Ubuntu Manpage: fe — Fujitsu MB86960A/MB86965A based Ethernet adapters

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NAME

       fe — Fujitsu MB86960A/MB86965A based Ethernet adapters

SYNOPSIS

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

             device fe

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

             if_fe_load="YES"

       In /boot/device.hints:
       hint.fe.0.at="isa"
       hint.fe.0.port="0x300"
       hint.fe.0.flags="0x0"

DESCRIPTION

The fe is a network device driver for Ethernet adapters based on Fujitsu MB86960A, MB86965A, or other
compatible chips.

The driver provides automatic I/O port address configuration and automatic IRQ configuration, when used
with suitable adapter hardware.

The driver works with program I/O data transfer technique. It gives a fair performance. Shared memory
is never used, even if the adapter has one.

It currently works with Fujitsu FMV-180 series for ISA, Allied-Telesis AT1700 series and RE2000 series
for ISA, and Fujitsu MBH10302 PC card.

Parameters
In the /boot/device.hints file, two parameters, port and irq, must be specified to reflect adapter
hardware settings. Another parameter flags can be specified to provide additional configuration as an
option.

The port parameter specifies a base I/O port address of the adapter. It must match with the hardware
setting of the adapter. The port may be left unspecified by removing
hint.fe.0.port="..."
from the file. In that case, the driver tries to detect the hardware setting of the I/O address
automatically. This feature may not work with some adapter hardware.

The irq parameter specifies an IRQ number used by the adapter. It must match the hardware setting of the
adapter. Irq may be left unspecified by removing
hint.fe.0.irq="..."
from the file. in that case, the driver tries to detect the hardware setting of the IRQ automatically.
This feature may not work on some adapters.

The flags is a numeric value which consists of a combination of various device settings. The following
flags are defined in the current version. To specify two or more settings for a device, use a numeric
sum of each flag value. Flag bits not specified below are reserved and must be set to 0. Actually, each
bit is either just ignored by the driver, or tested and used to control undocumented features of the
driver. Consult the source program for undocumented features.

0x007F These flag bits are used to initialize DLCR6 register of MB86960A/MB86965A chip, when the
0x0080 bit of the flags is set. See below for more about DLCR6 override feature. The 0x007F
flag bits must be 0 unless the 0x0080 bit is set, to maintain the compatibility with future
versions of the driver.

0x0080 This flag overrides the default setting to the DLCR6 register of MB86960A/MB86965A chip by a
user supplied value, which is taken from the lower 7 bits of the flag value. This is a
troubleshooting flag and should not be used without understanding of the adapter hardware.
Consult the Fujitsu manual for more information on DLCR6 settings.

HARDWARE

       Controllers and cards supported by the fe driver include:

       •   Allied Telesis RE1000, RE1000Plus, ME1500 (110-pin)
       •   CONTEC C-NET(98)P2, C-NET (9N)E (110-pin), C-NET(9N)C (ExtCard)
       •   CONTEC C-NET(PC)C PC Card Ethernet
       •   Eagle Tech NE200T
       •   Eiger Labs EPX-10BT
       •   Fujitsu FMV-J182, FMV-J182A
       •   Fujitsu MB86960A, MB86965A
       •   Fujitsu MBH10303, MBH10302 PC Card Ethernet
       •   Fujitsu Towa LA501 Ethernet
       •   HITACHI HT-4840-11 PC Card Ethernet
       •   NextCom J Link NC5310
       •   RATOC REX-5588, REX-9822, REX-4886, and REX-R280
       •   RATOC REX-9880/9881/9882/9883
       •   TDK LAC-98012, LAC-98013, LAC-98025, LAC-9N011 (110-pin)
       •   TDK LAK-CD011, LAK-CD021, LAK-CD021A, LAK-CD021BX
       •   Ungermann-Bass Access/PC N98C+(PC85152, PC85142), Access/NOTE N98(PC86132) (110-pin)

FEATURES SPECIFIC TO HARDWARE MODELS

The fe driver has some features and limitations which depend on adapter hardware models. The following
is a summary of these dependencies.

Fujitsu FMV-180 series adapters
Both automatic IRQ detection and automatic I/O port address detection is available with these adapters.

Automatic I/O port address detection feature of fe works mostly fine for FMV-180 series. It works even
if there are two or more FMV-180s in a system. However, some combination of other adapters may confuse
the driver. It is recommended to explicitly specify port when you experience some difficulties with
hardware probe.

Automatic IRQ detection feature of fe works reliably for FMV-180 series. It is recommended to explicitly
specify irq always for FMV-180. The hardware setting of IRQ is read from the configuration EEPROM on the
adapter, even when the kernel config file specifies an IRQ value. The driver will generate a warning
message, if the IRQ setting specified in /boot/device.hints does not match one stored in EEPROM. Then,
it will use the value specified in the file. (This behavior has been changed from the previous
releases.)

Allied-Telesis AT1700 series and RE2000 series adapters
Automatic I/O port address detection is available with Allied-Telesis AT1700 series and RE2000 series,
while it is less reliable than FMV-180 series. Using the feature with Allied-Telesis adapters is not
recommended.

Automatic IRQ detection is also available with some limitation. The fe driver tries to get IRQ setting
from the configuration EEPROM on the board, if irq is not specified in /boot/device.hints.
Unfortunately, AT1700 series and RE2000 series seems to have two types of models; One type allows IRQ
selection from 3/4/5/9, while the other from 10/11/12/15. Identification of the models are not well
known. Hence, automatic IRQ detection with Allied-Telesis adapters may not be reliable. Specify an
exact IRQ number if any troubles are encountered.

Differences between AT1700 series and RE2000 series or minor models in those series are not recognized.

Fujitsu MBH10302 PC card
The fe driver supports Fujitsu MBH10302 and compatible PC cards. It requires the PC card (PCMCIA)
support package.

HISTORY

       The fe driver appeared in FreeBSD 2.0.5.

AUTHORS, COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

The fe driver was originally written and contributed by M. Sekiguchi <seki@sysrap.cs.fujitsu.co.jp>,
following the ed driver written by David Greenman. PC card support in fe is written by Hidetoshi Kimura
<h-kimura@tokyo.se.fujitsu.co.jp>. This manual page was written by M. Sekiguchi.

This document and the associated software may be used, modified, copied, distributed, and sold, in both
source and binary form provided that the above copyright, these terms and the following disclaimer are
retained. The name of the author and/or the contributor may not be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this document and the associated software without specific prior written permission.

THIS DOCUMENT AND THE ASSOCIATED SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND THE CONTRIBUTOR “AS IS” AND ANY
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR THE CONTRIBUTOR BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT AND THE
ASSOCIATED SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

BUGS

       Following are major known bugs:

       Statistics  on  the  number  of  collisions maintained by the fe driver is not accurate; the -i option of
       netstat(1) shows slightly less value than true number of collisions.

       More mbuf clusters are used than expected.  The packet receive routine has an intended violation  against
       the  mbuf  cluster  allocation  policy.   The  unnecessarily  allocated  clusters  are freed within short
       lifetime, and it will not affect long term kernel memory usage.

       Although XNS and IPX support is included in the driver, it has never been tested and it  is  expected  to
       have a lot of bugs.

Debian                                            July 16, 2005                                            FE(4)