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XL(4)			    Kernel Interfaces Manual			 XL(4)

NAME
       xl -- 3Com Etherlink XL and Fast	Etherlink XL Ethernet device driver

SYNOPSIS
       To  compile  this  driver into the kernel, place	the following lines in
       your kernel configuration file:

	     device miibus
	     device xl

       Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at	boot time,  place  the
       following line in loader.conf(5):

	     if_xl_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
       The  xl	driver provides	support	for PCI	Ethernet adapters and embedded
       controllers based on the	3Com "boomerang," "cyclone,"  "hurricane"  and
       "tornado" bus-master Etherlink XL chips.

       The  Etherlink  XL  chips support built-in 10baseT, 10base2 and 10base5
       transceivers as well as an MII bus for externally attached  PHY	trans-
       ceivers.	  The  3c905 series typically uses a National Semiconductor NS
       83840A 10/100 PHY for 10/100 Mbps support in full or half-duplex.   The
       3c905B adapters have built-in autonegotiation logic mapped onto the MII
       for  compatibility  with	 previous drivers.  Fast Etherlink XL adapters
       such as the 3c905-TX and	3c905B-TX are capable of 10  or	 100Mbps  data
       rates  in either	full or	half duplex and	can be manually	configured for
       any supported mode or automatically negotiate the highest possible mode
       with a link partner.

       The xl driver supports the following media types:

       autoselect	     Enable autoselection of the media	type  and  op-
			     tions.   Note  that this option is	only available
			     with the 3c905 and	3c905B adapters	with  external
			     PHYs  or  built-in	 autonegotiation  logic.   For
			     3c900 adapters, the driver	will choose  the  mode
			     specified	in  the	 EEPROM.   The user can	change
			     this by adding media options to the  /etc/rc.conf
			     file.

       10baseT/UTP	     Set  10Mbps  operation.   The mediaopt option can
			     also be used  to  select  either  full-duplex  or
			     half-duplex modes.

       100baseTX	     Set   100Mbps  (Fast  Ethernet)  operation.   The
			     mediaopt option can also be used to select	either
			     full-duplex or half-duplex	modes.

       10base5/AUI	     Enable AUI	transceiver (available only  on	 COMBO
			     cards).

       10base2/BNC	     Enable  BNC  coax	transceiver (available only on
			     COMBO cards).

       The xl driver supports the following media options:

       full-duplex	     Force full	duplex operation.

       half-duplex	     Force half	duplex operation.

       Note that the 100baseTX media type is only available  if	 supported  by
       the  adapter.   For  more  information  on configuring this device, see
       ifconfig(8).

HARDWARE
       The xl driver supports the following hardware:

          3Com	3c900-TPO
          3Com	3c900-COMBO
          3Com	3c905-TX
          3Com	3c905-T4
          3Com	3c900B-TPO
          3Com	3c900B-TPC
          3Com	3c900B-FL
          3Com	3c900B-COMBO
          3Com	3c905B-T4
          3Com	3c905B-TX
          3Com	3c905B-FX
          3Com	3c905B-COMBO
          3Com	3c905C-TX
          3Com	3c980, 3c980B, and 3c980C server adapters
          3Com	3cSOHO100-TX OfficeConnect adapters
          3Com	3c450 HomeConnect adapters
          3Com	3c555, 3c556 and 3c556B	mini-PCI adapters
          3Com	 3C3SH573BT,  3C575TX,	3CCFE575BT,  3CXFE575BT,   3CCFE575CT,
	   3CXFE575CT,	 3CCFEM656,  3CCFEM656B,  and  3CCFEM656C,  3CXFEM656,
	   3CXFEM656B, and 3CXFEM656C CardBus adapters
          3Com	3c905-TX, 3c905B-TX 3c905C-TX, 3c920B-EMB, and	3c920B-EMB-WNM
	   embedded adapters

       Both  the 3C656 family of CardBus cards and the 3C556 family of MiniPCI
       cards have a built-in proprietary modem.	 Neither the xl	driver nor any
       other FreeBSD driver supports this modem.

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

       xl%d: couldn't map interrupt  A	fatal  initialization  error  has  oc-
       curred.

       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	 'com-
       mand  in	progress' bit in the status register clears before continuing.
       In rare instances, this bit may not clear.  To avoid getting caught  in
       an  infinite wait loop, the driver only polls the bit for a finite num-
       ber of times before giving up, at which point it	issues	this  message.
       This  message may be printed during driver initialization on slower ma-
       chines.	If you see this	message	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  operat-
       ing  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 config-
       uring 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 will not be able to configure	it correctly.  The driver tries	to de-
       tect 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 oper-
       ational condition.  If you see this message at boot time	and the	driver
       fails  to  attach  the  device as a network interface, you will have to
       perform second warm boot	to have	the device properly configured.

       Note that this condition	only occurs when warm booting from another op-
       erating system.	If  you	 power	down  your  system  prior  to  booting
       FreeBSD,	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 what-
       ever 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 at-
       tempt 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.

       xl%d: transmission error: %d
       xl%d: tx	underrun, increasing tx	start threshold	to %d bytes  This mes-
       sage  may appear	while the adapter tunes	its transmission buffers under
       various load amounts and	are mostly harmless.  It is probably  safe  to
       ignore them.

SEE ALSO
       altq(4),	  arp(4),  cardbus(4),	miibus(4),  netintro(4),  ng_ether(4),
       pccard(4), polling(4), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
       The xl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

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

FreeBSD	13.2		       January 23, 2008				 XL(4)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | HARDWARE | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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