sk98lin — Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver v6.21
insmod sk98lin.o
[Speed_A=]
[i,j,...Speed_B=]
[i,j,...AutoNeg_A=]
[i,j,...AutoNeg_B=]
[i,j,...DupCap_A=]
[i,j,...DupCap_B=]
[i,j,...FlowCtrl_A=]
[i,j,...FlowCtrl_B=]
[i,j,...Role_A=]
[i,j,...Role_B=]
[i,j,...ConType=]
[i,j,...Moderation=]
[i,j,...IntsPerSec=]
[i,j,...PrefPort=]
[i,j,...RlmtMode=]i,j,...
sk98lin is the Gigabit
Ethernet driver for Marvell and SysKonnect network adapter
cards. It supports SysKonnect SK-98xx/SK-95xx compliant
Gigabit Ethernet Adapter and any Yukon compliant chipset.
When loading the driver using insmod, parameters for the network adapter cards might be stated as a sequence of comma separated commands. If for instance two network adapters are installed and AutoNegotiation on Port A of the first adapter should be ON, but on the Port A of the second adapter switched OFF, one must enter:
insmod sk98lin.o AutoNeg_A=On,Off
After sk98lin is bound to
one or more adapter cards and the /proc filesystem is mounted on your system,
a dedicated statistics file will be created in folder
/proc/net/sk98lin for all ports
of the installed network adapter cards. Those files are named
eth[x] whereas
x is the number of the interface
that has been assigned to a dedicated port by the system.
If loading is finished, any desired IP address can be
assigned to the respective eth[x] interface using the
ifconfig(8) command. This
causes the adapter to connect to the Ethernet and to display
a status message on the console saying "ethx: network
connection up using port y" followed by the configured or
detected connection parameters.
The sk98lin also supports
large frames (also called jumbo frames). Using jumbo frames
can improve throughput tremendously when transferring large
amounts of data. To enable large frames, the MTU (maximum
transfer unit) size for an interface is to be set to a high
value. The default MTU size is 1500 and can be changed up to
9000 (bytes). Setting the MTU size can be done when assigning
the IP address to the interface or later by using the
ifconfig(8) command with the
mtu parameter. If for instance eth0 needs an IP address and a
large frame MTU size, the following two commands might be
used:
ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1 ifconfig eth0 mtu 9000
Those two commands might even be combined into one:
ifconfig eth0 10.1.1.1 mtu 9000
Note that large frames can only be used if your network infrastructure allows to do so. This means, that any switch being used in your Ethernet must also support large frames. Quite some switches support large frames, but need to be configured to do so. Most of the times, their default setting is to support only standard frames with an MTU size of 1500 (bytes). In addition to the switches inside the network, all network adapters that are to be used must also be enabled regarding jumbo frames. If an adapter is not set to receive large frames it will simply drop them.
Switching back to the standard Ethernet frame size can be done by using the ifconfig(8) command again:
ifconfig eth0 mtu 1500
The Marvell/SysKonnect Gigabit Ethernet driver for Linux is able to support VLAN and Link Aggregation according to IEEE standards 802.1, 802.1q, and 802.3ad. Those features are only available after installation of open source modules which can be found on the Internet:
VLAN :
http://www.candelatech.com/~greear/vlan.html
Link Aggregation :
http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~yumo
Note that Marvell/SysKonnect does not offer any support for these open source modules and does not take the responsibility for any kind of failures or problems arising when using these modules.
Speed_A=i,j,...This parameter is used to set the speed
capabilities of port A of an adapter card. It is only
valid for Yukon copper adapters. Possible values are:
10, 100, 1000 or Auto whereas Auto is the default. Usually, the
speed is negotiated between the two ports during link
establishment. If this fails, a port can be forced to
a specific setting with this parameter.
Speed_B=i,j,...This parameter is used to set the speed
capabilities of port B of an adapter card. It is only
valid for Yukon copper adapters. Possible values are:
10, 100, 1000 or Auto whereas Auto is the default. Usually, the
speed is negotiated between the two ports during link
establishment. If this fails, a port can be forced to
a specific setting with this parameter.
AutoNeg_A=i,j,...Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of
port A of an adapter card. Possible values are:
On, Off or Sense whereas On is the default. The Sense mode automatically detects
whether the link partner supports auto-negotiation or
not.
AutoNeg_B=i,j,...Enables or disables the use of autonegotiation of
port B of an adapter card. Possible values are:
On, Off or Sense whereas On is the default. The Sense mode automatically detects
whether the link partner supports auto-negotiation or
not.
DupCap_A=i,j,...This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be
used for port A of an adapter card. Possible values
are: Half, Full or Both whereas Both is the default. This parameter
is only relevant if AutoNeg_A of port A is not set to
Sense. If AutoNeg_A is
set to On, all three
values of DupCap_A ( Half, Full or Both) might be stated. If AutoNeg_A
is set to Off, only
DupCap_A values Full
and Half are allowed.
This DupCap_A parameter is useful if your link
partner does not support all possible duplex
combinations.
DupCap_B=i,j,...This parameter indicates the duplex mode to be
used for port B of an adapter card. Possible values
are: Half, Full or Both whereas Both is the default. This parameter
is only relevant if AutoNeg_B of port B is not set to
Sense. If AutoNeg_B is
set to On, all three
values of DupCap_B ( Half, Full or Both) might be stated. If AutoNeg_B
is set to Off, only
DupCap_B values Full
and Half are allowed.
This DupCap_B parameter is useful if your link
partner does not support all possible duplex
combinations.
FlowCtrl_A=i,j,...This parameter can be used to set the flow control
capabilities the port reports during
auto-negotiation. Possible values are: Sym, SymOrRem, LocSend or None whereas SymOrRem is the default. The
different modes have the following meaning:
Sym = Symmetric both link
partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
SymOrRem =
SymmetricOrRemote both or only remote partner are allowed
to send PAUSE frames
LocSend = LocalSend only
local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
None = None no link
partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_A is set
to Off.
FlowCtrl_B=i,j,...This parameter can be used to set the flow control
capabilities the port reports during
auto-negotiation. Possible values are: Sym, SymOrRem, LocSend or None whereas SymOrRem is the default. The
different modes have the following meaning:
Sym = Symmetric both
link partners are allowed to send PAUSE frames
SymOrRem =
SymmetricOrRemote both or only remote partner are allowed
to send PAUSE frames
LocSend = LocalSend only
local link partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
None = None no link
partner is allowed to send PAUSE frames
Note that this parameter is ignored if AutoNeg_B is set
to Off.
Role_A=i,j,...This parameter is only valid for 1000Base-T
adapter cards. For two 1000Base-T ports to
communicate, one must take the role of the master
(providing timing information), while the other must
be the slave. Possible values are: Auto, Master or Slave whereas Auto is the default. Usually, the
role of a port is negotiated between two ports during
link establishment, but if that fails the port A of
an adapter card can be forced to a specific setting
with this parameter.
Role_B=i,j,...This parameter is only valid for 1000Base-T
adapter cards. For two 1000Base-T ports to
communicate, one must take the role of the master
(providing timing information), while the other must
be the slave. Possible values are: Auto, Master or Slave whereas Auto is the default. Usually, the
role of a port is negotiated between two ports during
link establishment, but if that fails the port B of
an adapter card can be forced to a specific setting
with this parameter.
ConType=i,j,...This parameter is a combination of all five per-port parameters within one single parameter. This simplifies the configuration of both ports of an adapter card. The different values of this variable reflect the most meaningful combinations of port parameters. Possible values and their corresponding combination of per-port parameters:
| ConType | DupCap | AutoNeg | FlowCtrl | Role | Speed |
Auto |
Both | On | SymOrRem | Auto | Auto |
100FD |
Full | Off | None | Auto | 100 |
100HD |
Half | Off | None | Auto | 100 |
10FD |
Full | Off | None | Auto | 10 |
10HD |
Half | Off | None | Auto | 10 |
Stating any other port parameter together with this
ConType parameter will result
in a merged configuration of those settings. This is due to
the fact, that the per-port parameters (e.g. Speed_A) have a higher priority than the
combined variable ConType.
Moderation=i,j,...Interrupt moderation is employed to limit the
maximum number of interrupts the driver has to serve.
That is, one or more interrupts (which indicate any
transmit or receive packet to be processed) are
queued until the driver processes them. When queued
interrupts are to be served, is determined by the
IntsPerSec parameter,
which is explained later below. Possible moderation
modes are: None,
Static or Dynamic whereas None is the default. The different
modes have the following meaning:
None No interrupt
moderation is applied on the adapter card. Therefore,
each transmit or receive interrupt is served
immediately as soon as it appears on the interrupt
line of the adapter card.
Static Interrupt
moderation is applied on the adapter card. All transmit and
receive interrupts are queued until a complete moderation
interval ends. If such a moderation interval ends, all
queued interrupts are processed in one big bunch without
any delay. The term Static
reflects the fact, that interrupt moderation is always
enabled, regardless how much network load is currently
passing via a particular interface. In addition, the
duration of the moderation interval has a fixed length that
never changes while the driver is operational.
Dynamic Interrupt
moderation might be applied on the adapter card, depending
on the load of the system. If the driver detects that the
system load is too high, the driver tries to shield the
system against too much network load by enabling interrupt
moderation. If — at a later time — the CPU
utilization decreases again (or if the network load is
negligible) the interrupt moderation will automatically be
disabled.
Interrupt moderation should be used when the driver has to handle one or more interfaces with a high network load, which — as a consequence — leads also to a high CPU utilization. When moderation is applied in such high network load situations, CPU load might be reduced by 20-30% on slow computers.
Note that the drawback of using interrupt moderation is an increase of the round-trip-time (RTT), due to the queuing and serving of interrupts at dedicated moderation times.
IntsPerSec=i,j,...This parameter determines the length of any
interrupt moderation interval. Assuming that static
interrupt moderation is to be used, an IntsPerSec parameter value of 2000
will lead to an interrupt moderation interval of 500
microseconds. Possible values for this parameter are
in the range of 30...40000 (interrupts per second).
The default value is 2000.
This parameter is only used, if either static or dynamic interrupt moderation is enabled on a network adapter card. This parameter is ignored if no moderation is applied.
Note that the duration of the moderation interval is to be chosen with care. At first glance, selecting a very long duration (e.g., only 100 interrupts per second) seems to be meaningful, but the increase of packet-processing delay is tremendous. On the other hand, selecting a very short moderation time might compensate the use of any moderation being applied.
PrefPort=i,j,...This parameter is used to force the preferred port
to A or B (on dual-port network adapters). The
preferred port is the one that is used if both ports
A and B are detected as fully functional. Possible
values are: A or
B whereas A is the default.
RlmtMode=i,j,...RLMT monitors the status of the port. If the link
of the active port fails, RLMT switches immediately
to the standby link. The virtual link is maintained
as long as at least one 'physical' link is up. This
parameters states how RLMT should monitor both ports.
Possible values are: CheckLinkState, CheckLocalPort, CheckSeg or DualNet whereas CheckLinkState is the default. The
different modes have the following meaning:
CheckLinkState Check
link state only: RLMT uses the link state reported by
the adapter hardware for each individual port to
determine whether a port can be used for all network
traffic or not.
CheckLocalPort In this
mode, RLMT monitors the network path between the two ports
of an adapter by regularly exchanging packets between them.
This mode requires a network configuration in which the two
ports are able to "see" each other (i.e., there must not be
any router between the ports).
CheckSeg Check local port
and segmentation: This mode supports the same functions as
the CheckLocalPort mode and additionally checks network
segmentation between the ports. Therefore, this mode is
only to be used if Gigabit Ethernet switches are installed
on the network that have been configured to use the
Spanning Tree protocol.
DualNet In this mode,
ports A and B are used as separate devices. If you have a
dual port adapter, port A will be configured as eth[x]andportBas
eth[x+1]. Both
ports can be used independently with distinct IP addresses.
The preferred port setting is not used. RLMT is turned
off.
Note that RLMT modes CheckLocalPort and CheckLinkState are designed to operate in
configurations where a network path between the ports on
one adapter exists. Moreover, they are not designed to work
where adapters are connected back-to-back.
/proc/net/sk98lin/eth[x]The statistics file of a particular interface of an adapter card. It contains generic information about the adapter card plus a detailed summary of all transmit and receive counters.
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/sk98lin.txtThis is the README file of
the sk98lin driver. It contains
a detailed installation HOWTO and describes all parameters of
the driver. It denotes also common problems and provides the
solution to them.
This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting
bugs, can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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(C)Copyright 1999-2003 Marvell(R) -- linuxsyskonnect.de sk98lin.4 1.1 2003/12/17 10:03:18 This manpage can be viewed using `groff -Tascii -man sk98lin.4 | less` This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The GNU General Public License's references to "object code" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any document formatting or typesetting system, including intermediate and printed output. This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this manual; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. |