From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 3 08:13:37 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E54C91065678 for ; Tue, 3 Jun 2008 08:13:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from smtp.utwente.nl (unknown [IPv6:2001:610:1908:1000:204:23ff:feb7:ef56]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D19A8FC21 for ; Tue, 3 Jun 2008 08:13:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from lux.student.utwente.nl (lux.student.utwente.nl [130.89.170.81]) by smtp.utwente.nl (8.12.10/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id m538CEcW023011; Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:12:14 +0200 From: Pieter de Goeje To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:12:10 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <164F5576-6023-4873-A1FE-CBAFD2E612A4@unbc.ca> In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200806031012.12180.pieter@degoeje.nl> X-UTwente-MailScanner-Information: Scanned by MailScanner. Contact servicedesk@icts.utwente.nl for more information. X-UTwente-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-UTwente-MailScanner-From: pieter@degoeje.nl X-Spam-Status: No Cc: Jeremy Karlson Subject: Re: 7-STABLE Watchdog Timeout X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:13:38 -0000 On Tuesday 03 June 2008, Jeremy Karlson wrote: > I'm still looking into my watchdog timeout with me re card. I'm > starting to wonder if my problem is in any way related to the > discussion back in September 2006 starting with this post: > > "6.2 SHOWSTOPPER - em completely unusable on 6.2" > http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2006-September/028792.htm >l > > It seems that under certain conditions and loads, a network interface > with a shared interrupt would stop responding until the watchdog > resets it. This seems to be very similar to what I see. At the time, > they seemed mostly concerned about fixing the em driver; I'm using re. > > Unfortunately though, I can't seem to find what the resolution to this > was, and if it could be related to the failure I'm seeing. Does > anyone know what happened with that problem? > > -- Jeremy If I remember correctly, there were two problems: 1) there was a race in the interrupt handler (this affected all interrupt handlers), 2) em used the now obsolete if_timer to implement it's watchdog timeout. This timer is unreliable. Both items have been fixed, so this shouldn't be related to your problem. #2 wasn't fixed in all drivers, but if you are affected you should see a warning on startup stating the use of the obsolete timer. I believe if_re was converted some time ago. Note that in theory watchdog timeouts could also mean broken hardware, bad connection to PCI bus or other intermittent hw failure. I would try reseating the card in another slot. -- Pieter de Goeje