EX(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 EX(4) — the i386 kernel interfaces manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair, we're doing a whole deep dive on ex — the Ethernet device driver for the Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 and Pro/10+ 🦋 this one lives in the i386 kernel interfaces manual and honestly? she's a lil vintage icon 👑

✨ NAME ✨

ex — Ethernet device driver for the Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 and Pro/10+ 🌸

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so if you wanna bake this driver into the kernel, you drop this line into your kernel configuration file, like literally just that:

device ex

orrr, if you'd rather load her up as a module at boot time (so much more lowkey, we love flexibility 💅), you put this in loader.conf(5):

if_ex_load="YES"

that's it. that's the whole vibe. ⭐

🚨 DEPRECATION NOTICE 🚨

bestie. sit down. 😭 the ex driver is not present in FreeBSD 13.0 and later. she's gone, she's retired, she left the group chat. see https://github.com/freebsd/fcp/blob/master/fcp-0101.md for more information 💔

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

the ex driver provides support for Ethernet adapters based on the Intel i82595 chip. that's the whole mission statement, no cap ✨

on the ISA bus, the card will be searched for in the I/O address range 0x200 - 0x3a0. the IRQ will be read from the EEPROM on the card 🧚 and for correct operation, Plug-N-Play support should be disabled — yes really, turn it off, she's shy 🙈

on the PC Card bus, the card will be automatically recognized and configured. main character energy, she just knows what she is 💅

👑 HARDWARE 👑

the ex driver supports the following Ethernet adapters:

  • Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 ISA
  • Intel EtherExpress Pro/10+ ISA
  • Olicom OC2220 Ethernet PC Card
  • Olicom OC2232 Ethernet/Modem PC Card
  • Silicom Ethernet LAN PC Card
  • Silicom EtherSerial LAN PC Card

six icons. six legends. 🫶

💬 DIAGNOSTICS 💬

here's what she yells at you and what it means, bestie:

  • ex%d: Intel EtherExpress Pro/10, address %6D, connector %s — the device probe found an installed card, and was able to correctly install the device driver. it's giving success story 🎉
  • ex%d: WARNING: board's EEPROM is configured for IRQ %d, using %d — the device probe detected that the board is configured for a different interrupt than the one specified in the kernel configuration file. not a crisis, but noted 📝
  • ex%d: invalid IRQ. — the device probe detected an invalid IRQ setting. yeah that's a no from her 💀

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

arp(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), ifconfig(8) — go read those too, they're part of the lore 💜

📜 HISTORY 📜

the ex device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2. a true elder of the game 🌸

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

  • the ex device driver was written by Javier Martín Rueda
  • the PC Card attachment was written by Mitsuru ISAWAKI and Warner Losh
  • this manual page was written by David E. O'Brien

collab of the century honestly, we stan a team effort ✨

🐛 BUGS 🐛

okay so here's the tea, and it's not great 😭

  • currently the driver does not support multicast
  • the Silicom EtherSerial card's serial port does not currently work
  • the Olicom OC2232 PC Card should work with the ex driver, but is currently completely broken
so like. two out of three of those are fully broken. proceed accordingly bestie 💀

aaaand that's the whole page! this lil beauty comes to you from Debian, dated October 24, 2018, filed under EX(4) 🌟 stay hydrated, disable your Plug-N-Play, and don't try to use multicast, mwah 💖🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from