Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 20:48:50 -0300 (ART) From: Fernando Gleiser <fgleiser@cactus.fi.uba.ar> To: Doron Shmaryahu <doron@home.crc.co.za> Cc: FreeBSD-questions <FreeBSD-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: 3c905B drivers Message-ID: <20021210204520.F5648-100000@cactus.fi.uba.ar> In-Reply-To: <007501c2a072$2328d670$0801a8c0@dman>
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On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Doron Shmaryahu wrote: > Hi, > > I have had two instance's when using the 3com card that the bsd box > reboot's, when transferring alot of data to it. I have also had machine's Maybe the NICs were buggy. I've heard some of the early 905s were. > complete lockup. I now use Realtek 8029/8139 and not a single problem. I know I wouldn't put a 8131 on a production server, unless I have no choice. This comment is from /sys/pci/if_rl.c: * * The RealTek 8139 PCI NIC redefines the meaning of 'low end.' This is * probably the worst PCI ethernet controller ever made, with the possible * exception of the FEAST chip made by SMC. The 8139 supports bus-master * DMA, but it has a terrible interface that nullifies any performance * gains that bus-master DMA usually offers. * * For transmission, the chip offers a series of four TX descriptor * registers. Each transmit frame must be in a contiguous buffer, aligned * on a longword (32-bit) boundary. This means we almost always have to * do mbuf copies in order to transmit a frame, except in the unlikely * case where a) the packet fits into a single mbuf, and b) the packet * is 32-bit aligned within the mbuf's data area. The presence of only * four descriptor registers means that we can never have more than four * packets queued for transmission at any one time. * * Reception is not much better. The driver has to allocate a single large * buffer area (up to 64K in size) into which the chip will DMA received * frames. Because we don't know where within this region received packets * will begin or end, we have no choice but to copy data from the buffer * area into mbufs in order to pass the packets up to the higher protocol * levels . * * It's impossible given this rotten design to really achieve decent * performance at 100Mbps, unless you happen to have a 400Mhz PII or * some equally overmuscled CPU to drive it. Fer > > Doron Shmaryahu > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Christophe Simon" <titof3000@hotmail.com> > To: <fgleiser@cactus.fi.uba.ar> > Cc: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> > Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 5:30 PM > Subject: Re: 3c905B drivers > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >From: Fernando Gleiser <fgleiser@cactus.fi.uba.ar> > > >To: Christophe Simon <titof3000@hotmail.com> > > >CC: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > > >Subject: Re: 3c905B drivers > > >Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 12:14:36 -0300 (ART) > > > > > >On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Christophe Simon wrote: > > > > > > > Does anyone know about an instability in the 3c90x drivers from 3com > on > > > > freeBSD ? > > > > > >What problems? I've been using 3C905b for years without any problem. > > > > > > > > > > > > Fer > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > > > MSN Messenger : discutez en direct avec vos amis ! > > > > http://www.msn.fr/msger/default.asp > > > > > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > > > > > > > I have a problem of network instability. I use FreeBSD 4.7 as a file > server > > to serve windows machines with samba 3, and i use postfix as mail server. > 10 > > to 20 minutes after my server starts, the samba and postfix services fall > > down and don't reply anymore. I am forced to restart my network by > > /etc/netstart. I try to know if that problem comes from FreeBSD itself, or > > if there can be a problem with the origina driver (i know there's some > > under Linux...) > > > > That's why i ask this question... > > > > Thanks for replying do quick ! > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > MSN Search, le moteur de recherche qui pense comme vous ! > > http://search.msn.fr/worldwide.asp > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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