Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 17:35:18 -0700 From: John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@tristatelogic.com> Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Question: Why ain't I getting gigabit speed? Message-ID: <6FA76794-13B9-4124-BD0E-87E1673B8B7A@jnielsen.net> In-Reply-To: <29539.1360356512@tristatelogic.com> References: <29539.1360356512@tristatelogic.com>
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On Feb 8, 2013, at 1:48 PM, Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg@tristatelogic.com> =
wrote:
> In message <F03C262C-E798-4062-8B17-59F045ADB82D@jnielsen.net>,=20
> John Nielsen <john@jnielsen.net> wrote:
>=20
>> On Feb 7, 2013, at 4:13 PM, Ronald F. Guilmette =
<rfg@tristatelogic.com> =3D
>> wrote:
>>=20
>>> I just aquired a brand new chepie gigabit PCI ethernet card off =
eBay.
>>> The main chip on it appears to be an RTL8110S-32.
>>> ...
>=20
>> I would suspect the switch ("router"). FYI:
>> http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=3D3D11&t=3D3D47421#p213242
>>=20
>> I have an re interface on my FreeBSD router and it connects at =
1000baseT =3D
>> no problem.
>=20
> Could you please send or post the relevant ifconfig printout for that,
> and also the applicable/relevant dmesg lines?
% ifconfig re0
re0: flags=3D8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu =
1500
=
options=3D8209b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGI=
C,LINKSTATE>
ether 00:1f:e2:55:1d:bc
inet 67.182.217.170 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 255.255.255.255=20=
nd6 options=3D29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
status: active
% dmesg | egrep '^re0:|^miibus0:|^rgephy0:'
re0: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port =
0xd800-0xd8ff mem 0xfe9ff000-0xfe9fffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci2
re0: Using 1 MSI message
re0: Chip rev. 0x38000000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00400000
miibus0: <MII bus> on re0
rgephy0: <RTL8169S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface> PHY 1 on =
miibus0
rgephy0: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 10baseT-FDX-flow, 100baseTX, =
100baseTX-FDX, 100baseTX-FDX-flow, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, =
1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, 1000baseT-FDX-flow, =
1000baseT-FDX-flow-master, auto, auto-flow
re0: Ethernet address: 00:1f:e2:55:1d:bc
> This problem is very perplexing, but I don't think that the problem
> is with my Linksys E2000.
>=20
> I did some more experiments. Fortunately, I had a CAT6 crossover =
cable
> lying around. So I used that and connected my machine with the =
RTL8110S-32
> in it directly to two other machines with gigabit interfaces. One was
> my other server. The other was a laptop I have here. The results =
were
> very strange.
>=20
> In the case of connecting to the laptop, all seemed to work correctly,
> however ifconfig showed that my re0 device in this case believed =
itself
> to be "master". (I suspect that this may make a difference, and that
> the current FreeBSD re driver may perhaps behave better when it is
> acting as master.)
Agree with other followup--"master" shouldn't be applicable here; figure =
that out before you spend more time worrying about hardware. Would you =
mind posting a redacted version of /etc/rc.conf (and the contents of =
/etc/rc.conf.d, if any)?
> In the case of connecting (via CAT6 crossover) direct to my other =
server,
> things got even more strange. In this case, after making the =
connection,
> autonegotiation apparently worked correctly, and I could see =
"1000baseT"
> in the output from "ifconfig re0", *however* a moment or two later,
> suddenly the connection was entirely dropped, and now the ifconfig
> output said "no carrier". I reproduced this sequence multiple times.
> It is readily reproducable. (The other server is running FreeBSD 8.3-
> RELEASE with an on-motherboard Nvidia gigabit ethernet interface, =
BTW.)
Any log or kernel messages on either side when this happens?
> I am inclined to wonder if perhaps the re driver has some rough edges
> still.
I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. It's not exactly a new driver and =
its author (Bill Paul) was quite experienced. It is possible you have a =
dodgy board though.
> P.S. Since this card is really not working out for me, has anybody =
got
> a suggestion and/or link they could send me for an _inexpensive_ =
gigabit
> PCI nic that works reliably with FreeBSD? (I am hoping for something =
under
> $12 USD.)
Most/all 1G NIC's in that price range will be Realtek. You may be able =
to find a Marvell/SysKonnect card for a bit more, but for not much more =
than that you can get something from Intel. You may get gigabit links =
from a cheap card but I wouldn't count on gigabit performance. (Actually =
any PCI card will fall short of gigabit performance.) If you actually =
care then spend the $30 on an Intel card.
JN
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