NETDIAG(8)

NAME
netdiag - Network adapter hardware-level diagnostics

SYNOPSIS
nicname-diag [options]

DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the ethernet-diag network adapter setup and diagnostic commands. Addition documentation 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 some adapter types, and the internal table is likely to be incorrect for the specific adapter version. This option should never be used without reading the diagnostic source code and understanding the implications of different board versions.

-f  Force operations. This option causes the diagnostic 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 setting.

-H 01:23:45:67:89:AB
    Provide a new station ("Hardware") MAC 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 verbose 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 modifying 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(™) Beowulf System.