Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:34:17 -0500 From: Paul Schmehl <pauls@utdallas.edu> To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question about bce driver Message-ID: <DD81C576CF2A5E243E17D356@paul-schmehls-powerbook59.local> In-Reply-To: <200707111351.07733.josh@tcbug.org> References: <BDD239C660ED0435A14C5A76@utd59514.utdallas.edu> <200707111230.24975.josh@tcbug.org> <0C1E29F62151D7884CFE26A2@utd59514.utdallas.edu> <200707111351.07733.josh@tcbug.org>
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--==========B8EE62A5AC511682BEA8========== Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline --On July 11, 2007 1:51:04 PM -0500 Josh Paetzel <josh@tcbug.org> wrote: > > I was running the driver from STABLE until about March and it would > bounce the link up and down a couple times a day even under > relatively moderate load. (50-60 mbps) So perhaps there have been > improvements since then, but I gave up dealing with it. The driver > was utterly broken in 6.1-R (0.9.5), by the time 6.2-R was getting > rolled the driver in STABLE would at least not tip over under TCP > load, but it was trivial to wedge it with even moderate amounts of > UDP. > > I eventually reached the conclusion (correct or not) that you can't > fix crap hardware with a driver. No offense, but I think that's the incorrect conclusion. It pains me to=20 say it, but we have never had a single problem with the Broadcomms on=20 Windows servers, and we have a boatload of them (at least 100). That=20 seems to point to the driver being the source of the problem, not the=20 hardware. Furthermore, when I first got the 1950, the NIC was completely=20 unusable. It would lock up hard and require a reboot to function again.=20 That problem was fixed in the next iteration of the driver, and, except=20 for the link state problem, the NIC has functioned normally ever since.=20 (I don't use jumbo frames.) ISTM the driver is the source of all the problems associated with the=20 card(s). I wish I knew enough to work on driver code, but I do not. I=20 noticed that the guy writing the driver for FreeBSD works for Broadcomm.=20 Perhaps he could comment? Paul Schmehl (pauls@utdallas.edu) Senior Information Security Analyst The University of Texas at Dallas http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/ --==========B8EE62A5AC511682BEA8==========--
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