BFE(4)

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

💖 BFE(4) — the Broadcom BCM4401 Ethernet tea 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to BFE(4), from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. yes we're reading a manpage together, it's giving study date energy, grab a snack 🍓

✨ NAME ✨

bfe — the Broadcom BCM4401 Ethernet Device Driver. that's it, that's the girl 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so like, there's two ways to get her in the building. option one: compile the driver straight into your kernel. put these lines in your kernel configuration file:

device miibus
device bfe

or, alternatively, if you wanna be lazy in a cute way (no judgment, it's literally me), load the driver as a module at boot time instead. drop this line in loader.conf(5):

if_bfe_load="YES"

boom. loaded. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so the bfe driver is out here providing support for Broadcom BCM4401 based Fast Ethernet adapters. that's her whole job and she's doing it 🫶

now, the bfe driver supports the following media types:

  • autoselect — turns on autoselection of the media type and options. let her pick, she knows what she's doing 💅
  • 10baseT/UTP — sets 10Mbps operation. slow era, retro vibes 🐌
  • 100baseTX — sets 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation. the fast one. main character energy 🔥

and she also supports the following media options:

  • full-duplex — sets full duplex operation ✨

for further info on configuring this device, go peek at ifconfig(8). iykyk 💜

💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

these are the messages she might hit you with. read them, love them, fear them a little:

  • bfe%d: couldn't map memory — a fatal initialization error has occurred 😭 like, truly fatal. she's not okay.
  • bfe%d: couldn't map interrupt — also a fatal initialization error has occurred. two different ways to be not okay, iconic honestly 💀
  • bfe%d: failed to allocate DMA resources — there are not enough mbufs available for allocation. she's hungry and the fridge is empty 🙈
  • bfe%d: watchdog timeout -- resetting — the device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable). check the cable bestie, it's always the cable 🔌
not me getting emotional over a watchdog timeout. but fr, if you see any of these, something is actually wrong. don't just vibe through it.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read these too, they're all part of the friend group:

altq(4), arp(4), miibus(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), ifconfig(8)

👑 HISTORY 👑

the bfe device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.1. vintage, but make it fast ✨

🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

the bfe device driver was written by Stuart Walsh and Duncan Barclay. and this manual page was written by Stuart Walsh. kings, honestly, thank you for your service 🫶

and that's the whole page bestie!! this one's from the Debian crew, dated July 16, 2005 (yes she's an elder, respect her), filed under BFE(4). mwah, go configure something cute 💅💖

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