ethernet/3com/3c509.rst

1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
21 ethercards in Linux. These cards are commonly known by the most widely-used
22 card's 3Com model number, 3c509. They are all 10mb/s ISA-bus cards and shouldn't
23 be (but sometimes are) confused with the similarly-numbered PCI-bus "3c905"
28  - 3c509 (original ISA card)
29  - 3c509B (later revision of the ISA card; supports full-duplex)
30  - 3c589 (PCMCIA)
31  - 3c589B (later revision of the 3c589; supports full-duplex)
32  - 3c579 (EISA)
45 The driver allows boot- or load-time overriding of the card's detected IOADDR,
47 needed except to enable full-duplex mode (see below). An example of the syntax
62 Full-duplex mode
65 The v1.18c driver added support for the 3c509B's full-duplex capabilities.
66 In order to enable and successfully use full-duplex mode, three conditions
69 (a) You must have a Etherlink III card model whose hardware supports full-
71 positively known to support full-duplex are the 3c509B (ISA bus) and 3c589B
73 full-duplex mode; these include the original 3c509 (no "B"), the original
74 3c589, the 3c529 (MCA bus), and the 3c579 (EISA bus).
76 (b) You must be using your card's 10baseT transceiver (i.e., the RJ-45
77 connector), not its AUI (thick-net) or 10base2 (thin-net/coax) interfaces.
78 AUI and 10base2 network cabling is physically incapable of full-duplex
82 itself full-duplex capable. This is almost certainly one of two things: a full-
83 duplex-capable  Ethernet switch (*not* a hub), or a full-duplex-capable NIC on
86 Full-duplex mode can be enabled using 'ethtool'.
90   Extremely important caution concerning full-duplex mode
92   Understand that the 3c509B's hardware's full-duplex support is much more
94   at the physical layer of the network it fully supports full-duplex operation,
95   the card was designed before the current Ethernet auto-negotiation (N-way)
97   auto-negotiate a full-duplex connection with its link partner under any
98   circumstances, no matter how it is initialized***. If the full-duplex mode
100   independently _forced_ into full-duplex mode as well; otherwise various nasty
101   failures will occur - at the very least, you'll see massive numbers of packet
102   collisions. This is one of very rare circumstances where disabling auto-
113 0  transceiver type from EEPROM config (normally 10baseT); force half-duplex
114 1  AUI (thick-net / DB15 connector)
116 3  10base2 (thin-net == coax / BNC connector)
117 4  10baseT (RJ-45 connector); force half-duplex mode
119 12 10baseT (RJ-45 connector); force full-duplex mode
122 Prior to driver version 1.18c, only transceiver codes 0-4 were supported. Note
124 full-duplex mode, no matter what the card's detected EEPROM settings might be.
126 never automatically enable full-duplex mode in an existing installation;
134 ----------------------------------------------------
145    - a "green" mode enabled that slows the processor down when there is no
148    - some other device or device driver hogging the bus or disabling interrupts.
177 with all. This can be fixed by disabling PnP support using the 3Com-supplied
188 ----------------------------------
211 0x02	Out-of-window collision.
214 0x10	Tx underrun (not enough PCI bus bandwidth).
231 host is incorrectly set to full duplex on a half duplex network.