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

# vx(4)

3Com EtherLink III / Fast EtherLink III (3c59x) Ethernet driver

## NAME

**vx** – 3Com EtherLink III / Fast EtherLink III (3c59x) Ethernet driver

## SYNOPSIS

To compile support for the

**vx** driver into your kernel, place the following liness in your kernel configuration file:

**device vx**

Alternatively, to load the

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

```
if_vx_load="YES"
```

## DESCRIPTION

The **vx** driver provides support for the 3Com “Vortex” chipset.

The medium selection can be influenced by the following link flags to the [ifconfig(8)](/ifconfig/8.md) command:

- *link0*

  Use the AUI port.

- *link1*

  Use the BNC port.

- *link2*

  Use the UTP port.

## HARDWARE

The **vx** driver supports the following cards:

- 3Com 3c590 EtherLink III PCI

- 3Com 3c592 EtherLink III EISA

- 3Com 3c595 Fast EtherLink III PCI in 10 Mbps mode

- 3Com 3c597 Fast EtherLink III EISA in 10 Mbps mode

## DIAGNOSTICS

- vx%d: not configured; kernel is built for only %d devices.

  There are not enough devices in the kernel configuration file for the number of adapters present in the system. Add devices to the configuration file, rebuild the kernel, and reboot.

All other diagnostics indicate either a hardware problem or a bug in the driver.

## CAVEATS

Some early-revision 3c590 cards are defective and suffer from many receive overruns, which cause lost packets. The author has attempted to implement a test for it based on the information supplied by 3Com, but the test resulted mostly in spurious warnings.

The performance of this driver is somewhat limited by the fact that it uses only polled-mode I/O and does not make use of the bus-mastering capability of the cards.

## SEE ALSO

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

## HISTORY

The **vx** device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 2.1. It was derived from the **ep** driver, from which it inherits most of its limitations.

## AUTHORS

The **vx** device driver and this manual page were written by Fred Gray ⟨fgray@rice.edu⟩, based on the work of Herb Peyerl and with the assistance of numerous others.

## BUGS

The **vx** driver is known not to reset the adapter correctly following a warm boot on some systems.

The **vx** driver has not been exhaustively tested with all the models of cards that it claims to support.