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.