This section contains installation and configuration procedures for the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Adapter driver for Solaris x86 and Solaris Sparc.
Driver Formats Installing the Driver Uninstalling the Driver Customizing the Driver Configuration Customizing the Driver Configuration using the "ndd" Command
The driver for Solaris 8.0 is released in two formats:
or
Copy BRCMbcme.tar.Z
to /tmp
cd /tmp
uncompress BRCMbcme.tar.Z
tar xvf BRCMbcme.tar
pkgadd -d /tmp
To make these changes permanent, follow these steps:
In Solaris 7.0 (Intel platform), the operating system only allocates 36 pages of 4K physically contiguous memory. The driver needs about 130K of physically contiguous memory per NIC. In order to use more than one NIC the O/S has to allocate more memory. This can be done by setting an O/S system variable "lomempages" in /etc/system. For instance, when 4 NICs are installed in a Solaris 7 system, the physically contiguous memory is calculated as follows:
4 NICs * 130K = 520 K ==> 130 pages of 4K is required.
Since this memory might be used by other driver in the system, 200 of 4K of memory is allocated. Add the following line in file /etc/system:
set lomempages=200
To customize the driver, edit /kernel/drv/bcme.conf and update the respective parameters in this file. These parameters are described below:
ForceSpeedDuplex configures link (or instance) to a certain Speed and Duplex. By default, all instances are set to AutoNegotiate (0). The Default instance settings then are:
ForceSpeedDuplex=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0;
These settings are based on the following values:
ValueDescription 0AutoNegotiate 110 Mbps speed and Half Duplex mode 210 Mbps speed and Full Duplex mode 3100 Mbps speed and half Duplex mode 4100 Mbps speed and Full Duplex mode 5Force 1000 Mbps Full Duplex mode. 6AutoNegotiate only 1000 Mbps Full Duplex mode.
7AutoNegotiate only 1000 Mbps Half Duplex mode.
8AutoNegotiate only 100 Mbps Full Duplex mode.
9AutoNegotiate only 100 Mbps Half Duplex mode.
10AutoNegotiate only 10 Mbps Full Duplex mode.
11AutoNegotiate only 10 Mbps Half Duplex mode.
Example: To configure adapters of instance #0 to 100 Mbps Full Duplex and instance #3 to 10 Mbps Half Duplex, set the ForceSpeedDuplex parameter as follows:
ForceSpeedDuplex=4,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0;
FlowControl configures flow control parameters of a link. By default, all instances are set to disable both Tx and Rx flow control (0). As a result, the default instance settings are:
FlowControl=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0;.
These settings are based on the following values:
ValueDescription 0Both Tx and Rx flow control are disabled. 1Tx flow control is enabled. Pause frames will be sent if resource is low. But device will not process Rx Pause Frame. 2Rx flow control is enabled. If the device receives a Pause Frame, it will stop sending. However, the device will not send a Pause Frame if resource is low. 3Both Rx and TX flow control are enabled. Pause frames will be sent if resource is low. If the device receives a Pause Frame, it will stop sending. 4Advertise both Rx and TX Flow Control being enabled and negotiate with the link partner. If link AutoNegotiate is not enabled, then both Tx and Rx Flow Control are disabled.
MaxJumboFrameSize configures the Jumbo Frame feature of a link. The valid range of values for this parameter is 0 to 9000. If the value configured is less than 1500, then the Jumbo Frame feature is disabled. Once this is configured, the ifconfig command is used to configure the desired MTU size. The default instant setting is 0 (MaxJumboFrameSize=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0;)
Example: To configure instance 2 to support a Jumbo Frame of up to 9000 bytes, set the MaxJumboFrameSize parameter as follows:
MaxJumboFrameSize=0,0,9000,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0;
ifconfig bcme2 mtu 9000
TxPacketDescCnt configures the number of Tx packet descriptors. The valid range of values for this parameter is 32 to 512. More system memory resource will be used for a larger number of Tx Packet Descriptors. The default value is 100:
TxPacketDescCnt=100;
RxStdDescCnt configures the number of Rx packet descriptors. The valid range of values for this parameter is 32 to 512. More system memory resources will be used for a larger number of Rx Packet descriptors. The default value is 500.
RxStdDescCnt=500;
RxJumboDescCnt configures the number of Rx Jumbo packet descriptors. The valid range of values is 32 to 256. More system memory resource will be used for larger number of Rx Jumbo packet descriptors. This parameter is only used if the Jumbo Frame feature is enabled. The default value is 50.
RxJumboDescCnt=50;
RxCoalescingTicks configures the number of Rx Host Coalescing Ticks in microseconds. This determines the upper-bound of time interval in which the device will generate an interrupt if one or more frames are received. The default value is 150.
RxCoalescingTicks=150;
RxMaxCoalescedFrames configures the number of Rx Maximum Coalesced Frames parameters. This determines the maximum number of Rx buffer descriptors that the device processes before it will generate an interrupt. The default value is 10.
RxMaxCoalescedFrames=10;
TxCoalescingTicks configures the number of Tx Host Coalescing Ticks in microseconds. This determines maximum time interval before the device generates an interrupt if one or more frames are sent. The default value is 150.
TxCoalescingTicks=150;
TxMaxCoalescedFrames configures the number of Tx Maximum Coalesced Frames parameters. This determines upper-bound of the maximum number of Tx buffer descriptors that the device processes before it will generate an interrupt. The default value is 10.
TxMaxCoalescedFrames=10;
RxCoalescingTicksDuringInt configures the number of Rx Host Coalescing Ticks in microseconds during an interrupt. This determines the maximum time interval before the device generates an interrupt if one or more frames are received during interrupt handling. The default value is 50.
RxCoalescingTicksDuringInt=50;
TxCoalescingTicksDuringInt configures the number of Tx Host Coalescing Ticks in microseconds during interrupt. This determines the upper-bound of time interval that the device generates and interrupt if one or more frames are received during interrupt handling. The default value is 50.
TxCoalescingTicksDuringInt=50;
RxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt configures the number of Rx Maximum Coalesced Frames parameters during interrupt handling. This determines the upper-bound of maximum number of Rx buffer descriptors that the device processes before it will generate an interrupt during interrupt handling. The default value is 4.
RxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt=4;
TxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt
configures the number
of Tx Maximum Coalesced Frames parameters during interrupt handling. This determines
the upper-bound of maximum number of Tx buffer descriptors that the device processes
before it will generate an interrupt during interrupt handling. The default
value is 4.
TxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt=4;
StatsCoalescingTicks configures how often adapter statistics are DMAed to the host memory in microseconds. The default value is 1000000.
StatsCoalescingTicks=1000000;
DoubleCopyTxBufferSize configures a double copy Tx buffer size. If the packet to be transmitted is less than this parameter and spans more than 1 fragment, the fragments of this packet will be combined into one fragment. The default value is 64.
DoubleCopyTxBufferSize=64;
Driver configurations can also be temporarily changed with the Solaris ndd command. Any changes made with ndd command are temporary and will be lost when you reboot the system. To make configuration changes survive after reboot, modify bcme.conf instead.
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NOTE – Refer to the parameter descriptions as required in Customizing the Driver Configuration above. |
To display parameters that are configurable using ndd:
ndd /dev/bcme '?'
The system should return the following:
? (read only)
Instance (read and write)
ForceSpeedDuplex (read and write)
FlowControl (read and write)
TxPacketDescCnt (read and write)
RxStdDescCnt (read and write)
RxCoalescingTicks (read and write)
RxMaxCoalescedFrames (read and write)
TxCoalescingTicks (read and write)
TxMaxCoalescedFrames (read and write)
RxCoalescingTicksDuringInt (read and write)
RxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt (read and write)
TxCoalescingTicksDuringInt (read and write)
TxMaxCoalescedFramesDuringInt (read and write)
StatsCoalescingTicks (read and write)
DoubleCopyTxBufferSize (read and write
BlinkLeds (write only
To configure a particular NIC, the parameter "instance" must be properly set.
Examples:
To force a NIC of instance 1 to 100Mbps Full Duplex:
- ndd -set /dev/bcme Instance 1
- ndd -set /dev/bcme ForceSpeedDuplex 4
To query the current configuration of Flow Control of instance 3:
- ndd -set /dev/bcme Instance 3
- ndd -get /dev/bcme FlowControl
To blink all LEDs for 10 seconds of NIC of instance 5:
- ndd -set /dev/bcme Instance 5
- ndd -set /dev/bcme BlinkLeds 10