DE(4)

📦 in nixpkgs unstable

💅 DE(4) — the DEC DC21x4x (Tulip) 10/100 Ethernet device, bestie edition 🦋

Okay so picture this: it's a manual page, it's called DE(4), it lives in the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and it's about a whole vibe of network card. Buckle up, we're getting into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

de — the DEC DC21x4x (Tulip) 10/100 Ethernet device. That's the whole name, that's the whole card, she's iconic 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

de* at pci?

Literally that's it. She attaches at pci? and she's off 🎀

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So the de device driver supports Ethernet adapters built on the Digital Equipment DC21x4x self-contained Ethernet chips. And like, "includes, among others" — here's the roster, no cap:

  • Asante
  • Cogent EM100FX and EM440TX
  • DEC PCI DE435, EISA DE425, DE450, DE500
  • older Linksys 10, 10/100
  • SMC 8432, 9332, 9334
  • ZNYX ZX3xx

This driver may also support other cards based on the 21040 and 21041 Ethernet controllers, or the 21140[A], 21141, 21142, and 21143 Fast Ethernet controllers. May! We're manifesting, not promising 🧚

🦋 the media types she supports

  • autoselect — enables autoselection of the media type and options ✨ (the "let her cook" option)
  • 10baseT — sets 10Mbps operation on the 10baseT port
  • 10base2 — sets 10Mbps operation on the BNC port
  • 10base5 — sets 10Mbps operation on the AUI port
  • 100baseTX — sets 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation 🔥
  • 100baseFX — sets 100Mbps operation
  • 100baseT4 — sets 100Mbps operation (that's the 4-pair cat-3 cable situation, iykyk)

🎀 the media options

  • full-duplex — sets full duplex operation for the UTP port

Bestie, if you want the full deets on configuring this device, go see ifconfig(8). And if you wanna see the list of media types and options your card actually supports, try ifconfig <device> media. Like for example:

ifconfig de0 media
⚠️ Real talk: the media types available depend on the particular card in use. Some cards are explicitly programmed to a particular media type by a setup utility and are just not changeable. She said "this is who I am," and honestly? Respect 😭

Also the old ifconfig linkN method of configuration is not supported. It's giving deprecated. We don't do that here 💀

💅 DIAGNOSTICS 💅

  • de0: waking device from sleep/snooze mode — the 21041 and 21140A chips support suspending the operation of the card. She was napping 😴, now she's up.
  • de0: error: desired IRQ of X does not match device's actual IRQ of Y — the device probe detected that the board is configured for a different interrupt than the one specified in the kernel configuration file. Basically a mismatch moment 🙈
  • de0: not configured; limit of N reached or exceeded — there's a limit of 32 de devices allowed in a single machine. Thirty-two! That's the cap, bestie, literally.
  • de0: not configured; 21040 pass 2.0 required (X.Y found)
  • de0: not configured; 21140 pass 1.1 required (X.Y found) — certain revisions of the chipset are just not supported by this driver. Wrong era, wrong pass, wrong energy 💀

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

Go read them, they're all part of the lore 📚

🌈 AUTHORS 🌈

The de device driver was written by Matt Thomas. This manual page was written by David E. O'Brien. Legends, both of them 🫶

⭐ CAVEATS ⭐

Since the 21040 is available on both EISA and PCI boards, one must be careful in how one defines the 21040 in the kernel config file. Like, be careful, okay?? She's on both dance floors and you gotta be specific about which one you're inviting 💃

Okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 — this beauty came from the Debian crew, dated January 15, 2015, and it's filed under DE(4). Slay, bye 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from