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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 con-
     trollers based on the 3Com "boomerang," "cyclone,"  "hurricane"  and  "tor-
     nado" bus-master Etherlink XL chips.

     The Etherlink XL chips support built-in 10baseT, 10base2 and 10base5 trans-
     ceivers  as  well	as  an MII bus for externally attached PHY transceivers.
     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  automati-
     cally 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 options.
			   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 EEP-
			   ROM.   The  user  can change this by adding media op-
			   tions 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 em-
	 bedded 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 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 rare in-
     stances,  this  bit  may not clear.  To avoid getting caught in an infinite
     wait loop, the driver only polls the bit for a finite number of  times  be-
     fore giving up, at which point it issues this message.  This message may be
     printed  during  driver initialization on slower machines.  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 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 will not 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 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  config-
     ured.

     Note that this condition only occurs when warm booting from another operat-
     ing  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 whatever the reason, the
     'MII available' bit in the media options register on this particular equip-
     ment is not set, even though it should be (the 3c905-TX always uses an  ex-
     ternal 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  de-
     fect.

     xl%d: transmission error: %d
     xl%d:  tx underrun, increasing tx start threshold to %d bytes  This message
     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),
     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 ports 15.1		January 23, 2008			   XL(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=xl&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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