netdiag(8)

NAME

netdiag - Network adapter hardware-level diagnostics

SYNOPSIS

nicname-diag [options]

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the ethernet-diag net work adapter setup and diagnostic commands. Addition doc
umentation is available from
http://scyld.com/diag/index.html.

netdiag is a set of hardware diagnostic and setup programs for network adapters, primarily Ethernet and Ethernet-like
adapters.

OPTIONS

netdiag programs need a single dash (´-´) in front of the option. For options without parameters, multiple options
may be concatenated after a single dash. A summary of
options is as follows.

-# N Describe or perform operations only the the Nth
adapter found.
-a Show all chip registers. If the adapter is active,
this option may need to be combined with the '-f'
option.
-B Show the contents of the Flash boot ROM.
-D Increase the debugging level. This may be used to
understand why the diagnostic program is not
detecting an adapter.
-e Show the EEPROM contents. Doubling or tripling
this option, "-ee", shows additional details.
-E Do an Emergency rewrite of a completely corrupted
EEPROM. This option is not implemented for many
adapter types, and the internal table be incorrect
for the specific adapter version. This option
should never be used without reading the diagnostic
source code and understanding the implications.
-f Force operations. This option causes the diagnos
tic program to proceed even if it detects that the
adapter is currently active.
-F media-type
Set the transceiver selection to the specified
type. Valid media types are 10baseT, 10base2,
10base5, AUI.
-G value
Set a adapter-specific General-purpose value. This
is typically used to modify or control the LED set
ting.
-H 01:23:45:67:89:AB
Provide a new station ("Hardware") address for the
adapter.
-L loadfile
Write the Flash boot ROM with the contents of
LOADFILE.
-m Show MII registers. With many diagnostic programs
"-mm" shows additional details or polls the MII
registers for one minute, reporting any status
changes.
-p I/O-port
Specify the I/O port at which to find a single
card. This option is primarily for ISA and CardBus
adapters, but may be useful when a PCI adapter is
not recognized. This option is usually used with
-q Quiet mode. But diagnostic program tend to be ver
bose anyway.
-S savefile
Save the Flash boot ROM contents into SAVEFILE.
-t type-index
Specify the chip type when it cannot be detected.
Using an invalid index e.g. '-1' will cause a list
of chip types to be emitted. This option is usually
used with '-p port-base'.
-T Run a functionality test appropriate to the chip,
typically a memory or loopback test.
-v Increase the verbosity level. Additional "-v"
options increase the level further.
-V Show the program version information.
-w Write the EEPROM with the specified updated values.
Without this option the program will merely report
what it would write.
-? Emit usage information.

SEE ALSO

ether-wake(8),mii-diag(8),mii-tool(8).

KNOWN BUGS

Not all programs allow writing the EEPROM without modify
ing the source code to explicitly enable this feature.
Remember, this permanently modifies the configuration,
losing the old information as part of the process. Some
modifications are difficult or impossible to reverse.

Some diagnostic programs do not implement Flash operations
even when the adapters are physically capable of updating
the EEPROM. The adapter must permit Flash updates from
its regular address space, rather than require access
through the PCI Boot Rom address space. Linux does not
allow user-level programs to memory map the Boot ROM
space.

AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Donald Becker for the
Scyld(tm) Beowulf System.
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