1SK98LIN(4)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                SK98LIN(4)
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NAME

6       sk98lin - Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver v6.21
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SYNOPSIS

9       insmod    sk98lin.o    [Speed_A=i,j,...]     [Speed_B=i,j,...]     [Au‐
10       toNeg_A=i,j,...]    [AutoNeg_B=i,j,...]    [DupCap_A=i,j,...]     [Dup‐
11       Cap_B=i,j,...]         [FlowCtrl_A=i,j,...]        [FlowCtrl_B=i,j,...]
12       [Role_A=i,j,...]    [Role_B=i,j,...]     [ConType=i,j,...]     [Modera‐
13       tion=i,j,...]     [IntsPerSec=i,j,...]     [PrefPort=i,j,...]    [Rlmt‐
14       Mode=i,j,...]
15

DESCRIPTION

17       Note: This obsolete driver was removed from the kernel in version
18       2.6.26.
19
20       sk98lin is the Gigabit Ethernet driver for Marvell and SysKonnect
21       network adapter cards.  It supports SysKonnect SK-98xx/SK-95xx
22       compliant Gigabit Ethernet Adapter and any Yukon compliant chipset.
23
24       When loading the driver using insmod, parameters for the network
25       adapter cards might be stated as a sequence of comma separated
26       commands.  If for instance two network adapters are installed and
27       AutoNegotiation on Port A of the first adapter should be ON, but on the
28       Port A of the second adapter switched OFF, one must enter:
29
30          insmod sk98lin.o AutoNeg_A=On,Off
31
32       After sk98lin is bound to one or more adapter cards and the /proc
33       filesystem is mounted on your system, a dedicated statistics file will
34       be created in the folder /proc/net/sk98lin for all ports of the
35       installed network adapter cards.  Those files are named eth[x], where x
36       is the number of the interface that has been assigned to a dedicated
37       port by the system.
38
39       If loading is finished, any desired IP address can be assigned to the
40       respective eth[x] interface using the ifconfig(8) command.  This causes
41       the adapter to connect to the Ethernet and to display a status message
42       on the console saying "ethx: network connection up using port y"
43       followed by the configured or detected connection parameters.
44
45       The sk98lin also supports large frames (also called jumbo frames).
46       Using jumbo frames can improve throughput tremendously when
47       transferring large amounts of data.  To enable large frames, the MTU
48       (maximum transfer unit) size for an interface is to be set to a high
49       value.  The default MTU size is 1500 and can be changed up to 9000
50       (bytes).  Setting the MTU size can be done when assigning the IP
51       address to the interface or later by using the ifconfig(8) command with
52       the mtu parameter.  If for instance eth0 needs an IP address and a
53       large frame MTU size, the following two commands might be used:
54
55           ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1
56           ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000
57
58       Those two commands might even be combined into one:
59
60           ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1 mtu 9000
61
62       Note that large frames can be used only if permitted by your network
63       infrastructure.  This means, that any switch being used in your
64       Ethernet must also support large frames.  Quite some switches support
65       large frames, but need to be configured to do so.  Most of the times,
66       their default setting is to support only standard frames with an MTU
67       size of 1500 (bytes).  In addition to the switches inside the network,
68       all network adapters that are to be used must also be enabled regarding
69       jumbo frames.  If an adapter is not set to receive large frames, it
70       will simply drop them.
71
72       Switching back to the standard Ethernet frame size can be done by using
73       the ifconfig(8) command again:
74
75           ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500
76
77       The Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver for Linux is able to
78       support VLAN and Link Aggregation according to IEEE standards 802.1,
79       802.1q, and 802.3ad.  Those features are available only after
80       installation of open source modules which can be found on the Internet:
81
82       VLAN: ⟨http://www.candelatech.com/~greear/vlan.html⟩
83       Link Aggregation: ⟨http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~yumo⟩
84
85       Note that Marvell/SysKonnect does not offer any support for these open
86       source modules and does not take the responsibility for any kind of
87       failures or problems arising when using these modules.
88
89   Parameters
90       Speed_A=i,j,...
91              This parameter is used to set the speed capabilities of port A
92              of an adapter card.  It is valid only for Yukon copper adapters.
93              Possible values are: 10, 100, 1000, or Auto; Auto is the de‐
94              fault.  Usually, the speed is negotiated between the two ports
95              during link establishment.  If this fails, a port can be forced
96              to a specific setting with this parameter.
97
98       Speed_B=i,j,...
99              This parameter is used to set the speed capabilities of port B
100              of an adapter card.  It is valid only for Yukon copper adapters.
101              Possible values are: 10, 100, 1000, or Auto; Auto is the de‐
102              fault.  Usually, the speed is negotiated between the two ports
103              during link establishment.  If this fails, a port can be forced
104              to a specific setting with this parameter.
105
106       AutoNeg_A=i,j,...
107              Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of port A of an
108              adapter card.  Possible values are: On, Off, or Sense; On is the
109              default.  The Sense mode automatically detects whether the link
110              partner supports auto-negotiation or not.
111
112       AutoNeg_B=i,j,...
113              Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of port B of an
114              adapter card.  Possible values are: On, Off, or Sense; On is the
115              default.  The Sense mode automatically detects whether the link
116              partner supports auto-negotiation or not.
117
118       DupCap_A=i,j,...
119              This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be used for port A
120              of an adapter card.  Possible values are: Half, Full, or Both;
121              Both is the default.  This parameter is relevant only if Au‐
122              toNeg_A of port A is not set to Sense.  If AutoNeg_A is set to
123              On, all three values of DupCap_A ( Half, Full or Both) might be
124              stated.  If AutoNeg_A is set to Off, only DupCap_A values Full
125              and Half are allowed.  This DupCap_A parameter is useful if your
126              link partner does not support all possible duplex combinations.
127
128       DupCap_B=i,j,...
129              This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be used for port B
130              of an adapter card.  Possible values are: Half, Full, or Both;
131              Both is the default.  This parameter is relevant only if Au‐
132              toNeg_B of port B is not set to Sense.  If AutoNeg_B is set to
133              On, all three values of DupCap_B ( Half, Full or Both) might be
134              stated.  If AutoNeg_B is set to Off, only DupCap_B values Full
135              and Half are allowed.  This DupCap_B parameter is useful if your
136              link partner does not support all possible duplex combinations.
137
138       FlowCtrl_A=i,j,...
139              This parameter can be used to set the flow control capabilities
140              the port reports during auto-negotiation.  Possible values are:
141              Sym, SymOrRem, LocSend, or None; SymOrRem is the default.  The
142              different modes have the following meaning:
143
144              Sym = Symmetric
145               both link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
146              SymOrRem = SymmetricOrRemote
147               both or only remote partner are allowed to send PAUSE frames
148              LocSend = LocalSend
149               only local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
150              None = None
151               no link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
152
153              Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_A is set to Off.
154
155       FlowCtrl_B=i,j,...
156              This parameter can be used to set the flow control capabilities
157              the port reports during auto-negotiation.  Possible values are:
158              Sym, SymOrRem, LocSend, or None; SymOrRem is the default.  The
159              different modes have the following meaning:
160
161              Sym = Symmetric
162               both link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
163              SymOrRem = SymmetricOrRemote
164               both or only remote partner are allowed to send PAUSE frames
165              LocSend = LocalSend
166               only local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
167              None = None
168               no link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
169
170              Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_B is set to Off.
171
172       Role_A=i,j,...
173              This parameter is valid only for 1000Base-T adapter cards.  For
174              two 1000Base-T ports to communicate, one must take the role of
175              the master (providing timing information), while the other must
176              be the slave.  Possible values are: Auto, Master, or Slave; Auto
177              is the default.  Usually, the role of a port is negotiated be‐
178              tween two ports during link establishment, but if that fails the
179              port A of an adapter card can be forced to a specific setting
180              with this parameter.
181
182       Role_B=i,j,...
183              This parameter is valid only for 1000Base-T adapter cards.  For
184              two 1000Base-T ports to communicate, one must take the role of
185              the master (providing timing information), while the other must
186              be the slave.  Possible values are: Auto, Master, or Slave; Auto
187              is the default.  Usually, the role of a port is negotiated be‐
188              tween two ports during link establishment, but if that fails the
189              port B of an adapter card can be forced to a specific setting
190              with this parameter.
191
192       ConType=i,j,...
193              This parameter is a combination of all five per-port parameters
194              within one single parameter.  This simplifies the configuration
195              of both ports of an adapter card.  The different values of this
196              variable reflect the most meaningful combinations of port param‐
197              eters.  Possible values and their corresponding combination of
198              per-port parameters:
199
200              ConType   DupCap   AutoNeg   FlowCtrl   Role   Speed
201              Auto      Both     On        SymOrRem   Auto   Auto
202              100FD     Full     Off       None       Auto   100
203              100HD     Half     Off       None       Auto   100
204              10FD      Full     Off       None       Auto   10
205              10HD      Half     Off       None       Auto   10
206
207              Stating any other port parameter together with this ConType pa‐
208              rameter will result in a merged configuration of those settings.
209              This is due to the fact, that the per-port parameters (e.g.,
210              Speed_A) have a higher priority than the combined variable Con‐
211              Type.
212
213       Moderation=i,j,...
214              Interrupt moderation is employed to limit the maximum number of
215              interrupts the driver has to serve.  That is, one or more inter‐
216              rupts (which indicate any transmit or receive packet to be pro‐
217              cessed) are queued until the driver processes them.  When queued
218              interrupts are to be served, is determined by the IntsPerSec pa‐
219              rameter, which is explained later below.  Possible moderation
220              modes are: None, Static, or Dynamic; None is the default.  The
221              different modes have the following meaning:
222
223              None No interrupt moderation is applied on the adapter card.
224              Therefore, each transmit or receive interrupt is served immedi‐
225              ately as soon as it appears on the interrupt line of the adapter
226              card.
227
228              Static Interrupt moderation is applied on the adapter card.  All
229              transmit and receive interrupts are queued until a complete mod‐
230              eration interval ends.  If such a moderation interval ends, all
231              queued interrupts are processed in one big bunch without any de‐
232              lay.  The term Static reflects the fact, that interrupt modera‐
233              tion is always enabled, regardless how much network load is cur‐
234              rently passing via a particular interface.  In addition, the du‐
235              ration of the moderation interval has a fixed length that never
236              changes while the driver is operational.
237
238              Dynamic Interrupt moderation might be applied on the adapter
239              card, depending on the load of the system.  If the driver de‐
240              tects that the system load is too high, the driver tries to
241              shield the system against too much network load by enabling in‐
242              terrupt moderation.  If—at a later time—the CPU utilization de‐
243              creases again (or if the network load is negligible), the inter‐
244              rupt moderation will automatically be disabled.
245
246              Interrupt moderation should be used when the driver has to han‐
247              dle one or more interfaces with a high network load, which—as a
248              consequence—leads also to a high CPU utilization.  When modera‐
249              tion is applied in such high network load situations, CPU load
250              might be reduced by 20–30% on slow computers.
251
252              Note that the drawback of using interrupt moderation is an in‐
253              crease of the round-trip-time (RTT), due to the queuing and
254              serving of interrupts at dedicated moderation times.
255
256       IntsPerSec=i,j,...
257              This parameter determines the length of any interrupt moderation
258              interval.  Assuming that static interrupt moderation is to be
259              used, an IntsPerSec parameter value of 2000 will lead to an in‐
260              terrupt moderation interval of 500 microseconds.  Possible val‐
261              ues for this parameter are in the range of 30...40000 (inter‐
262              rupts per second).  The default value is 2000.
263
264              This parameter is used only if either static or dynamic inter‐
265              rupt moderation is enabled on a network adapter card.  This pa‐
266              rameter is ignored if no moderation is applied.
267
268              Note that the duration of the moderation interval is to be cho‐
269              sen with care.  At first glance, selecting a very long duration
270              (e.g., only 100 interrupts per second) seems to be meaningful,
271              but the increase of packet-processing delay is tremendous.  On
272              the other hand, selecting a very short moderation time might
273              compensate the use of any moderation being applied.
274
275       PrefPort=i,j,...
276              This parameter is used to force the preferred port to A or B (on
277              dual-port network adapters).  The preferred port is the one that
278              is used if both ports A and B are detected as fully functional.
279              Possible values are: A or B; A is the default.
280
281       RlmtMode=i,j,...
282              RLMT monitors the status of the port.  If the link of the active
283              port fails, RLMT switches immediately to the standby link.  The
284              virtual link is maintained as long as at least one "physical"
285              link is up.  This parameters states how RLMT should monitor both
286              ports.  Possible values are: CheckLinkState, CheckLocalPort,
287              CheckSeg, or DualNet; CheckLinkState is the default.  The dif‐
288              ferent modes have the following meaning:
289
290              CheckLinkState Check link state only: RLMT uses the link state
291              reported by the adapter hardware for each individual port to de‐
292              termine whether a port can be used for all network traffic or
293              not.
294
295              CheckLocalPort In this mode, RLMT monitors the network path be‐
296              tween the two ports of an adapter by regularly exchanging pack‐
297              ets between them.  This mode requires a network configuration in
298              which the two ports are able to "see" each other (i.e., there
299              must not be any router between the ports).
300
301              CheckSeg Check local port and segmentation: This mode supports
302              the same functions as the CheckLocalPort mode and additionally
303              checks network segmentation between the ports.  Therefore, this
304              mode is to be used only if Gigabit Ethernet switches are in‐
305              stalled on the network that have been configured to use the
306              Spanning Tree protocol.
307
308              DualNet In this mode, ports A and B are used as separate de‐
309              vices.  If you have a dual port adapter, port A will be config‐
310              ured as eth[x] and port B as eth[x+1].  Both ports can be used
311              independently with distinct IP addresses.  The preferred port
312              setting is not used.  RLMT is turned off.
313
314              Note that RLMT modes CheckLocalPort and CheckLinkState are de‐
315              signed to operate in configurations where a network path between
316              the ports on one adapter exists.  Moreover, they are not de‐
317              signed to work where adapters are connected back-to-back.
318

FILES

320       /proc/net/sk98lin/eth[x]
321              The statistics file of a particular interface of an adapter
322              card.  It contains generic information about the adapter card
323              plus a detailed summary of all transmit and receive counters.
324
325       /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/sk98lin.txt
326              This is the README file of the sk98lin driver.  It contains a
327              detailed installation HOWTO and describes all parameters of the
328              driver.  It denotes also common problems and provides the solu‐
329              tion to them.
330

BUGS

332       Report any bugs to linux@syskonnect.de
333

SEE ALSO

335       ifconfig(8), insmod(8), modprobe(8)
336

COLOPHON

338       This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
339       description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
340       latest version of this page, can be found at
341       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
342
343
344
345Linux                             2020-08-13                        SK98LIN(4)
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