From owner-freebsd-current Sat Aug 29 14:20:20 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA07501 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sat, 29 Aug 1998 14:20:20 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from bright.fx.genx.net (bright.fx.genx.net [206.64.4.154]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA07496; Sat, 29 Aug 1998 14:20:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bright@hotjobs.com) Received: from localhost (bright@localhost) by bright.fx.genx.net (8.9.1/8.8.8) with SMTP id RAA08688; Sat, 29 Aug 1998 17:20:09 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from bright@hotjobs.com) X-Authentication-Warning: bright.fx.genx.net: bright owned process doing -bs Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 17:20:09 -0500 (EST) From: Alfred Perlstein X-Sender: bright@bright.fx.genx.net To: Bill Paul cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Looking for feedback on xl (3c905/3c905B) driver In-Reply-To: <199808291730.NAA00918@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG works BEAUTIFULLY from a user standpoint, only odd thing is that when i enable a bpfilter program, trafshow/tcpdump it sorta locks up all my processes for a second. it's odd in X as i can movei my mouse, but things like x11amp (linux emulation) lock up for a good 2-3 seconds, then all is well until the program "detaches" from the bpf: releveant info (i hope): dmesg: xl0: <3Com 3c905B Fast Etherlink XL 10/100BaseTX> rev 0x24 int a irq 3 on pci0.1 5.0 ifconfig: xl0: flags=8843 mtu 1500 inet 206.64.4.154 netmask 0xffffffc0 broadcast 206.64.4.191 ether 00:10:4b:98:fa:3b media: autoselect (100baseTX ) supported media: autoselect 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP i have IPFIREWALL, IPVERBOSE compiled into my kernel as well as other odd things: POSIX options, DEVFS and SLICE after an uptime of 23 hours (i downed the machine myself) a netstat -m shows: 48/160 mbufs in use: 34 mbufs allocated to data 14 mbufs allocated to packet headers 25/50/1312 mbuf clusters in use (current/peak/max) 120 Kbytes allocated to network (46% in use) 0 requests for memory denied 0 requests for memory delayed 0 calls to protocol drain routines note that the machine is not heavily loaded, but it survived a gmake -j in the wine directory recently (was unresponcive for a good 5-10 minutes, but then came back) although that is not network related. network "stuff" being used: NFS, remote X, dns and your usual www/ftp/etc. not i can get over 9megs/second over NFS, it looks REALLY good. only concern is the odd behavior with bpfilter. sorry i don't have more exotic stuff to show such as multicast or whatnot. btw, if i set my mtu higher you think i'll get more performance? thank you again for the driver, Alfred Perlstein - Programmer, HotJobs Inc. - www.hotjobs.com -- There are operating systems, and then there's FreeBSD. -- http://www.freebsd.org/ 3.0-current On Sat, 29 Aug 1998, Bill Paul wrote: > Okay people, it's been some time since I put the xl0 driver in -current > and -stable. I need to know if people are having problems with the driver > or not. So far I've gotten startlingly little feedback. This either means > that it's working so well that nobody has had any trouble with it, or > you guys are all just slackers and are too lazy to speak up. > > Basically I'm looking for as many success or failure reports as possible. > If you're having trouble with the driver and you don't tell me about it, > I can't help you, so speak up. If you're not having trouble and it's > working well, I'd like to know that too. > > Here are some things I'd like to know: > > - What kind of adapter you have. Note that a 3c905-TX is NOT THE SAME > as a 3c905B-TX. (See the 'B'? It makes a difference.) Double and triple > check the model. Don't tell me you have a 3c905B when you actually only > have a 3c905. If you want to be really nice, do 'dmesg | grep xl' and > show me the output. > - The driver version you're using. If you obtained the driver by > cvsup'ing -current or -stable, then you have the latest one. If you > downloaded the driver from www.freebsd.org/~wpaul/3Com within the > last week, then you also have the latest one. If you're not sure, > show me the rcsid strings from if_xl.c and if_xlreg.h. > - Does the driver detect all of the adapter's media types correctly? > - Is the system stable? Have you had problems with kernel panics since > you started using the driver? Is mbuf usage normal or does it look > like there's an mbuf leak? (use netstat -m to monitor mbuf usage) > - Type of system (CPU type/speed). Are you using a slower system like > a 486 or older Pentium (P75, P90, P1xx, etc...)? If so, are there > problems with performance? Are you using SCSI disks or IDE disks? > - Type of network to which the adapter is attached. Are you using a > hub? A switch? Crossover cable to another machine? Coax? AUI? If a hub, > are there lots of hosts on the same segment? > - How many adapters in the system. > - How heavily loaded is the system. Is this just a personal machine > with occasional network traffic or is it a heavily used server? > (http, FTP, NFS, login shell box, etc...) Is it a router? > - Observed performance. Does the adapter/driver work well under load? > Does the adapter lock up or otherwise misbehave under high-load > conditions? Are there lots of input or output errors? (use netstat -in > to check) Do you ever have to ifconfig down and ifconfig up the adapter > to reset it? > - 'Out of buffers' problems. Does the 'OACTIVE' flag ever show up when > you do 'ifconfig xl0'? > - Unusual error messages. Are there any diagnostics generated by the > driver that don't look normal? (timeouts, transmission errors, etc...) > - Multicast operation. Is the adapter receiving all the multicast > frames that it should? (Note that the 3c905B adapters have a hash > filter whereas the 3c900 and 3c905 adapters have only a 'receive all > multicast frames' mode, so reports about the 3c905B are more useful.) > - Unusual configurations. Are you using firewalling? Network address > translation? Proxy ARP? IP aliases? Shitloads of IP aliases? Do you > have Lose95/98/NT installed on your machine along with FreeBSD? > Do you have problems warm booting from Lose95/98/NT to FreeBSD? > (Adapter not probed, adapter not reset correctly after warm boot...) > - Benchmarks. Have you compared the xl driver's performance against > any others? What were the numbers? What benchmarks did you use? > Was performace good? Bad? Ugly? > > Here are some things I don't want to hear: > > - "I saw some error but I forgot it, and I didn't write it down. Does > this help?" > - "I saw somewhere you were interested in information about 3c905 > performance with FreeBSD. What exactly do you need to know?" > - "I can give you the information you want, but I wanted to send you a > short note first just to see if you were really interested." > - "You can use Internet Explorer to find out more information about > 3Com products by going to www.3Com.com..." > - "Well, I'm having some trouble, but I don't have time to give you > the details as I'm just about to leave for the airport and fly to > some remote part of deepest, darkest Africa to start a tour with the > Red Cross, and I won't be able to use my computer again for about > three years. But I can try to give you more information when I get > back. Is that okay?" > - "It works just fine with Windows!" > - "It works just fine with Linux!" > - "I can't help you with this 3Com thing, but do you have a driver for > the Gronkulator 2000 board? I've got, like, 20 of them and they only > cost, like, $5 each." > - "D00d, got any war3z?" > - "Are you being investigated?" > - "How do I get FreeBSD? I have Windows 98 and the Internet; will it > work with that?" > > So speak up everyone. Send your cards and letters to > wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu. Operators are standing by. > > -Bill > > -- > ============================================================================= > -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu > Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research > Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City > ============================================================================= > "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness" > ============================================================================= > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message