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Date:      Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:48:02 -0500
From:      "Matthew Rezny" <mrezny@umr.edu>
To:        "Jim McGrath" <jmcgrath@sitaranetworks.com>
Cc:        "net@freebsd.org" <net@freebsd.org>
Subject:   RE: Alteon gigE NIC (if_ti) problems
Message-ID:  <20010925224800.6DAB237B401@hub.freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <31269226357BD211979E00A0C9866DAB01BE7963@rios.sitaranetworks.com>

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The Intel NIC flooded the remote end (computer or switch) with trash
such that the device was unable to process anything as long as the link
was up. This occured as long as the computer was on, before the driver
loaded or the OS booted, so it wasn't a driver problem. I tried both
the wx and gx driver and neither seemed to initialize it in any way
that allowed it to work properly. Traffic could pass through the link
but the remote end couldn't do much since it was flooded with junk that
appeared to be flow-control stuff.

With this Alteon card, the remote end is just fine and all traffic
passes through. The disconnect appears on the computer. The link light
on the switch never goes off when the computer says its link is
continously going down and up. I suspect that when it thinks the link
drops, all trafffic gets delayed until some timeout period after the
link is back, which is why I'm seeing slowdowns.

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:36:15 -0400, Jim McGrath wrote:

>What kind of problems were you having with the Intel GigE NIC?  I've got it
>running in an Intel box, the only recent problems have been of my own
>making.  I found a bug in the code for the copper version of the NIC.  Were
>you running a fiber or copper NIC?
>
>I'm not as familiar with the ti driver, but it sounds like a watchdog timer
>problem.  That will cause a reset of the NIC.
>
>Jim
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Matthew Rezny [mailto:mrezny@umr.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 2:17 PM
>To: net@freebsd.org
>Subject: Alteon gigE NIC (if_ti) problems
>
>
>I recent gave up truing to make a Intel gigE NIC work in my Alpha so I
>got an Alteon board. It works without the severe problem of the Intel
>card. However, its acting a little weird. I see messages saying the
>link went down and up quite often. I've tried both 4.3 and 4.4 and have
>the same thing. I increased NMBCLUSTERS significantly and still see the
>same thing. I made the switch from 4.3 to 4.4 at the same time I
>incrased NMBCLUSTERS from 8192 to 32767 so I can't say which, but one
>(or both) of those changes increased the rate at which I see the link
>status change message. Before I saw it every once in a while
>reguardless of whether there was heavy traffic or not. Now it shows up
>every few seconds when there is any traffic at all. Anyone have any
>ideas what's going on?
>
>BTW, I would include my dmesg but its full of "ti0: link down" and
>"ti0: gigabit link up" so here's there pertinent info.
>Alpha 21164PC 533 on PC164SX
>Alteon gigE card in 64bit PCI slot with IRQ 11 which is not shared
>If any other info would help, just ask and I'll get it.
>
>
>
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