special files for lan interfaces

[Andrew J. Strebel]

Hello all,

I just setup a C8000 workstation to support/replace a C3600 system and have run into the following issue.

Output from my C3600 is as follows:

#
# uname -a
HP-UX C3600_01 B.11.11 U 9000/785 2015907200 unlimited-user license
#
#
# lanscan
Hardware Station        Crd  Hdw   Net-Interface    NM   MAC       HP-DLPI DLPI
Path     Address        In#  State NamePPA          ID   Type      Support Mjr#
10/0/12/0 0x00306E089B2F 0    UP    lan0 snap0       1    ETHER       Yes   119
#
#
# ioscan -C lan -fun
Class     I  H/W Path   Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
===================================================================
lan       0  10/0/12/0  btlan CLAIMED     INTERFACE    HP PCI 10/100Base-TX Core
                       /dev/diag/lan0  /dev/ether0     /dev/lan0
#
#
# lssf /dev/lan0
btlan card instance 0 ieee at address 10/0/12/0 /dev/lan0
#
#

The same set of commands from the C8000 yields:
#
#
# uname -a
HP-UX d26cs04 B.11.11 U 9000/785 3066199296 unlimited-user license
#
#
# lanscan
Hardware Station        Crd Hdw   Net-Interface  NM  MAC       HP-DLPI DLPI
Path     Address        In# State NamePPA        ID  Type      Support Mjr#
0/3/3/0  0x00306E0A09CB 0    UP    lan0 snap0       1    ETHER       Yes     119
#
#
# ioscan -C lan -fun
Class     I  H/W Path  Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
===================================================================
lan       0  0/3/3/0   iether CLAIMED     INTERFACE    HP  PCI 1000Base-T Built-
in
#
#
#

I can't for the life of me figure out why there are no special files, specifically /dev/lan0 for the C8000.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

P.S.This thread has been moved from  Workstations - Itanium-Based, hp9000, Visualize  to HP-UX > networking- HP Forums Moderator

[Matti_Kurkela]

The LAN interface special files were associated with the old (pre-HPUX 10.00) LLA/9000 network driver interface.

In version 10.00, HP-UX began transition to the newer DLPI interface.

The btlan driver for the 10/100base-TX cards apparently still supports the old-style device files for backwards compatibility, but the new iether gigabit NIC driver is a newer, pure-DLPI implementation which no longer has them.

According to the old "LLA Programming and Migration Guide" I happen to have around, one of the main differences is the use of device files:

--- begin quote ---

LLA requires a separate device file for every LAN interface in the system. This device file is used by LLA to uniquely identify a specific device (e.g. /dev/lan0).

DLPI only requires one device file (/dev/dlpi) to access all supported LAN interfaces. In addition, there are other device files (/dev/dlpiX, where X is 0-100), used by DLPI, to access all supported LAN interfaces. The difference between /dev/dlpi and /dev/dlpiX is clone vs. non-cloneable devices. Basically, cloneable devices give you a separate stream for each open request. Non-cloneable devices only give you one stream no matter how many times you open the device. All of the LAN interfaces supported by HP DLPI support both cloneable and non-cloneable access.

--- end quote ---