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SunSwift SBus Adapter Installation and User’s Guide—December 1995
2
2.5.3 Auto-Negotiation
A key feature of the SunSwift SBus Adapter is auto-negotiation. The auto-
negotiation protocol, as specified by the 100BASE-TX standard, automatically
selects the operation mode (half-duplex or full-duplex) and speed (10 Mbps or
100 Mbps) for the adapter.
The
hme
device driver operates the
SUNW,hme
device by default in half-
duplex mode only.
If the SunSwift SBus Adapter is connected to a remote system or interface that
is not capable of auto-negotiation, your system automatically selects the speed
and half-duplex mode.
If the SunSwift SBus Adapter is connected to a link partner with which the
auto-negotiation protocol fails to operate successfully, you can configure the
device to not use this protocol and force the driver to set up the link in the
mode and speed of your choice.
Refer to the Platform Notes: The hme Fast Ethernet Device Driver document (Part
No: 802-3970) for more information on the
hme
device driver and auto-
negotiation. (This document is also available on the Solaris 2.5 and the Solaris
2.5: 1/96 AnswerBook.)
2.5.4 Configuring Driver Parameters
The
hme
device driver, which is loaded from the Solaris 2.5 CD-ROM, controls
the
SUNW,hme
Ethernet device. The device driver automatically selects the link
speed using the auto-negotiation protocol with the link partner.
You can manually configure the
hme
device driver parameters to customize
each
SUNW,hme
device in your system in one of three ways:
•
Configure the
hme
driver parameters generally for all devices in the system
by entering the parameter variables in the
/etc/system
file.
•
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.
