EP(4)

NAME
ep - Ethernet driver for 3Com Etherlink III (3c5x9)

SYNOPSIS
device ep0 at isa? port 0x300 net irq 10 vector epintr

DESCRIPTION
The ep device driver supports the 3c509 (ISA) and 3c579 (EISA) cards. Various models of these cards come with a different assortment of connectors:

AUI/DIX
    Standard 15 pin connector

10Base2
    BNC, also known as thin-net

10BaseT
    UTP, also known as twisted pair

The default port to use is the BNC. To choose an alternate port, use the following flag combinations with ifconfig(8) or in your /etc/hostname.ep? file.

-link0
    Use the BNC port (default).

link0 -link1
    Use the AUI port.

link0  link1
    Use the UTP port.

If there are multiple cards in the computer, they are searched for in the following order: The 3c579 EISA cards are searched for first -- they will be found in EISA slot# order. Next, the 3c509 ISA cards are searched -- they are found in increasing ethernet address order. This is an example of how they will probe:

ep0 at isa0 port 0x6000-0x600f irq 10: aui/bnc address 00:60:8c:70:e5:c5 ep1 at isa0 port 0x300-0x30f irq 3: aui/bnc/utp address 00:20:af:10:62:ab

You may specify the port and irq numbers that the 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
The 3c509 card has 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!

Some models of 3c5x9 have all three connectors on them. In the case of these cards; you must configure the transceiver type with the 3Com supplied DOS configuration disk before the link0/link1 flags will operate correctly.

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).

SEE ALSO
ed(4), eg(4), el(4), ie(4), intro(4), le(4), ifconfig(8)

STANDARDS
are great. There's so many to choose from.