NAME

       ef — pseudo-device driver providing support for multiple Ethernet frame types

SYNOPSIS

       device ef

DESCRIPTION

       The  ef  pseudo-device  driver clones each Ethernet type device with four additional interfaces.  Each of
       them is capable to send or receive only one predefined frame type.

       Names for the new interfaces are created by adding a fN suffix to an existing device name.  Where N is  a
       device unit which can have one of the following values:

             0     interface with an Ethernet_II frame
             1     interface with a Novell Ethernet_802.3 frame
             2     interface with an Ethernet_802.2 frame
             3     interface with an Ethernet_802.2/SNAP frame support.

       For example, device ed0 will be populated with four devices: ed0f0, ed0f1, ed0f2 and ed0f3.

       After that, each device can be configured as usual:
             # ifconfig ed0f1 ipx 0x105
       This will configure IPX protocol with network number 0x105 and Ethernet_802.3 frame type.

       Please  note  that  it  is  impossible  to  configure the IPX protocol on the parent ed0 device after the
       if_ef.ko driver has been loaded.

       If the parent interface is not configured for any other protocol (IP for example), subinterfaces will not
       function.  To avoid that, the parent interface should be manually marked as “up”:
             # ifconfig ed0 up

EXAMPLES

       The ef driver can be loaded via the loader.conf(5) file:
             if_ef_load="YES"

       In this case, ordinary interface configuration commands can be used in the rc.conf(5) file:
             network_interfaces="ed2 lo0 tun0 ed2f0 ed2f1"
             ifconfig_ed2f0_ipx="ipx 0x101"
             ifconfig_ed2f1_ipx="ipx 0x102"

DIAGNOSTICS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       ipx(3), ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS

       Boris Popov <bp@FreeBSD.org>.

CAVEATS

       Avoid to configure the parent Ethernet device for the IPX protocol, after the ef driver is loaded.

Debian                                            June 20, 1999                                            EF(4)