Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:34:55 -0700 From: Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> To: Tom Judge <tom@tomjudge.com> Cc: Josh Paetzel <josh@tcbug.org>, Paul Schmehl <pauls@utdallas.edu>, freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question about bce driver Message-ID: <4696744F.20508@elischer.org> In-Reply-To: <4695F4FD.2010102@tomjudge.com> References: <BDD239C660ED0435A14C5A76@utd59514.utdallas.edu> <4694940D.9050408@tomjudge.com> <200707111230.24975.josh@tcbug.org> <46956A44.3000304@tomjudge.com> <46958A55.4020704@elischer.org> <4695F4FD.2010102@tomjudge.com>
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Tom Judge wrote: > Julian Elischer wrote: >> Tom Judge wrote: >>> Josh Paetzel wrote: >>>> On Wednesday 11 July 2007, Tom Judge wrote: >>>>> Hi Paul, >>>>> >>>>> From the testing that I have been doing for the last few months >>>>> the driver in 6.2 is stable if you are not using jumbo frames and >>>>> there is a light-moderate network load. >>>>> >>>>> However if you want to use Jumbo frames the driver is very >>>>> unstable. I posted a patch against 6.2 which should fix some load >>>>> based issues in the driver with standard frame sizes. >>>>> >>>>> Tom >>>> >>>> Paul, I was never able to solve the link up/link down problems with >>>> the driver....I was using the drivers from STABLE for a while, and >>>> without jumbo frames everything worked somewhat ok most of the >>>> time....the ultimate solution was to just get the intel PCI-X card >>>> and stop using the broadcoms. >>>> >>>> >>> >>> We have basically come to the same conclusion today, unfortunately >>> this is 35 machines, but if it makes them stable at least we can use >>> them. >> >> I'm not seeing any problems on our 2950s running 6.1 plus some >> backpatches. >> > I am very surprised at that. The driver in 6.1 was un-usable in our > environment. note "plus some backpatches". Doug Ambrisko moved us up to somewhere around 6.2 > 6.2 makes it usable with standard frames under moderate > load. However use jumbo frames and it all falls apart, and unfortunately > the network these systems are plugged into is GigE only with a 8192 > Jumbo mtu. > > I have been trying to get some help with the problem for over a month > now without luck. Firstly I was asked to enable some debugging in the > driver, this just uncovered what seems to be memory management bug in > the driver. A patch was suggest for this but it did not solve the > problem. Next I noticed the NetBSD guys had we written the offending > parts of code which I then ported to FreeBSD driver. Still no luck, > although the problem was not as bad as before. Then I took a look at > the OpenBSD driver, and it seems that they just completely disabled > jumbo frames as they are just so ropey. > > If a patch was released today that fixed the problem then I may be able > to fully test the driver and not have to replace the NIC's. However I am > running out of time with deployment deadlines and I need this kit in > production by the latest mid next week. > > Tom
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