home | help
RE(4)			     Kernel Interfaces Manual			   RE(4)

NAME
     re  -- RealTek 8139C+/8169/816xS/811xS/8101E PCI/PCIe Ethernet adapter dri-
     ver

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

	   device miibus
	   device re

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

	   if_re_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
     The re driver provides support  for  various  NICs  based	on  the  RealTek
     RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL8169S, RTL8110S, RTL8168S, RTL8111S and RTL8101E PCI
     and PCIe Ethernet controllers.

     NICs  based  on  the  8139C+ and 8101E are capable of 10 and 100Mbps speeds
     over CAT5 cable.  NICs based on the 8169, 816xS and 811xS	are  capable  of
     10, 100 and 1000Mbps operation.

     All  NICs supported by the re driver have TCP/IP checksum offload and hard-
     ware VLAN tagging/insertion features, and use a descriptor-based DMA mecha-
     nism.  They are also capable of TCP large send (TCP segmentation offload).

     The 8139C+ is a single-chip solution combining both a 10/100 MAC  and  PHY.
     The  8169	is a 10/100/1000 MAC only, requiring a GMII or TBI external PHY.
     The 8169S and 8110S are single-chip devices containing both  a  10/100/1000
     MAC and 10/100/1000 copper PHY.  Standalone 10/100/1000 cards are available
     in both 32-bit PCI and 64-bit PCI models.	The 8110S is designed for embed-
     ded LAN-on-motherboard applications.

     The  8169,  8169S and 8110S also support jumbo frames, which can be config-
     ured via the interface MTU setting.  The MTU is limited to 7422, since  the
     chip  cannot  transmit  larger  frames.   Selecting an MTU larger than 1500
     bytes with the ifconfig(8) utility configures the adapter	to  receive  and
     transmit jumbo frames.

     The re driver supports the following media types:

     autoselect   Enable  autoselection of the media type and options.	The user
		  can manually override the autoselected mode  by  adding  media
		  options to rc.conf(5).

     10baseT/UTP  Set  10Mbps  operation.   The  ifconfig(8) mediaopt option can
		  also be used	to  select  either  full-duplex  or  half-duplex
		  modes.

     100baseTX	  Set	100Mbps  (Fast	Ethernet)  operation.	The  ifconfig(8)
		  mediaopt option can also be used to select either  full-duplex
		  or half-duplex modes.

     1000baseTX   Set  1000baseTX operation over twisted pair.	The RealTek gigE
		  chips support 1000Mbps in full-duplex mode only.

     The re driver supports the following media options:

     full-duplex  Force full duplex operation.

     half-duplex  Force half duplex operation.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

HARDWARE
     The re driver supports RealTek RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL816xS, RTL811xS,  and
     RTL8101E based Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet adapters including:

     *	 Alloy Computer Products EtherGOLD 1439E 10/100 (8139C+)
     *	 Compaq Evo N1015v Integrated Ethernet (8139C+)
     *	 Corega CG-LAPCIGT Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
     *	 D-Link DGE-528(T) Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
     *	 Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 Integrated Gigabit Ethernet (8110S)
     *	 LevelOne GNC-0105T (8169S)
     *	 LinkSys EG1032 (32-bit PCI)
     *	 PLANEX COMMUNICATIONS Inc. GN-1200TC (8169S)
     *	 Xterasys XN-152 10/100/1000 NIC (8169)

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

     re%d: couldn't map ports  A fatal initialization error has occurred.

     re%d: couldn't map interrupt  A fatal initialization error has occurred.

     re%d: no memory for softc struct!	The driver failed to allocate memory for
     per-device instance information during initialization.

     re%d: failed to enable memory mapping!  The driver failed to initialize PCI
     shared  memory mapping.  This might happen if the card is not in a bus-mas-
     ter slot.

     re%d: no memory for jumbo buffers!  The driver failed  to	allocate  memory
     for jumbo frames during initialization.

     re%d:  watchdog  timeout  The device has stopped responding to the network,
     or there is a problem with the network connection (cable).

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

     RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL8169S and RTL8110S datasheets,
     http://www.realtek.com.tw/.

HISTORY
     The re device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.2.

AUTHORS
     The re driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@windriver.com>.

BUGS
     The  Xterasys XN-152 32-bit PCI NIC, which uses the RTL8169 MAC and Marvell
     88E1000 PHY, has a defect that  causes  DMA  corruption  if  the  board  is
     plugged  into  a 64-bit PCI slot.	The defect lies in the board design, not
     the chip itself: the PCI REQ64# and ACK64# lines should be pulled high, but
     they are not.  The result is that the 8169 chip is tricked into  performing
     64-bit DMA transfers even though a 64-bit data path between the NIC and the
     bus does not actually exist.

     Unfortunately, it is not possible to correct this problem in software, how-
     ever  it  is  possible to detect it.  When the re driver is loaded, it will
     run a diagnostic routine designed to validate DMA operation by placing  the
     chip in digital loopback mode and initiating a packet transmission.  If the
     card  functions  properly, the transmitted data will be echoed back unmodi-
     fied.  If the echoed data is corrupt, the driver will print an  error  mes-
     sage  on  the  console and abort the device attach.  The user should insure
     the NIC is installed in a 32-bit PCI slot to avoid this problem.

     The RealTek 8169, 8169S and 8110S chips appear to only be capable of trans-
     mitting jumbo frames up to 7.5K in size.

FreeBSD 6.3			January 14, 2006			   RE(4)

home | help