ledma(7D)
NAME
le, lebuffer, ledma - Am7990 (LANCE) Ethernet device driver
SYNOPSIS
/dev/le
DESCRIPTION
The Am7990 ("LANCE") Ethernet driver is a multi-threaded,
loadable, clonable, STREAMS hardware driver supporting the
connectionless Data Link Provider Interface, dlpi(7P) over a
LANCE Ethernet controller. The motherboard and add-in SBus
LANCE controllers of several varieties are supported. Multi-
ple LANCE controllers installed within the system are sup-
ported by the driver. The le driver provides basic support
for the LANCE hardware. Functions include chip initializa-
tion, frame transmit and receive, multicast and promiscuous
support, and error recovery and reporting.
APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE
The cloning character-special device /dev/le is used to
access all LANCE controllers installed within the system.
The lebuffer and ledma device drivers are bus nexus drivers
which cooperate with the le leaf driver in supporting the
LANCE hardware functions over several distinct slave-only
and DVMA LANCE -based Ethernet controllers. The lebuffer
and ledma bus nexi drivers are not directly accessible to
the user.
le and DLPI
The le driver is a "style 2" Data Link Service provider. All
M_PROTO and M_PCPROTO type messages are interpreted as DLPI
primitives. Valid DLPI primitives are defined in
<sys/dlpi.h>. Refer to dlpi(7P) for more information. An
explicit DL_ATTACH_REQ message by the user is required to
associate the opened stream with a particular device (ppa).
The ppa ID is interpreted as an unsigned long data type and
indicates the corresponding device instance (unit) number.
An error (DL_ERROR_ACK) is returned by the driver if the ppa
field value does not correspond to a valid device instance
number for this system. The device is initialized on first
attach and de-initialized (stopped) on last detach.
The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK primi-
tive in response to the DL_INFO_REQ from the user are as
follows:
o The maximum SDU is 1500 (ETHERMTU - defined in
<sys/ethernet.h>).
o The minimum SDU is 0.
o The dlsap address length is 8.
o The MAC type is DL_ETHER.
o The sap length value is -2 meaning the physical
address component is followed immediately by a 2 byte
sap component within the DLSAP address.
o The service mode is DL_CLDLS.
o No optional quality of service (QOS) support is
included at present so the QOS fields are 0.
o The provider style is DL_STYLE2.
o The version is DL_VERSION_2.
o The broadcast address value is Ethernet/IEEE broadcast
address (0xFFFFFF).
Once in the DL_ATTACHED state, the user must send a
DL_BIND_REQ to associate a particular SAP (Service Access
Pointer) with the stream. The le driver interprets the sap
field within the DL_BIND_REQ as an Ethernet "type" therefore
valid values for the sap field are in the [0-0xFFFF] range.
Only one Ethernet type can be bound to the stream at any
time.
If the user selects a sap with a value of 0, the receiver
will be in "802.3 mode". All frames received from the media
having a "type" field in the range [0-1500] are assumed to
be 802.3 frames and are routed up all open Streams which are
bound to sap value 0. If more than one Stream is in "802.3
mode" then the frame will be duplicated and routed up multi-
ple Streams as DL_UNITDATA_IND messages.
In transmission, the driver checks the sap field of the
DL_BIND_REQ if the sap value is 0, and if the destination
type field is in the range [0-1500]. If either is true, the
driver computes the length of the message, not including
initial M_PROTO mblk (message block), of all subsequent
DL_UNITDATA_REQ messages and transmits 802.3 frames that
have this value in the MAC frame header length field.
The le driver DLSAP address format consists of the 6 byte
physical (Ethernet) address component followed immediately
by the 2 byte sap (type) component producing an 8 byte DLSAP
address. Applications should not hardcode to this particular
implementation-specific DLSAP address format but use infor-
mation returned in the DL_INFO_ACK primitive to compose and
decompose DLSAP addresses. The sap length, full DLSAP
length, and sap/physical ordering are included within the
DL_INFO_ACK. The physical address length can be computed by
subtracting the sap length from the full DLSAP address
length or by issuing the DL_PHYS_ADDR_REQ to obtain the
current physical address associated with the stream.
Once in the DL_BOUND state, the user may transmit frames on
the Ethernet by sending DL_UNITDATA_REQ messages to the le
driver. The le driver will route received Ethernet frames up
all those open and bound streams having a sap which matches
the Ethernet type as DL_UNITDATA_IND messages. Received
Ethernet frames are duplicated and routed up multiple open
streams if necessary. The DLSAP address contained within the
DL_UNITDATA_REQ and DL_UNITDATA_IND messages consists of
both the sap (type) and physical (Ethernet) components.
In addition to the mandatory connectionless DLPI message set
the driver additionally supports the following primitives.
le Primitives
The DL_ENABMULTI_REQ and DL_DISABMULTI_REQ primitives
enable/disable reception of individual multicast group
addresses. A set of multicast addresses may be iteratively
created and modified on a per-stream basis using these prim-
itives. These primitives are accepted by the driver in any
state following DL_ATTACHED.
The DL_PROMISCON_REQ and DL_PROMISCOFF_REQ primitives with
the DL_PROMISC_PHYS flag set in the dl_level field
enables/disables reception of all ("promiscuous mode")
frames on the media including frames generated by the local
host.
When used with the DL_PROMISC_SAP flag set this
enables/disables reception of all sap (Ethernet type)
values. When used with the DL_PROMISC_MULTI flag set this
enables/disables reception of all multicast group addresses.
The effect of each is always on a per-stream basis and
independent of the other sap and physical level configura-
tions on this stream or other streams.
The DL_PHYS_ADDR_REQ primitive returns the 6 octet Ethernet
address currently associated (attached) to the stream in the
DL_PHYS_ADDR_ACK primitive. This primitive is valid only in
states following a successful DL_ATTACH_REQ.
The DL_SET_PHYS_ADDR_REQ primitive changes the 6 octet Eth-
ernet address currently associated (attached) to this
stream. The credentials of the process which originally
opened this stream must be superuser. Otherwise EPERM is
returned in the DL_ERROR_ACK. This primitive is destructive
in that it affects all other current and future streams
attached to this device. An M_ERROR is sent up all other
streams attached to this device when this primitive is suc-
cessful on this stream. Once changed, all streams subse-
quently opened and attached to this device will obtain this
new physical address. Once changed, the physical address
will remain until this primitive is used to change the phy-
sical address again or the system is rebooted, whichever
comes first.
FILES
/dev/le
le special character device.
/kernel/drv/options.conf
System wide default device driver properties
SEE ALSO
netstat(1M), driver.conf(4), dlpi(7P)
SPARCstation 10 Twisted-Pair Ethernet Link Test
Twisted-Pair Ethernet Link Test
DIAGNOSTICS
le%d: msg too big: %d
The message length exceeded ETHERMAX.
le%d: Babble error - sent a packet longer than 1518 bytes
While transmitting a packet, the LANCE chip has
noticed that the packet's length exceeds the maximum
allowed for Ethernet. This error indicates a kernel
bug.
le%d: No carrier - transceiver cable problem?
The LANCE chip has lost input to its carrier detect
pin while trying to transmit a packet.
le%d: Memory Error!
The LANCE chip timed out while trying to acquire the
bus for a DVMA transfer.
NOTES
If you are using twisted pair Ethernet (TPE), you need to be
aware of the link test feature. The IEEE 10Base-T specifi-
cation states that the link test should always be enabled at
the host and the hub. Complications may arise because:
1. Some older hubs do not provide link pulses
2. Some hubs are configured to not send link pulses
Under either of these two conditions the host translates the
lack of link pulses into a link failure unless it is
programmed to ignore link pulses. To program your system to
ignore link pulses (also known as disabling the link test)
do the following at the OpenBoot PROM prompt:
<#0> OK SETENV TPE-LINK-TEST? FALSE
TPE-LINK-TEST? = FALSE
The above command will work for SPARCstation-10,
SPARCstation-20 and SPARCclassic systems that come with
built in twisted pair Ethernet ports. For other systems and
for add-on boards with twisted pair Ethernet refer to the
documentation that came with the system or board for infor-
mation on disabling the link test.
SPARCstation-10, SPARCstation-20 and SPARCclassic systems
come with a choice of built in AUI (using an adapter cable)
and TPE ports. In Solaris 2.2 an auto-selection scheme was
implemented in the le driver that will switch between AUI
and TPE depending on which interface is active. Auto-
selection uses the presence or absence of the link test on
the TPE interface as one indication of whether that inter-
face is active. In the special case where you wish to use
TPE with the link-test disabled you should manually override
auto-selection so that the system will use only the twisted
pair port.
This override can be performed by defining the cable-
selection property in the options.conf file to force the
system to use TPE or AUI as appropriate. The example below
sets the cable selection to TPE.
example# cd /kernel/drv
example# echo 'cable-selection="tpe";' >> options.conf
Note that the standard options.conf file contains important
information; the only change to the file should be the addi-
tion of the cable-selection property. Be careful to type
this line exactly as shown above, ensuring that you append
to the existing file, and include the terminating semi-
colon. Alternatively, you can use a text editor to append
the following line to the end of the file:
cable-selection="tpe";
Please refer to the SPARCstation 10 Twisted-Pair Ethernet
Link Test (801-2481-10), Twisted-Pair Ethernet Link Test
(801-6184-10) and the driver.conf(4) man page for details of
the syntax of driver configuration files.
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