xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/re.4 (revision 3c4ba5f55438f7afd4f4b0b56f88f2bb505fd6a6)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2003
2.\"	Bill Paul <wpaul@windriver.com>. All rights reserved.
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31.\" $FreeBSD$
32.\"
33.Dd November 7, 2022
34.Dt RE 4
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm re
38.Nd "RealTek 8139C+/8169/816xS/811xS/8168/810xE/8111 PCI/PCIe Ethernet adapter driver"
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40To compile this driver into the kernel,
41place the following lines in your
42kernel configuration file:
43.Bd -ragged -offset indent
44.Cd "device miibus"
45.Cd "device re"
46.Ed
47.Pp
48Alternatively, to load the driver as a
49module at boot time, place the following line in
50.Xr loader.conf 5 :
51.Bd -literal -offset indent
52if_re_load="YES"
53.Ed
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Nm
57driver provides support for various NICs based on the RealTek RTL8139C+,
58RTL8169, RTL816xS, RTL811xS, RTL8168, RTL810xE and RTL8111 PCI and
59PCIe Ethernet controllers.
60.Pp
61NICs based on the 8139C+ and 810xE are capable of 10 and 100Mbps speeds
62over CAT5 cable.
63NICs based on the 8169, 816xS, 811xS, 8168 and 8111 are capable of 10, 100
64and 1000Mbps operation.
65.Pp
66All NICs supported by the
67.Nm
68driver have TCP/IP checksum offload and hardware VLAN tagging/insertion
69features, and use a descriptor-based DMA mechanism.
70They are also
71capable of TCP large send (TCP segmentation offload).
72.Pp
73The 8139C+ is a single-chip solution combining both a 10/100 MAC and PHY.
74The 8169 is a 10/100/1000 MAC only, requiring a GMII or TBI external PHY.
75The 816xS, 811xS, 8168 and 8111 are single-chip devices containing both a
7610/100/1000 MAC and 10/100/1000 copper PHY.
77Standalone 10/100/1000 cards are available
78in both 32-bit PCI and 64-bit PCI models.
79The 8110S is designed for
80embedded LAN-on-motherboard applications.
81.Pp
82The 8169, 8169S and 8110S also support jumbo frames, which can be configured
83via the interface MTU setting.
84The MTU is limited to 7422, since the chip cannot transmit larger frames.
85Selecting an MTU larger than 1500 bytes with the
86.Xr ifconfig 8
87utility configures the adapter to receive and transmit jumbo frames.
88.Pp
89The
90.Nm
91driver supports the following media types:
92.Bl -tag -width ".Cm 10baseT/UTP"
93.It Cm autoselect
94Enable autoselection of the media type and options.
95The user can manually override
96the autoselected mode by adding media options to
97.Xr rc.conf 5 .
98.It Cm 10baseT/UTP
99Set 10Mbps operation.
100The
101.Xr ifconfig 8
102.Cm mediaopt
103option can also be used to select either
104.Cm full-duplex
105or
106.Cm half-duplex
107modes.
108.It Cm 100baseTX
109Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation.
110The
111.Xr ifconfig 8
112.Cm mediaopt
113option can also be used to select either
114.Cm full-duplex
115or
116.Cm half-duplex
117modes.
118.It Cm 1000baseTX
119Set 1000baseTX operation over twisted pair.
120The RealTek gigE chips support 1000Mbps in
121.Cm full-duplex
122mode only.
123.\" .It Cm 1000baseSX
124.\" Set 1000Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet) operation.
125.\" Both
126.\" .Cm full-duplex
127.\" and
128.\" .Cm half-duplex
129.\" modes are supported.
130.El
131.Pp
132The
133.Nm
134driver supports the following media options:
135.Bl -tag -width ".Cm full-duplex"
136.It Cm full-duplex
137Force full duplex operation.
138.It Cm half-duplex
139Force half duplex operation.
140.El
141.Pp
142For more information on configuring this device, see
143.Xr ifconfig 8 .
144.Sh HARDWARE
145The
146.Nm
147driver supports RealTek RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL816xS, RTL811xS, RTL8168,
148RTL810xE and RTL8111 based Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet adapters including:
149.Pp
150.Bl -bullet -compact
151.It
152Alloy Computer Products EtherGOLD 1439E 10/100 (8139C+)
153.It
154Compaq Evo N1015v Integrated Ethernet (8139C+)
155.It
156Corega CG-LAPCIGT Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
157.It
158D-Link DGE-528(T) Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
159.It
160Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 Integrated Gigabit Ethernet (8110S)
161.It
162LevelOne GNC-0105T (8169S)
163.It
164LinkSys EG1032 (32-bit PCI)
165.It
166PLANEX COMMUNICATIONS Inc.\& GN-1200TC (8169S)
167.It
168TP-Link TG-3468 v2 Gigabit Ethernet (8168)
169.It
170USRobotics USR997902 Gigabit Ethernet (8169S)
171.It
172Xterasys XN-152 10/100/1000 NIC (8169)
173.El
174.Sh LOADER TUNABLES
175Tunables can be set at the
176.Xr loader 8
177prompt before booting the kernel or stored in
178.Xr loader.conf 5 .
179.Bl -tag -width "xxxxxx"
180.It Va hw.re.intr_filter
181This tunable makes driver use interrupt filter handler on
182controllers that support MSI/MSI-X capability.
183If MSI/MSI-X is disabled by administrator this tunable has no
184effect and driver will use interrupt filter handler.
185The default value is 0 to use interrupt thread handler.
186.It Va hw.re.msi_disable
187This tunable disables MSI support on the Ethernet hardware.
188The default value is 0.
189.It Va hw.re.msix_disable
190This tunable disables MSI-X support on the Ethernet hardware.
191The default value is 0.
192.It Va hw.re.prefer_iomap
193This tunable controls which register mapping should be used on the
194specified device.
195A non-zero value enables I/O space register mapping.
196The default value is 0 to use memory space register mapping.
197.El
198.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
199The following variables are available as both
200.Xr sysctl 8
201variables and
202.Xr loader 8
203tunables:
204.Bl -tag -width "xxxxxx"
205.It Va dev.re.%d.int_rx_mod
206Maximum amount of time to delay receive interrupt processing in
207units of 1us.
208The accepted range is 0 to 65, the default is 65(65us).
209Value 0 completely disables the interrupt moderation.
210The interface need to be brought down and up again before a change
211takes effect.
212.El
213.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
214.Bl -diag
215.It "re%d: couldn't map memory"
216A fatal initialization error has occurred.
217.It "re%d: couldn't map ports"
218A fatal initialization error has occurred.
219.It "re%d: couldn't map interrupt"
220A fatal initialization error has occurred.
221.It "re%d: no memory for softc struct!"
222The driver failed to allocate memory for per-device instance information
223during initialization.
224.It "re%d: failed to enable memory mapping!"
225The driver failed to initialize PCI shared memory mapping.
226This might
227happen if the card is not in a bus-master slot.
228.It "re%d: no memory for jumbo buffers!"
229The driver failed to allocate memory for jumbo frames during
230initialization.
231.It "re%d: watchdog timeout"
232The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with
233the network connection (cable).
234.El
235.Sh SEE ALSO
236.Xr altq 4 ,
237.Xr arp 4 ,
238.Xr miibus 4 ,
239.Xr netintro 4 ,
240.Xr ng_ether 4 ,
241.Xr polling 4 ,
242.Xr rgephy 4 ,
243.Xr vlan 4 ,
244.Xr ifconfig 8
245.Rs
246.%T RealTek Semiconductor RTL8139C+, RTL8169, RTL8169S and RTL8110S datasheets
247.%U https://www.realtek.com
248.Re
249.Sh HISTORY
250The
251.Nm
252device driver first appeared in
253.Fx 5.2 .
254.Sh AUTHORS
255The
256.Nm
257driver was written by
258.An Bill Paul Aq Mt wpaul@windriver.com .
259.Sh BUGS
260The Xterasys XN-152 32-bit PCI NIC, which uses the RTL8169 MAC and
261Marvell 88E1000 PHY, has a defect that causes DMA corruption
262if the board is plugged into a 64-bit PCI slot.
263The defect
264lies in the board design, not the chip itself: the PCI REQ64# and ACK64#
265lines should be pulled high, but they are not.
266The result is that the
2678169 chip is tricked into performing 64-bit DMA transfers even though
268a 64-bit data path between the NIC and the bus does not actually exist.
269.Pp
270Unfortunately, it is not possible to correct this problem in software,
271however it is possible to detect it.
272When the
273.Nm
274driver is loaded, it will run a diagnostic routine designed to
275validate DMA operation by placing the chip in digital loopback mode
276and initiating a packet transmission.
277If the card functions properly,
278the transmitted data will
279be echoed back unmodified.
280If the echoed data is corrupt, the driver
281will print an error message on the console and abort the device attach.
282The
283user should ensure the NIC is installed in a 32-bit PCI slot to
284avoid this problem.
285.Pp
286The RealTek 8169, 8169S and 8110S chips appear to only be capable of
287transmitting jumbo frames up to 7.5K in size.
288.Pp
289If this driver is causing problems then an updated driver from
290the vendor can be found in ports under net/realtek-re-kmod.
291