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2 .\" sk98lin.4 1.1 2003/12/17 10:03:18
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25 .TH SK98LIN 4 "2003/12/17 10:03:18" "sk98lin 6.21"
27 sk98lin \- Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver v6.21
62 is the Gigabit Ethernet driver for Marvell and SysKonnect network adapter cards.
63 It supports SysKonnect SK-98xx/SK-95xx compliant Gigabit Ethernet Adapter and
64 any Yukon compliant chipset.
66 When loading the driver using insmod, parameters for the network adapter cards
67 might be stated as a sequence of comma separated commands.
68 If for instance two network adapters are installed and AutoNegotiation on
69 Port A of the first adapter should be ON,
70 but on the Port A of the second adapter switched OFF, one must enter:
72 insmod sk98lin.o AutoNeg_A=On,Off
76 is bound to one or more adapter cards and the
78 filesystem is mounted on your system, a dedicated statistics file
79 will be created in folder
81 for all ports of the installed network adapter cards.
86 is the number of the interface that has been assigned to a
87 dedicated port by the system.
89 If loading is finished, any desired IP address can be
90 assigned to the respective
95 This causes the adapter to connect to the Ethernet and to display a status
96 message on the console saying "ethx: network connection up using port y"
97 followed by the configured or detected connection parameters.
101 also supports large frames (also called jumbo frames).
102 Using jumbo frames can improve throughput tremendously when
103 transferring large amounts of data.
104 To enable large frames, the MTU (maximum transfer unit) size
105 for an interface is to be set to a high value.
106 The default MTU size is 1500 and can be changed up to 9000 (bytes).
107 Setting the MTU size can be done when assigning the IP address
108 to the interface or later by using the
110 command with the mtu parameter. If for instance eth0 needs an IP
111 address and a large frame MTU size,
112 the following two commands might be used:
114 ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1
115 ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000
117 Those two commands might even be combined into one:
119 ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1 mtu 9000
121 Note that large frames can only be used if your network infrastructure
123 This means, that any switch being used in your Ethernet must
124 also support large frames.
125 Quite some switches support large frames,
126 but need to be configured to do so.
127 Most of the times, their default setting is to support only
128 standard frames with an MTU size of 1500 (bytes).
129 In addition to the switches inside the network,
130 all network adapters that are to be used must also be
131 enabled regarding jumbo frames.
132 If an adapter is not set to receive large frames it will simply drop them.
134 Switching back to the standard Ethernet frame size can be done by using the
138 ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500
140 The Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver for Linux is able to
141 support VLAN and Link Aggregation according to
142 IEEE standards 802.1, 802.1q, and 802.3ad.
143 Those features are only available after installation of open source modules
144 which can be found on the Internet:
147 : http://www.candelatech.com/~greear/vlan.html
151 : http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~yumo
154 Note that Marvell/SysKonnect does not offer any support for these
155 open source modules and does not take the responsibility for any
156 kind of failures or problems arising when using these modules.
160 This parameter is used to set the speed capabilities of port A of an
162 It is only valid for Yukon copper adapters.
172 Usually, the speed is negotiated between the two ports
173 during link establishment.
174 If this fails, a port can be forced to a specific setting with this parameter.
177 This parameter is used to set the speed capabilities of port B of
179 It is only valid for Yukon copper adapters.
189 Usually, the speed is negotiated between the two ports during link
191 If this fails, a port can be forced to a specific setting with this parameter.
193 .BI AutoNeg_A= i,j,...
194 Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of port A of an adapter card.
204 mode automatically detects whether the link partner supports
205 auto-negotiation or not.
207 .BI AutoNeg_B= i,j,...
208 Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of port B of an adapter card.
218 mode automatically detects whether the link partner supports
219 auto-negotiation or not.
221 .BI DupCap_A= i,j,...
222 This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be used for port A
232 This parameter is only relevant if AutoNeg_A of port A is not set to
234 If AutoNeg_A is set to
236 all three values of DupCap_A (
241 might be stated. If AutoNeg_A is set to
248 This DupCap_A parameter is useful if your link partner does not
249 support all possible duplex combinations.
251 .BI DupCap_B= i,j,...
252 This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be used for port B
262 This parameter is only relevant if AutoNeg_B of port B is not set to
264 If AutoNeg_B is set to
266 all three values of DupCap_B (
271 might be stated. If AutoNeg_B is set to
278 This DupCap_B parameter is useful if your link partner does not
279 support all possible duplex combinations.
281 .BI FlowCtrl_A= i,j,...
282 This parameter can be used to set the flow control capabilities the
283 port reports during auto-negotiation.
292 is the default. The different modes have the following meaning:
297 both link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
301 both or only remote partner are allowed to send PAUSE frames
305 only local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
309 no link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
311 Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_A is set to
314 .BI FlowCtrl_B= i,j,...
315 This parameter can be used to set the flow control capabilities the
316 port reports during auto-negotiation.
325 is the default. The different modes have the following meaning:
329 both link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
333 both or only remote partner are allowed to send PAUSE frames
337 only local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
341 no link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
344 Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_B is set to
348 This parameter is only valid for 1000Base-T adapter cards.
349 For two 1000Base-T ports to communicate,
350 one must take the role of the master (providing timing information),
351 while the other must be the slave.
360 Usually, the role of a port is negotiated between two ports during
361 link establishment, but if that fails the port A of an adapter card
362 can be forced to a specific setting with this parameter.
365 This parameter is only valid for 1000Base-T adapter cards.
366 For two 1000Base-T ports to communicate, one must take
367 the role of the master (providing timing information),
368 while the other must be the slave.
377 Usually, the role of a port is negotiated between
378 two ports during link establishment, but if that fails
379 the port B of an adapter card can be forced to a
380 specific setting with this parameter.
383 This parameter is a combination of all five per-port parameters
384 within one single parameter.
385 This simplifies the configuration of both ports of an adapter card.
386 The different values of this variable reflect the
387 most meaningful combinations of port parameters.
388 Possible values and their corresponding combination of per-port parameters:
392 ConType | DupCap AutoNeg FlowCtrl Role Speed
393 --------+-------------------------------------------
396 | Both On SymOrRem Auto Auto
399 | Full Off None Auto 100
402 | Half Off None Auto 100
405 | Full Off None Auto 10
408 | Half Off None Auto 10
411 Stating any other port parameter together with this
413 parameter will result in a merged configuration of those settings.
415 the fact, that the per-port parameters (e.g.
417 have a higher priority than the combined variable
420 .BI Moderation= i,j,...
421 Interrupt moderation is employed to limit the maximum number of interrupts
422 the driver has to serve.
423 That is, one or more interrupts (which indicate any transmit or
424 receive packet to be processed) are queued until the driver processes them.
425 When queued interrupts are to be served, is determined by the
427 parameter, which is explained later below. Possible moderation modes are:
434 is the default. The different modes have the following meaning:
437 No interrupt moderation is applied on the adapter card.
438 Therefore, each transmit or receive interrupt is served immediately
439 as soon as it appears on the interrupt line of the adapter card.
443 Interrupt moderation is applied on the adapter card.
444 All transmit and receive interrupts are queued until
445 a complete moderation interval ends.
446 If such a moderation interval ends, all queued interrupts
447 are processed in one big bunch without any delay.
450 reflects the fact, that interrupt moderation is always enabled,
451 regardless how much network load is currently passing via a
452 particular interface.
453 In addition, the duration of the moderation interval has a fixed
454 length that never changes while the driver is operational.
458 Interrupt moderation might be applied on the adapter card,
459 depending on the load of the system.
460 If the driver detects that the system load is too high,
461 the driver tries to shield the system against too much network
462 load by enabling interrupt moderation.
463 If \(em at a later time \(em the CPU utilization decreases
464 again (or if the network load is negligible) the interrupt
465 moderation will automatically be disabled.
467 Interrupt moderation should be used when the driver has to
468 handle one or more interfaces with a high network load,
469 which \(em as a consequence \(em leads also to a high CPU utilization.
470 When moderation is applied in such high network load situations,
471 CPU load might be reduced by 20-30% on slow computers.
473 Note that the drawback of using interrupt moderation is an increase of
474 the round-trip-time (RTT), due to the queuing and serving of
475 interrupts at dedicated moderation times.
477 .BI IntsPerSec= i,j,...
478 This parameter determines the length of any interrupt moderation interval.
479 Assuming that static interrupt moderation is to be used, an
481 parameter value of 2000 will lead to an interrupt moderation interval of
483 Possible values for this parameter are in the range of
484 30...40000 (interrupts per second).
485 The default value is 2000.
487 This parameter is only used, if either static or dynamic interrupt moderation
488 is enabled on a network adapter card.
489 This parameter is ignored if no moderation is applied.
491 Note that the duration of the moderation interval is to be chosen with care.
492 At first glance, selecting a very long duration (e.g. only 100 interrupts per
493 second) seems to be meaningful, but the increase of packet-processing delay
494 is tremendous. On the other hand, selecting a very short moderation time might
495 compensate the use of any moderation being applied.
497 .BI PrefPort= i,j,...
498 This parameter is used to force the preferred port to
499 A or B (on dual-port network adapters).
500 The preferred port is the one that is used if both ports A and B are
501 detected as fully functional.
510 .BI RlmtMode= i,j,...
511 RLMT monitors the status of the port.
512 If the link of the active port fails,
513 RLMT switches immediately to the standby link.
514 The virtual link is maintained as long as at least one 'physical' link is up.
515 This parameters states how RLMT should monitor both ports.
524 is the default. The different modes have the following meaning:
527 Check link state only: RLMT uses the link state reported by the adapter
528 hardware for each individual port to determine whether a port can be used
529 for all network traffic or not.
533 In this mode, RLMT monitors the network path between the two
534 ports of an adapter by regularly exchanging packets between them.
535 This mode requires a network configuration in which the
536 two ports are able to "see" each other (i.e. there
537 must not be any router between the ports).
541 Check local port and segmentation:
542 This mode supports the same functions as the CheckLocalPort
543 mode and additionally checks network segmentation between the ports.
544 Therefore, this mode is only to be used if Gigabit Ethernet
545 switches are installed on the network that have been
546 configured to use the Spanning Tree protocol.
550 In this mode, ports A and B are used as separate devices.
551 If you have a dual port adapter, port A will be configured as
552 .IR eth[x] and port B as
554 Both ports can be used independently with distinct IP addresses.
555 The preferred port setting is not used. RLMT is turned off.
561 are designed to operate in configurations where a
562 network path between the ports on one adapter exists.
563 Moreover, they are not designed to work where adapters are
564 connected back-to-back.
567 .I /proc/net/sk98lin/eth[x]
569 The statistics file of a particular interface of an adapter card.
570 It contains generic information about the adapter card plus a detailed
571 summary of all transmit and receive counters.
573 .I /usr/src/linux/Documentation/network/sk98lin.txt
580 It contains a detailed installation HOWTO and describes all parameters
582 It denotes also common problems and provides the solution to them.
584 Report any bugs to linux@syskonnect.de
586 Ralph Roesler \(em rroesler@syskonnect.de
588 Mirko Lindner \(em mlindner@syskonnect.de
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