Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus Adapter Installation and User's Guide

Post-Installation Procedures (Optional)

Perform the tasks in the following sections to verify and customize the performance of the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter.

Configuring Driver Parameters

The qfe device driver, which is loaded from the CD-ROM, controls the SUNW,qfe Ethernet devices. The device driver automatically selects the link speed using the auto-negotiation protocol with the link partner (see "Auto-Negotiation").

You can manually configure the qfe device driver parameters to customize each SUNW,qfe device in your system in one of three ways:

Configure the qfe driver parameters generally for all SUNW,qfe devices in the system by entering the parameter variables in the /etc/system file.

Set a parameter on a per-device basis by creating the qfe.conf file in the /kernel/drv directory.

Use the ndd utility to temporarily change a parameter. This change is lost when you reboot the system.

See Appendix C, Configuring the Quad FastEthernet Device Driver Parameters" for more information.

Increasing TCP/IP Performance

The TCP/IP performance of the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter can be increased by changing the TCP high water mark to 64K. This can be done with the ndd utility as follows.

As superuser (root), type:

# ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_xmit_hiwat 65535
# ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_recv_hiwat 65535
# ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_cwnd_max 65535

The changes take effect immediately and affect all the networking interfaces in the system.

Forcing Network Speed Between 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps

At the ok prompt, use the show-devs command to list the system devices.

You should see the full path names of the qfe devices, similar to the example below:
```
/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,qfe@1,8c30000
/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,qfe@1,8c20000
/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,qfe@1,8c10000
/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,qfe@1,8c00000
```

Type:
```
ok nvedit
```

Type the following, pressing the Return key at the end of line 0:
```
0: probe-all install-console banner
1: apply transfer-speed=10 (full path name of a 
qfe device)
```
Note -
If you already have a nvramrc script, append these lines to it.

Press the Control-C keys after typing (full path name of a qfe device).

Note -
In the above two steps, the speed is forced to 10 Mbps. To force the speed to 100 Mbps, replace 10 with 100.

You will need to perform Steps 2 to 4 to set the network speed for each qfe channel.

At the ok prompt type:
```
ok nvstore
ok setenv use-nvramrc? true
```

Reboot your system.

See Appendix C, Configuring the Quad FastEthernet Device Driver Parameters" for more information on forcing network speed.

Auto-Negotiation

A key feature of the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter is auto-negotiation. The auto-negotiation protocol, as specified by the 100BASE-T standard, selects the operation mode (half-duplex or full-duplex), and the auto-sensing protocol selects the speed (10 Mbps or 100 Mbps) for the adapter.

The link speed and modes supported by the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter are listed as follows in decreasing order of priority:

100 Mbps, full-duplex
100 Mbps, half-duplex
10 Mbps, full-duplex
10 Mbps, half-duplex

When the system is booted, the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter advertises these capabilities to the Link Partner at the other end of the link (a hub, switch, or another network interface card (NIC) in a host system). If the Link Partner also supports auto-negotiation, it will advertise its capabilities over the link. The common highest priority mode supported by both sides will be selected automatically for the link operation.

If the adapter is connected to a system or interface that supports auto-negotiation, the adapter will operate at full-duplex mode. If the adapter is connected to a system or interface that does not support auto-negotiation, the auto-sensing protocol will select the speed and the adapter will operate in half-duplex mode. If you have disabled the auto-negotiation protocol on your system, the auto-sensing protocol will select the speed and the adapter will operate in full-duplex mode (unless you have forced the adapter to operate in half-duplex mode).

If the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter is connected to a link partner with which the auto-negotiation protocol fails to operate successfully, you can configure the device to not use this protocol and force the driver to set up the link in the mode and speed of your choice.

`local-mac-address` Property

Each of the network interfaces of the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter have been assigned a unique MAC (Media Access Control) address, which represents the 48-bit ethernet address for that channel. The OpenBoot firmware reports this MAC address via the local-mac-address property in the device nodes corresponding to the network interfaces.

A system is not obligated to use this assigned MAC address if it has a system-wide MAC address. In such cases, the system-wide MAC address applies to all network interfaces on the system.

The device driver, or any other adapter utility, can use the network device's MAC address (local-mac-address) while configuring it. In future versions of the operating system, you will be able to use a channel's MAC address when booting over the network.

The mac-address property of the network device specifies the network address (system-wide or local-mac-address) used for booting the system. To start using the MAC addresses assigned to the network interfaces of the Sun Quad FastEthernet SBus adapter, set the NVRAM configuration variable local-mac-address? to true.

ok setenv local-mac-address? true