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XL(4) Device Drivers Manual XL(4)

xl — 3Com EtherLink XL and Fast EtherLink XL 10/100 Ethernet device

xl* at pci?
xl* at cardbus?
amphy* at mii?
bmtphy* at mii?
exphy* at mii?
nsphy* at mii?
tqphy* at mii?

The xl device driver supports the 3Com EtherLink XL and Fast EtherLink XL family of Ethernet cards, and embedded controllers based on the 3Com “boomerang” and “cyclone” bus master EtherLink XL chips. This includes, among others, the following models:

3C555
EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C556
EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C556B
EtherLink XL Mini PCI
3C575
10/100 LAN CardBus PC Card
3C656
10/100 LAN+Modem CardBus PC Card
3C900
EtherLink XL PCI
3C900B
EtherLink XL PCI
3C905
Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C905B
Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C905C
Fast EtherLink XL PCI
3C980
Fast EtherLink Server NIC
3CSOHO
OfficeConnect Fast Ethernet NIC
9201
NVIDIA nForce2 integrated 3Com 9201 (nForce2-ST, nForce2-GT)
920BEMB
3c920B-EMB-WNM Integrated Fast Ethernet.

Category 3, 4 or 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable should be used for RJ-45 (10baseT), thick Ethernet coaxial (RG59 B/U, 50 ohm) for AUI/DIX, and thin Ethernet coaxial (RG58 A/U or C/U, 50 ohm +/- 4) for BNC (10base2). Some 3Com NICs also support MII connectors (switchable 10/100Mbps UTP). The 3C905B-FX and other similar cards are capable of 100Mbps over fiber.

Hardware receive IP/TCP/UDP checksum offload for IPv4 is supported on the 3C905B.

The xl driver additionally supports Wake on LAN (WoL). See arp(8) and ifconfig(8) for more details.

The following media types and options (as given to ifconfig(8)) are supported:

autoselect
Enable autoselection of media type and options. Note that this media type is only available with adapters that have external PHYs or built-in autonegotiation logic. For 3C900 and 3C900B adapters, the driver will choose the mode specified in the EEPROM. This can be changed by adding media options to the appropriate hostname.if(5) file.
100baseFX mediaopt full-duplex
For those cards that support it, force full-duplex 100Mbps operation over fiber.
100baseFX mediaopt half-duplex
For those cards that support it, force half-duplex 100Mbps operation over fiber.
100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation and force full-duplex mode.
100baseTX mediaopt half-duplex
Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation and force half-duplex mode.
10baseT mediaopt full-duplex
Set 10baseT (UTP) operation and force full-duplex mode.
10baseT mediaopt half-duplex
Set 10baseT (UTP) operation and force half-duplex mode.
10base5
Set 10base5 (thick-net) operation (half-duplex only).
10base2
Set 10base2 (thin-net) operation (half-duplex only).

For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). To view a list of media types and options supported by this card try ifconfig <device> media. For example, ifconfig xl0 media.

xl0: couldn't map memory
A fatal initialization error has occurred.
xl0: couldn't map interrupt
A fatal initialization error has occurred.
xl0: device timeout
The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable).
xl0: no memory for rx list
The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the receiver ring.
xl0: no memory for tx list
The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the transmitter ring when allocating a pad buffer or collapsing an mbuf chain into a cluster.
xl0: command never completed!
Some commands issued to the 3C90x ASIC take time to complete: the driver is supposed to wait until the “command in progress” bit in the status register clears before continuing. In some instances, this bit may not clear. To avoid getting caught in an infinite wait loop, the driver only polls the bit a finite number of times before giving up, at which point it issues this message. This message may be printed during driver initialization on slower machines. If this message appears but the driver continues to function normally, the message can probably be ignored.
xl0: WARNING: no media options bits set in the media options register!
This warning may appear when using the driver on some Dell Latitude docking stations with built-in 3C905-TX adapters. For whatever the reason, the “MII available” bit in the media options register on this particular equipment is not set, even though it should be (the 3C905-TX always uses an external PHY transceiver). The driver will attempt to guess the proper media type based on the PCI device ID word. The driver makes a lot of noise about this condition because the author considers it a manufacturing defect.

amphy(4), arp(4), bmtphy(4), cardbus(4), exphy(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), nsphy(4), tqphy(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

The xl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0. OpenBSD support was added in OpenBSD 2.4.

The xl driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.

August 14, 2013 OpenBSD-6.7