Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2013 07:14:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Barney Cordoba <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> To: Zaphod Beeblebrox <zbeeble@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Inconsistent NIC behavior Message-ID: <1372860857.99080.YahooMailBasic@web121604.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <CACpH0McJSLXK1tKXFMh64-JoctFA8YGr70qdQ65fYQ5z5QGwSg@mail.gmail.com>
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-------------------------------------------- On Mon, 7/1/13, Zaphod Beeblebrox <zbeeble@gmail.com> wrote: Subject: Re: Inconsistent NIC behavior To: "Barney Cordoba" <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> Date: Monday, July 1, 2013, 7:38 PM =20 On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 12:04 PM, Barney Cordoba <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> wrote: =20 One particular annoyance with Freebsd is that different NICs have different dormant behavior. =20 =20 On this we agree.=20 =20 =20 For example em and igb both will show the link being active or not on boot whether the interface =20 has been UPed or not, while ixgbe and bce do not. =20 =20 =20 I think it's a worthy goal to have NICs work the same in this manner. It's very valuable to know that =20 a nic is connected without having to UP it. And an annoyance when =A0you fire up a new box with a =20 new nic that shows No Carrier when the link light is on. =20 I disagree here.=A0 If an interface is shutdown, it should give no link to the far end.=A0 I consider it an error that many FreeBSD NIC drivers cannot shutdown the link.=20 =20 ---------------------- I think thats a different issue. The ability to shut down a link could easi= ly be a "feature". However when you boot a machine, say with a 4 port NIC, having to "UP" them= all to see which one is=20 plugged in is simply a logistical disaster, particularly with admins with m= arginal skills. While shutting down a link may occasionally be useful, the preponderance of uses = would lean towards having some way of knowing when a nic is plugged into a switch regardless o= f whether it's been fully initialized. BC
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