EP(4)

NAME
ep - device driver for 3Com Etherlink III family

SYNOPSIS
ep0 at isa? port ? irq ?
ep* at isapnp?
ep* at eisa? slot ?
ep* at pci? dev ? function ?
ep* at pcmcia? function ?

DESCRIPTION
The ep device driver supports the 3Com Etherlink III family of Ethernet cards. Supported Etherlink III cards include:

3c509
    ISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport variants

3c509B
    ISA Plug-and-Play 10Mbit card, in BNC and multiport variants

3c579
    EISA 10Mbit card, in BNC and muiltport variants

3c592
    EISA 10Mbit card with busmastering capability

3c597
    EISA 10/100Mbit card with busmastering capability

3c590
    PCI 10Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability

3c595
    PCI 10/100Mbit multiport card with busmastering capability

3c900
    PCI 10Mbit card in 10baseT and multiport variants

3c905
    PCI 10/100Mbit cards

3c562
    PCMCIA modem/10Mbit Ethernet combo card with dongle

3c589
    PCMCIA 10Mbit card with dongle

The 3c515 is an ISA 10/100 card with busmastering capability. The chipset is similar to that of the 3c905, with some changes to make it work with the more limited ISA bus address space. This card is not currently supported.

MEDIA SELECTION
Various models of these cards come with a different assortment of media. Supported 10Mbit Ethernet media include:

10base5
    AUI, standard 15 pin connector

10base2
    BNC, also known as thin-net

10baseT
    UTP, also known as twisted pair

The 100Mbit cards each support exactly one of the following 100Mbit standards:

100baseTX
    100Mbit over cat-5 UTP

100baseT4
    100Mbit over all four pairs of cat-3 UTP

100baseFX
    100Mbit over fiber

MII MII connection to external 100Mbit PHY

Note that the 100baseTX and 100baseT4 cards can also run as 10baseT.

The ep driver defaults to using the port selected via the vendor-supplied configuration utility. To choose an alternate port, use the following media flags with ifconfig(8) or in your /etc/ifconfig.ep? file.

10base2
    Use the 10base-2 BNC port.

AUI Use the AUI port.

10baseT
    Use the UTP port in 10base-T mode.

100baseTX
    Use the builtin 100base-Tx PHY on the UTP port.

100baseFX
    Use the builtin 100mbit fibre-optic PHY.

100baseT4
    Use the builtin 100base-T4 PHY on the UTP port.

The ep driver no longer supports changing media via the link0/link1/link2 flags.

You may specify the port and irq numbers that ISA cards are expected to be found at, but it is not necessary. The cards are sufficiently intelligent to tell us where they actually live on the ISA bus.

NOTES
Etherlink III cards have no jumpers to set the address. 3Com supplies software to set the address of the card in software. To find the card on the ISA bus, the kernel performs a complex scan operation at IO address 0x100. Beware! Avoid placing other cards at that address!

The 3Com configuration utilities can `autosense' the active media and save it as default. The saved default medium is the medium that was active atthe time the configuration utility was run. The ep driver does not yet re-autosense the active media at boot time. If the EEPROM autosense bit is set, the driver simply uses the media type sensed and saved when the configuration utility was run.

DIAGNOSTICS

ep0: reset (status: %x) the driver has encountered a FIFO underrun or overrun. The driver will reset the card and the packet will be lost. This is not fatal.

ep0: eeprom failed to come ready The eeprom failed to come ready. This probably means the card is wedged.

ep0: 3c509 in test mode. Erase pencil mark! This means that someone has scribbled with pencil in the test area on the card. Erase the pencil mark and reboot. (This is not a joke).

BUGS
Support for autosensing the active media should be added to the driver.

SEE ALSO
ifconfig(8), intro(4), isa(4), isapnp(4), eisa(4), pci(4), pcmcia(4)