C H A P T E R

C H A P T E R 2

Configuring the Driver Software

This chapter includes information and instructions for configuring the driver software used by the Sun hme FastEthernet device driver. Unless otherwise noted, all instructions apply to both the Sun hme FastEthernet PCI adapter and the Sun hme FastEthernet SBus adapter.

This chapter includes the following sections:

Installing the Driver Software

Configuring the Hostname File

Booting From the Network

Optional Post-Installation Procedures

Installing the Driver Software

The Solaris CD-ROM contains the software that must be installed in order to use the Sun hme FastEthernet .

Note - Do not use the installation CD-ROM that shipped with your adapter. The software on the Solaris CD-ROM is more current and replaces previous versions of the driver.

Before using the SUNW,hme device as your network interface, you will need to create and edit configuration files, as described in the next section.

Configuring the Hostname File

t To Configure the Hostname File

1. At the command line, use the grep command to search the /etc/path_to_inst file for hme devices.

For a Sun hme FastEthernet PCI adapter :

# grep hme /etc/path_to_inst

"/pci@1f,4000/network@1,1" 0 "hme"

"/pci@1f,4000/pci@4/SUNW,hme@0,1" 1 "hme"

For a Sun hme FastEthernet SBus adapter :

# grep hme /etc/path_to_inst

"/sbus@1f,4000/network@1,1" 0 "hme"

"/sbus@1f,4000/pci@4/SUNW,hme@0,1" 1 "hme"

2. Create an /etc/hostname.hme num file, where num is the instance number of each interface you plan to use.

If you want to use the network interface from the example in Step 1 , you will need to create a file:

File Name	Instance Number
`/etc/hostname.hme0`	0

Do not create /etc/hostname.hme num files for Sun hme FastEthernet network interfaces you plan to leave unused.
The /etc/hostname.hme num file must contain the host name for the appropriate network interface.
The host name should have an IP address that will need to be entered in the
/etc/hosts file.
The host name should be different from the host name of any other interface, for example: /etc/hostname.hme0 and /etc/hostname.eri0 cannot share the same host name.

Using the instance examples in Step 1 , the following example shows the two
/etc/hostname.hme num files required for a system called zardoz that has a Sun hme FastEthernet ( zardoz, zardoz-11 ).

# cat /etc/hostname.hme0

zardoz

# cat /etc/hostname.eri0

zardoz-11

3. Create an appropriate entry in the /etc/hosts file for each active hme network interface.

Using the previous example, you will have:

# cat /etc/hosts

# Internet host table

127.0.0.1     localhost

129.144.10.57 zardoz    loghost

129.144.11.83 zardoz-11

Note Note - The Internet Protocol, version 6 (IPv6), expands the capabilities of IPv4, which is the current version and the default. The Sun hme FastEthernet device driver included in this release of the Solaris operating environment supports both IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 uses the /etc/hosts configuration file, but IPv6 uses a different configuration file. To transition to, manage, and implement IPv6, refer to the Solaris System Administration documentation.

4. Reboot your system.

Booting From the Network

To use a Sun hme Ethernet interface as the boot device, perform the following tasks:

t To Boot From the Network

1. At the ok prompt type:

ok show-nets

The show-nets command lists the system devices. You should see the full path name of the hme devices, similar to the following examples:

For Sun hme FastEthernet PCI adapter:

/pci@1f,2000/pci@2/SUNW,hme@0,1

For Sun hme FastEthernet SBus adapter:

/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,hme@1,8c3000

Note Note - You need to select only one of these hme devices for booting.

2. At the ok prompt type:

ok boot full_path_name_of_the_hme_device

Optional Post-Installation Procedures

To customize the performance of the Sun hme FastEthernet device, perform the tasks in the following sections.

Setting Driver Parameters

The hme device driver, which is loaded from the Solaris CD-ROM, controls the SUNW,hme Ethernet devices. The device driver selects the link speed using the auto-negotiation protocol with the link partner. (See Auto-Negotiation .)

You can manually set the hme device driver parameters to customize each SUNW,hme device in your system in one of three ways:

Set a parameter on a per-device basis by creating the hme.conf file in the
/kernel/drv directory.

Use the ndd utility to temporarily change a parameter. This change is lost when you reboot the system.

Set the hme driver parameters generally for all SUNW,hme devices in the system by entering the parameter variables in the /etc/system file.

See Chapter 4 for more information.

Note Note - In the future, the /etc/system file will not be available. It is not compatible with dynamic reconfiguration.

t To Force Network Speed Between 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps

1. At the ok prompt, use the show-devs command to list the system devices.

You should see the full path names of the hme devices, similar to the following examples:

For Sun hme FastEthernet PCI adapter:

/pci@1f,2000/pci@2/SUNW,hme@0,1

/pci@1f,2000/pci@2/SUNW,hme@1,1

/pci@1f,2000/pci@2/SUNW,hme@2,1

/pci@1f,2000/pci@2/SUNW,hme@3,1

For Sun hme FastEthernet SBus adapter:

/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,hme@1,8c30000

/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,hme@1,8c20000

/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,hme@1,8c10000

/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,hme@1,8c00000

2. Type:

ok nvedit

3. Type the following, pressing the Return key at the end of line 0:

0: probe-all install-console banner

1: apply transfer-speed=10 full_ path_name_of_a_hme_device

Note Note - If you already have commands in NVRAM, append these lines to the end of the file.

4. Press Control-C after typing full_ path_name_of_a_ hme _device .

Perform Steps 2 to 4 to set the network speed for each hme network interface.

Note Note - In the preceding example, the speed is forced to 10 Mbps. To force the speed to 100 Mbps, replace 10 with 100.

5. At the ok prompt type:

ok nvstore

ok setenv use-nvramrc? true

6. Reboot your system.

See Setting Forced Mode for more information on forcing network speed.

local-mac-address Property

Each of the network interfaces of the Sun hme FastEthernet has been assigned a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address, which represents the 48-bit Ethernet address for that network interface. The OpenBoot trademark firmware reports this MAC address via the local-mac-address property in the device nodes corresponding to the network interfaces.

A system is not obligated to use this assigned MAC address if it has a systemwide MAC address. In such cases, the systemwide MAC address applies to all network interfaces on the system.

The device driver, or any other adapter utility, can use the network device's MAC address ( local-mac-address ) while configuring it. A network interface's MAC address can be used when booting over the network.

The mac-address property of the network device specifies the network address (systemwide or local-mac-address ) used for booting the system. To start using the MAC addresses assigned to the network interfaces of the Sun hme FastEthernet , set the NVRAM configuration variable local-mac-address? to true.

ok setenv local-mac-address? true