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 On Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 12:04 PM, Barney Cordoba <barney_cordoba@yahoo.com> wrote: One particular annoyance with Freebsd is that different NICs have different dormant behavior. On this we agree. For example em and igb both will show the link being active or not on boot whether the interface has been UPed or not, while ixgbe and bce do not. I think it's a worthy goal to have NICs work the same in this manner. It's very valuable to know that a nic is connected without having to UP it. And an annoyance when you fire up a new box with a new nic that shows No Carrier when the link light is on. I disagree here. If an interface is shutdown, it should give no link to the far end. I consider it an error that many FreeBSD NIC drivers cannot shutdown the link. ---------------------- I think thats a different issue. The ability to shut down a link could easily 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 plugged in is simply a logistical disaster, particularly with admins with marginal 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 of whether it's been fully initialized. BC
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