TL(4)

NAME
tl - Ethernet driver for Texas Instruments ThunderLAN based board

SYNOPSIS
tl* at pci? dev ? function ?
tlphy* at mii?
nsphy* at mii?

DESCRIPTION
The tl device driver supports network adapters based on the Texas Instruments ThunderLAN chip on i386 CPUs. Supported cards include:

Compaq Netelligent
    in baseboard and PCI variants (10bT-only and dual-port variants untested).

Compaq NetFlex 3/P
    in baseboard variant only (the PCI variant doesn't use the same chip !).

Baseboard Compaq Deskpro 4000 5233MMX ethernet (untested).

TI TravelMate 5000 series laptop docking station's ethernet board.

MEDIA SELECTION
The different models of the supported boards come with some subset of RJ-45, BNC and AUI connectors. Supported media include:

AUI/DIX
    Standard 15 pin connector

10Base2
    BNC, also known as thin-net

10BaseT
    UTP, also known as twisted pair

100baseTX
    100Mbit over cat-5 UTP

The tl driver don't have automatic media selection, and there is no media selected by default. An explicit medium must be specified to ifconfig(8) or in your /etc/ifconfig.tl? file. The media option full-duplex can be used to switch the UTP port in full-duplex mode.

DIAGNOSTICS
    tl0: no carrier
    nsphy0: 10baseT: no carrier
means that the driver detected a carrier loss. This usually indicates a bad link.

BUGS
The board marked as untested will always claim having an AUI connector, where it may be a BNC one.

The driver really should have a media autosensing function.

On AUI and BNC ports, false carrier loss may be detected on heavily-loaded networks.

SEE ALSO
ifconfig(8), intro(4), pci(4)