slow down the stream of data
between two ethernet devices.
The allowed values are:
0 Disable. Packets can get dropped in high throughput situations, leading to reduced network performance.
1 Receive only.
2 Transmit only.
3 Receive and transmit. This is the default.
4 Use adapter's EEPROM-programmed factory default setting.
ForceSpeedDuplex
Specify the speed and duplex mode for each instance.
If you set ForceSpeedDuplex=7,4, the e1000g0 is set to autonegotiate and e1000g1 is set to 100 Mbps, full duplex.
Fiber optic ethernet adapters ignore this setting.
The allowed values are:
1 10 Megabits per second, Half Duplex.
2 10 Megabits per second, Full Duplex.
3 100 Megabits per second, Half Duplex.
4 100 Megabits per second, Full Duplex.
7 Autonegotiate speed and duplex.This is the default.
MaxFrags
Maximum number of STREAMS memory buffer fragmentation of incoming or outgoing packets. This value can effect the performance and memory
requirements of the driver.
2-8 Allowed values
8 Default
MaxFrameSize
Upper limit on the maximum MTU size the driver allows. All Intel gigabit adapters, except the 82542-based Intel PRO/1000 adapter, allow
the configuration of jumbo frames.
The maximum MTU accepted by the MAC is 16128. Use ifconfig(1M) To configure jumbo frames. ifconfig with the adapter instance and the
mtu argument (ifconfig e1000g0 mtu 16128) configures adapter e1000g0 for the maximum allowable jumbo frame size.
The allowed values are:
0 Standard ethernet frames with a MTU equal to 1500. This is the default.
1 Jumbo frames with a maximum MTU of 4096.
2 Jumbo frames with a maximum MTU of 8192.
3 Jumbo frames with a maximum MTU of 16384.
MaxFreeListBuf
Maximum number or pre-allocated buffers the driver can use for received data. Pre-allocating buffers can help with receive performance.
It also increases the memory requirements of the driver.
0-4096 Allowed values
256 Default
MaxNumReceivePackets
Maximum number of receive packets that the driver can handle for each interrupt.
CPU utilization can be lowered through more effecient interrupt management. If this value is increased, the time needed by the CPU to
process the individual interrupts can increase and nullify any performance gains realized by handling less interrupts.
16-1024 Allowed values
32 Default
MWIEnable
Architecture servers based on the Intel 450NX chipset are known to have problems with Memory Write and Invalidate. Disable this fea-
ture only for this chipset.
The allowed values are:
0 Disable. This is the default.
1 Enable.
NumRxDescriptors
Number of receive descriptors available to the driver. More receive descriptors increase receive performance at the penalty of
decreased available memory.
If you set this value to 256 on Solaris 7 when multiple Intel Gigabit NICs are configured, it causes memory allocation problems. It is
recommended that you set this value lower when using multiple Intel Gigabit adapters on Solaris 7.
80-256 Allowed values
256 Default
NumTxDescriptors
Number of transmit descriptors available to the driver. More transmit descriptors increase transmit performance at the penalty of
decreased available memory.
If you set this value to 256 on Solaris 7 when multiple Intel Gigabit NICs are configured, it causes memory allocation problems. It is
recommended that you set this value lower when using multiple Intel Gigabit adapters on Solaris 7.
80-256 Allowed values
256 Default
ProfileJumboTraffic
If you need to collect statistics on jumbo frame usage, enabling this parameter causes the e1000g driver to keep a count of the number
of jumbo frames transmitted and received. Use the kstat command to view jumbo frame utilization statistics. See kstat(1M)
The allowed values are:
0 Disable. This is the default.
1 Enable.
TbiCompatibilityEnable=1;
You must enable this feature on Intel 82543CG-based copper adapters to operate correctly with TBI mode ethernet hardware.
The allowed values are:
0 Disable.
1 Enable. This is the default.
TxInterruptDelay
Amount of time (in 1.024 micro second units) between the time transmit data is queued in a transmit descriptor and the transmit inter-
rupt is sent.
0-65535 Allowed values. A value of 0 completely disables any transmit interrupt delay. Some delay is benefical in reducing CPU uti-
lization by the driver.
300 Default.
dev/e1000g Character special device.
/kernel/drv/e1000g.conf 32-bit driver configuration file.
/kernel/drv/sparcv9/e1000g SPARC e1000g driver binary.
/kernel/drv/amd64/e1000g 64-bit x86 e1000g driver binary.
/kernel/drv/e1000g 32-bit x86 e1000g driver binary.
sys/stropts.h stropts network header file.
sys/ethernet.h Ethernet network header file.
sys/dlpi.h dlpi network header file.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Architecture |SPARC, X86 |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
dladm(1M), ifconfig(1M), kstat(1M), ping(1M), attributes(5), dlpi(7P)
Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Adapter Driver Installation Notes for Solaris
Writing Device Drivers
STREAMS Programming Guide
Network Interfaces Guide
23 Aug 2005 e1000g(7D)