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Date:      Mon, 07 Aug 2000 17:19:19 -0400
From:      System Administrator <admin@chemcomp.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Ethernet "long event" error frames with FBSD machines
Message-ID:  <398F27D7.4DB5E070@chemcomp.com>

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Hi.

I have a few FreeBSD machines installed on our local network here, and
they seem to perform very badly when doing large TCP transfers (e.g.
FTP). All machines are connected on a 10baseT/UTP network using a switch
(3Com SuperStackII Desktop Switch). But tests using nttcp give me
readings that are quite bad. The maximum bandwidth I can reach using TCP
is 1Mb/s. UDP tests are performing a lot better, giving 9 to 10Mb/s
transfers.

After investigation on the switch's console, I see that the 3 FBSD
machines that I have on the network generate "long events" error that
are described in 3com's manual as:

Late Events: This counter is incremented by one
each time a collision occurs after the valid packet
minimum time. A late event is an out- of- window
collision that may occur if your Ethernet LAN
exceeds the maximum size as defined in the IEEE
standard. A late event is also counted as a collision.

I seem to be missing something here. No other machine on our network
behave so badly. I would really like to have advice on this, because it
may be the turning point of the mere presence of FreeBSD on our network.
I cannot reproduce the behavior on any other machine that FreeBSD
machines. 

What follows is the examples of the tests I ran, snapshot of the
Switch's console and my current kernel config. I run 

FreeBSD sky.chemcomp.com 4.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.0-RELEASE #8: Mon Aug  7
12:25:44 EDT 2000     root@sky.chemcomp.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/SKY 
i386

on all machines.

Thanks,

A.

--
$ nttcp -T -u earth 
     Bytes  Real s   CPU s Real-MBit/s  CPU-MBit/s   Calls  Real-C/s  
CPU-C/s
l  8388608    6.72    6.63      9.7553      9.8777  136258  20282.59  
20537.1
1  8286208    7.01    0.21      9.2306    309.7061    2024    288.60   
9683.1
$ nttcp -T earth 
     Bytes  Real s   CPU s Real-MBit/s  CPU-MBit/s   Calls  Real-C/s  
CPU-C/s
l  8388608   72.87    0.40      0.8994    163.4469    2048     28.11   
5107.7
1  8388608   72.89    0.41      0.8991    160.3335    6121     83.98  
14975.0
$ 

x              Port ID:                              10
(10BASET)              x
x                                                                             
x
x                                                                             
x
x                                                                             
x
x              Bandwidth Used:                       
7%                       x
x                                                                             
x
x              Frames Forwarded:                   
100%                       x
x                                                                             
x
x              Broadcast Frame Bandwidth:            
0%                       x
x                                                                             
x
x              Error Frames:                      
8.85%                       x
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
x                       Port ID:             10
(10BASET)                      x
x                                                                             
x
x                                                                             
x
x                                                                             
x
x                       CRC Align Errors:   
21                                x
x                       Short Events:       
408                               x
x                       Late Events:        
424103                            x
x                       Long Frames:        
0                                 x
x                       Jabbers:            
0                                 x
#
# GENERIC -- Generic kernel configuration file for FreeBSD/i386
#
# For more information on this file, please read the handbook section on
# Kernel Configuration Files:
#
#    http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/kernelconfig-config.html
#
# The handbook is also available locally in /usr/share/doc/handbook
# if you've installed the doc distribution, otherwise always see the
# FreeBSD World Wide Web server (http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/) for the
# latest information.
#
# An exhaustive list of options and more detailed explanations of the
# device lines is also present in the ./LINT configuration file. If you
are
# in doubt as to the purpose or necessity of a line, check first in
LINT.
#
# $FreeBSD: src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC,v 1.246 2000/03/09 16:32:55 jlemon
Exp $

machine		i386
cpu		I586_CPU
ident		SKY
maxusers	32

options		CPU_FASTER_5X86_FPU

makeoptions	DEBUG=-g		#Build kernel with gdb(1) debug symbols
options		DDB			#Kernel Debugger

options 	MATH_EMULATE		#Support for x87 emulation
options 	INET			#InterNETworking
#options 	INET6			#IPv6 communications protocols

options		IPX

options 	FFS			#Berkeley Fast Filesystem
options 	FFS_ROOT		#FFS usable as root device [keep this!]
options 	MFS			#Memory Filesystem
#options 	MD_ROOT			#MD is a potential root device
options 	NFS			#Network Filesystem
options 	NFS_ROOT		#NFS usable as root device, NFS required
options 	MSDOSFS			#MSDOS Filesystem
options 	CD9660			#ISO 9660 Filesystem
options 	CD9660_ROOT		#CD-ROM usable as root, CD9660 required
options 	PROCFS			#Process filesystem
options 	COMPAT_43		#Compatible with BSD 4.3 [KEEP THIS!]
options 	SCSI_DELAY=15000	#Delay (in ms) before probing SCSI
options 	UCONSOLE		#Allow users to grab the console
options 	USERCONFIG		#boot -c editor
options 	VISUAL_USERCONFIG	#visual boot -c editor
options 	KTRACE			#ktrace(1) support
options 	SYSVSHM			#SYSV-style shared memory
options 	SYSVMSG			#SYSV-style message queues
options 	SYSVSEM			#SYSV-style semaphores
options 	P1003_1B		#Posix P1003_1B real-time extentions
options 	_KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING
options		ICMP_BANDLIM		#Rate limit bad replies

device		isa
device		eisa
device		pci

# Floppy drives
device		fdc0	at isa? port IO_FD1 irq 6 drq 2
device		fd0	at fdc0 drive 0
#device		fd1	at fdc0 drive 1

# ATA and ATAPI devices
device		ata0	at isa? port IO_WD1 irq 14
device		ata1	at isa? port IO_WD2 irq 15
device		ata
device		atadisk			# ATA disk drives
device		atapicd			# ATAPI CDROM drives
#device		atapifd			# ATAPI floppy drives
#device		atapist			# ATAPI tape drives
options 	ATA_STATIC_ID		#Static device numbering
options 	ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI_DMA	#Enable DMA on ATAPI devices

# SCSI Controllers
#device		ahb		# EISA AHA1742 family
device		ahc		# AHA2940 and onboard AIC7xxx devices
#device		amd		# AMD 53C974 (Teckram DC-390(T))
#device		dpt		# DPT Smartcache - See LINT for options!
#device		isp		# Qlogic family
#device		ncr		# NCR/Symbios Logic
#device		sym		# NCR/Symbios Logic (newer chipsets)

#device		adv0	at isa?
#device		adw
#device		bt0	at isa?
#device		aha0	at isa?
#device		aic0	at isa?

# SCSI peripherals
device		scbus		# SCSI bus (required)
device		da		# Direct Access (disks)
device		sa		# Sequential Access (tape etc)
device		cd		# CD
device		pass		# Passthrough device (direct SCSI access)

# RAID controllers
#device		ida		# Compaq Smart RAID
#device		amr		# AMI MegaRAID
#device		mlx		# Mylex DAC960 family

# atkbdc0 controls both the keyboard and the PS/2 mouse
device		atkbdc0	at isa? port IO_KBD
device		atkbd0	at atkbdc? irq 1
device		psm0	at atkbdc? irq 12

device		vga0	at isa?

# splash screen/screen saver
pseudo-device	splash

# syscons is the default console driver, resembling an SCO console
device		sc0	at isa?

# Enable this and PCVT_FREEBSD for pcvt vt220 compatible console driver
#device		vt0	at isa?
#options 	XSERVER			# support for X server on a vt console
#options 	FAT_CURSOR		# start with block cursor
# If you have a ThinkPAD, uncomment this along with the rest of the PCVT
lines
#options 	PCVT_SCANSET=2		# IBM keyboards are non-std

# Floating point support - do not disable.
device		npx0	at nexus? port IO_NPX irq 13

# Power management support (see LINT for more options)
device		apm0    at nexus? disable flags 0x20 # Advanced Power Management

# PCCARD (PCMCIA) support
#device		card
#device		pcic0	at isa? irq 10 port 0x3e0 iomem 0xd0000
#device		pcic1	at isa? irq 11 port 0x3e2 iomem 0xd4000 disable

# Serial (COM) ports
device		sio0	at isa? port IO_COM1 flags 0x10 irq 4
device		sio1	at isa? port IO_COM2 irq 3
device		sio2	at isa? disable port IO_COM3 irq 5
#device		sio3	at isa? disable port IO_COM4 irq 9

# Parallel port
device		ppc0	at isa? irq 7
device		ppbus		# Parallel port bus (required)
device		lpt		# Printer
device		plip		# TCP/IP over parallel
device		ppi		# Parallel port interface device
#device		vpo0		# Zip, Requires scbus and da

# PCI Ethernet NICs.
#device		de		# DEC/Intel DC21x4x (``Tulip'')
#device		fxp		# Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B (82557, 82558)
#device		tx		# SMC 9432TX (83c170 ``EPIC'')
#device		vx		# 3Com 3c590, 3c595 (``Vortex'')
#device		wx		# Intel Gigabit Ethernet Card (``Wiseman'')

# PCI Ethernet NICs that use the common MII bus controller code.
device		miibus		# MII bus support
#device		dc		# DEC/Intel 21143 and various workalikes
#device		rl		# RealTek 8129/8139
#device		sf		# Adaptec AIC-6915 (``Starfire'')
#device		sis		# Silicon Integrated Systems SiS 900/SiS 7016
#device		ste		# Sundance ST201 (D-Link DFE-550TX)
#device		tl		# Texas Instruments ThunderLAN
device		vr		# VIA Rhine, Rhine II
#device		wb		# Winbond W89C840F
#device		xl		# 3Com 3c90x (``Boomerang'', ``Cyclone'')

# ISA Ethernet NICs.
#device		ed0	at isa? port 0x280 irq 10 iomem 0xd8000
#device		ex
#device		ep
# WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the WaveLAN/IEEE really
# exists only as a PCMCIA device, so there is no ISA attatement needed
# and resources will always be dynamically assigned by the pccard code.
#device		wi
# Aironet 4500/4800 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the declaration below
will
# work for PCMCIA and PCI cards, as well as ISA cards set to ISA PnP
# mode (the factory default). If you set the switches on your ISA
# card for a manually chosen I/O address and IRQ, you must specify
# those paremeters here.
#device		an
# The probe order of these is presently determined by
i386/isa/isa_compat.c.
#device		ie0	at isa? port 0x300 irq 10 iomem 0xd0000
#device		fe0	at isa? port 0x300
#device		le0	at isa? port 0x300 irq 5 iomem 0xd0000
#device		lnc0	at isa? port 0x280 irq 10 drq 0
#device		cs0	at isa? port 0x300
#device		sn0	at isa? port 0x300 irq 10
# requires PCCARD (PCMCIA) support to be activated
#device		xe0	at isa?

# Pseudo devices - the number indicates how many units to allocated.
pseudo-device	loop		# Network loopback
pseudo-device	ether		# Ethernet support
#pseudo-device	sl	1	# Kernel SLIP
#pseudo-device	ppp	1	# Kernel PPP
pseudo-device	tun		# Packet tunnel.
pseudo-device	pty		# Pseudo-ttys (telnet etc)
pseudo-device   snp     3       #Snoop device - to look at pty/vty/etc..
#pseudo-device	md		# Memory "disks"
#pseudo-device	gif	4	# IPv6 and IPv4 tunneling
#pseudo-device	faith	1	# IPv6-to-IPv4 relaying (translation)

# The `bpf' pseudo-device enables the Berkeley Packet Filter.
# Be aware of the administrative consequences of enabling this!
pseudo-device	bpf		#Berkeley packet filter

options         IPFIREWALL              #firewall
options         IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE      #print information about
                                        # dropped packets
#options         IPFIREWALL_FORWARD      #enable transparent proxy
support
options         IPFIREWALL_VERBOSE_LIMIT=100    #limit verbosity
#options         IPFIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT    #allow everything by
default
#options         IPV6FIREWALL            #firewall for IPv6
#options         IPV6FIREWALL_VERBOSE
#options         IPV6FIREWALL_VERBOSE_LIMIT=100
#options         IPV6FIREWALL_DEFAULT_TO_ACCEPT
options         IPDIVERT                #divert sockets
#options         IPFILTER                #ipfilter support
#options         IPFILTER_LOG            #ipfilter logging
#options         IPSTEALTH               #support for stealth forwarding

# USB support
#device		uhci		# UHCI PCI->USB interface
#device		ohci		# OHCI PCI->USB interface
#device		usb		# USB Bus (required)
#device		ugen		# Generic
#device		uhid		# "Human Interface Devices"
#device		ukbd		# Keyboard
#device		ulpt		# Printer
#device		umass		# Disks/Mass storage - Requires scbus and da
#device		ums		# Mouse
# USB Ethernet, requires mii
#device		aue		# ADMtek USB ethernet
#device		cue		# CATC USB ethernet
#device		kue		# Kawasaki LSI USB ethernet

-- 
Antoine Beaupre
System Administrator
Chemical Computing Group, Inc.


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