Net.ether2100

NE1500T/2100 Ethernet network driver (QNX)

Syntax:

Net.ether2100 [-b] [-d dma_channel]
              [-i irq] [-f tx_forget_time]
              [-l log_net_id] [-m mem_cycle]
              [-M] [-n tx_num_retries]
              [-p io_port] [-r media_rate]
              [-S pci_slot] [-t tx_retry_ticks]
              [-v] [-P] &

Options:

-b

Enable linear burst mode, on VL-bus and PCI cards only. This option has no effect on ISA bus cards. Note: this does not appear to work on most cards, and is disabled by default.

-d dma_channel

Use the specified DMA channel. The default is 5. Other choices include 6 and 7; DMA channel 3 will not function correctly. Note that a DMA channel is required only for ISA cards. VL-bus and PCI cards do not require a DMA channel, and it is not enabled by default for these cards.

-f tx_forget_time

After a driver-level NACK is received from a remote node, Net.ether2100 will assume that because packets were dropped, throttling the transmit output on that connection would be a good idea. So, the output will be reduced to approximately 400K/sec for 10 seconds, after which the eternally optimistic Net.ether2100 stops throttling its output. The -f option allows you to change the default 10 seconds above.

-i irq

Program the card to use the specified hardware interrupt. This option overrides the default autodetect. If the autodetect does not work on an ISA card, you have a hardware conflict. This option should rarely be used.

-l log_net_id

("el") Connect to the specified logical network. The default is 1.

-m mem_cycle

Number of nanoseconds per 16-bit bus master memory read/write cycle, ISA bus only. This option has no effect on VL-bus or PCI cards.

The default is 350, which is equivalent to the 5.7MB/sec speed of the bus-mastering Adaptec SCSI controller.

Valid cycle times are zero modulo fifty. If you have problems, you might try 400, which is equivalent to 5.0 MB/sec. If you are courageous and have fast hardware, you could experiment with faster cycle times (e.g. 300, 250). Note that the lower and upper bounds are 150 and 850 respectively.

-M

Enable reception of multicast packets.

-n tx_num_retries

After failing to transmit to a remote node, retry transmission no more than this number of times. Default is 3.

-p io_port

Use the specified I/O port base. This option overrides the default auto-detect, which scans ISA I/O ports 300, 320, 340, and 360, in that order, and also checks for PCI cards.

If you have two NE1500T or NE2100 cards installed, you must specifically tell each driver which card to talk to with the -p option.

If you also have an NE1000 or NE2000 card installed, you should definitely use the -p option to Net.ether2100 as the NE1000/2000 cards do not enjoy being probed by the ISA autodetect code of the Net.ether2100.

-P

Program the NIC for promiscuous receive mode. All packets will be buffered, regardless of the packet's destination address. The default is non-promiscuous mode.

-r media_rate

Advertise the specified bit-transmission rate. The default is 10000000. This information is used by the Network Manager (Net) only when multiple network drivers are running.

-S pci_slot

Have the driver look at this specific pci_slot for the card. You should have to specify -S only if you have more than one card installed. (e.g. -S0, -S1, -S2)

-t tx_retry_ticks

The number of 50 millisecond intervals between transmit retries. The default is 20.

-v

Be verbose; print out hardware configuration info on the screen when starting up.

Examples:

Start the Net.ether2100 driver on either an ISA or PCI NE1500T or NE2100, using any I/O port and any hardware interrupt and DMA channel 5:

    Net.ether2100 &

Start the driver on either an ISA NE1500T or NE2100, using any I/O port and any hardware interrupt and DMA channel 6:

    Net.ether2100 -d 6 &

Start two Net.ether2100 drivers for two ISA cards installed in one machine. One card is using I/O port 300h and irq 10 and DMA channel 5 on logical network 1. The second card is using I/O port 320 and irq 12 and DMA channel 6 on logical network 2.

    Net.ether2100 -p 300              &
    Net.ether2100 -p 320  -d 6  -l 2  &

Start two Net.ether2100 drivers for two PCI cards installed in one machine. One card is in PCI slot 0, the second in PCI slot 1.

    Net.ether2100 -S0 &
    Net.ether2100 -S1 &

Description:

The Net.ether2100 network driver communicates directly with a Novell NE1500T or NE2100 or compatible Ethernet network card which uses the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 79C960 and 79C961 single-chip Ethernet controllers for ISA, or 79C965 for VL-bus, or 79C970 or 79C974 for PCI.

Net.ether2100 provides the Network Manager with reliable data transfer over an Ethernet network.

Most of the time, you should not need to specify the I/O port or the hardware interrupt to Net.ether2100 — it should autodetect these parameters. However, if you use a DMA channel other than five, you must use the -d option.

Before installing your card, you should read the technote contained in the /etc/readme/technotes/Net.ether2100 file.

If you install more than one network card, you must specify a unique network ID (-l option) to every network driver.

If you install more than one NE1500T/NE2100 or compatible network card, you must also specify the -p options for every invocation of Net.ether2100.

Exit status:

Net.ether2100 terminates only upon encountering errors during initialization or opon getting a signal (i.e. being killed).

0: Net.ether2100 has shut down successfully and cleanly deregistered from Net.
>0: An error occurred during initialization.

Files:

Net.ether2100 closes its standard input, standard output and standard error immediately after initialization.

Error messages are displayed via the qnx_display_*() functions, not through standard error.