---
name: "if_wb"
section: "4"
platform: "linux"
package: "freebsd-manpages"
version: "6.0-5"
release: "Debian 4.0 (Etch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/if_wb"
---

# if\_wb(4)

Winbond W89C840F Fast Ethernet device driver

## NAME

**wb** – Winbond W89C840F Fast Ethernet device driver

## SYNOPSIS

To compile support for the

**wb** driver into your kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

**device miibus** **device wb**

Alternatively, to load the

**wb** driver at boot time, place the following line in [loader.conf(5)](/loader.conf/5.md):

```
if_wb_load="YES"
```

## DESCRIPTION

The **wb** driver provides support for PCI Ethernet adapters and embedded controllers based on the Winbond W89C840F Fast Ethernet controller chip. The 840F should not be confused with the 940F, which is an NE2000 clone and only supports 10Mbps speeds.

The Winbond controller uses bus master DMA and is designed to be a DEC 'tulip' workalike. It differs from the standard DEC design in several ways: the control and status registers are spaced 4 bytes apart instead of 8, and the receive filter is programmed through registers rather than by downloading a special setup frame via the transmit DMA engine. Using an external PHY, the Winbond chip supports both 10 and 100Mbps speeds in either full or half duplex.

The **wb** driver supports the following media types:

- autoselect

  Enable autoselection of the media type and options. This is only supported if the PHY chip attached to the Winbond controller supports NWAY autonegotiation. The user can manually override the autoselected mode by adding media options to the */etc/rc.conf* file.

- 10baseT/UTP

  Set 10Mbps operation. The *mediaopt* option can also be used to select either *full-duplex* or *half-duplex* modes.

- 100baseTX

  Set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation. The *mediaopt* option can also be used to select either *full-duplex* or *half-duplex* modes.

The **wb** driver supports the following media options:

- full-duplex

  Force full duplex operation

- half-duplex

  Force half duplex operation.

Note that the 100baseTX media type is only available if supported by the adapter. For more information on configuring this device, see [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md).

## HARDWARE

The **wb** driver supports Winbond W89C840F based Fast Ethernet adapters and embedded controllers including:

- Trendware TE100-PCIE

## DIAGNOSTICS

- wb%d: couldn't map memory

  A fatal initialization error has occurred.

- wb%d: couldn't map interrupt

  A fatal initialization error has occurred.

- wb%d: watchdog timeout

  The device has stopped responding to the network, or there is a problem with the network connection (cable).

- wb%d: no memory for rx list

  The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the receiver ring.

- wb%d: no memory for tx list

  The driver failed to allocate an mbuf for the transmitter ring when allocating a pad buffer or collapsing an mbuf chain into a cluster.

- wb%d: chip is in D3 power state -- setting to D0

  This message applies only to adapters which support power management. Some operating systems place the controller in low power mode when shutting down, and some PCI BIOSes fail to bring the chip out of this state before configuring it. The controller loses all of its PCI configuration in the D3 state, so if the BIOS does not set it back to full power mode in time, it will not be able to configure it correctly. The driver tries to detect this condition and bring the adapter back to the D0 (full power) state, but this may not be enough to return the driver to a fully operational condition. If you see this message at boot time and the driver fails to attach the device as a network interface, you will have to perform second warm boot to have the device properly configured.

  Note that this condition only occurs when warm booting from another operating system. If you power down your system prior to booting FreeBSD, the card should be configured correctly.

## SEE ALSO

[arp(4)](/arp/4.md), [miibus(4)](/miibus/4.md), [netintro(4)](/netintro/4.md), [ng\_ether(4)](/ng_ether/4.md), [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **wb** device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

## AUTHORS

The **wb** driver was written by Bill Paul ⟨wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu⟩.

## BUGS

The Winbond chip seems to behave strangely in some cases when the link partner switches modes. If for example both sides are set to 10Mbps half-duplex, and the other end is changed to 100Mbps full-duplex, the Winbond's receiver suddenly starts writing trash all over the RX descriptors. The **wb** driver handles this by forcing a reset of both the controller chip and attached PHY. This is drastic, but it appears to be the only way to recover properly from this condition.