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Date:      Fri, 9 Mar 2012 01:36:22 -0800
From:      Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org>
To:        Andreas Longwitz <longwitz@incore.de>
Cc:        jfv@freebsd.org, freebsd-net@freebsd.org, Pyun YongHyeon <yongari@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Intel 82550 Pro/100 Ethernet and Microcode
Message-ID:  <CAJ-Vmo===vnCgh2hg2azjYY=hzJ7S%2BGGYF_-q2tiReHPME4FpQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4F594856.3030303@incore.de>
References:  <4F594856.3030303@incore.de>

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Hi!

That's actually a really good catch!

yongari/jfv, what do you think?


Adrian

On 8 March 2012 16:01, Andreas Longwitz <longwitz@incore.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> recently I installed FreeBSD 8.2 Stable on some older machines with
> Intel 82550 and 82550C and found that the loading of microcode with the
> parameter link0 in the ifconfig command did not work anymore. The reason
> for this is the commit r223608 for if_fxp.c with the comment:
>
> Disable microcode loading for 82550 and 82550C controllers. Loading
> the microcode caused SCB timeouts.
>
> I do not agree with this motivation and try to explain why.
>
> Without loading the microcode on 82550(C) there is a problem with
> =A0 mount_nfs -U server:/bigdisk /mnt
> =A0 cp /mnt/bigfile bigfile
>
> NFS with UDP works with 8 KB blocks and the cp hangs after some seconds
> and you see SCB messages on the console. The reason is the TCO bug of
> the hardware mentioned in rcvbundl.h. This old hardware bug disappears
> after loading the microcode.
>
> All my hardware run without problems in FreeBSD 4.11, loading of
> microcode is done by the function fxp_load_ucode(). Later there was
> trouble with the loading of microcode, see kern/103332 and kern/118909.
> I have posted my solution for the problem to kern/103332 but
> unfortunately this PR is not online anymore and so I repeat my
> considerations here.
>
> The difference of the function fxp_load_ucode() of FreeBSD 4.11 and
> later versions is that this function in 4.11 has an own private memory
> buffer for construction of the microcode message. In later versions
> fxp_load_ucode() must use a memory buffer that is shared with other
> parts of the driver and these other parts of the driver have problems if
> the shared memory buffer was used by fxp_load_ucode() before. Thats the
> reason for "Loading microcode caused SCB timeouts".
>
> Therefore my proposal is to revert r223608 and to clean the used shared
> buffer at the end of the function fxp_load_ucode(). The following patch
> works for me for years now:
>
> --- if_fxp.c.orig =A0 =A0 =A0 2012-01-26 12:43:09.000000000 +0100
> +++ if_fxp.c =A0 =A02012-03-08 23:41:32.000000000 +0100
> @@ -3085,6 +3081,7 @@
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0sc->tunable_int_delay,
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0uc->bundle_max_offset =3D=3D 0 ? 0 : sc->tunable_b=
undle_max);
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0sc->flags |=3D FXP_FLAG_UCODE;
> + =A0 =A0 =A0 bzero(cbp, (uc->length + 2) * sizeof(uint32_t));
> =A0}
>
>
> --
> Dr. Andreas Longwitz
>
> Data Service GmbH
> Beethovenstr. 2A
> 23617 Stockelsdorf
> Amtsgericht L=FCbeck, HRB 318 BS
> Gesch=E4ftsf=FChrer: Wilfried Paepcke, Dr. Andreas Longwitz, Josef Flatau
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