2000-11-10 17:46:57

by michael

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

We have several Supermicro 370DL3 boards (scsi, built into epro100, dual
pentium iii) - which are giving the following ethernet card error on
2.2.18p21, but not on 2.2.18p17. This error has happened on 3 out of 4
boards with this configuration.

Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.
The above message repeats itself and the ethernet card does not work.

On bootup:
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: scsi : detected 1 SCSI disk total.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: SCSI device sda: hdwr sector= 512 bytes.
Sectors= 35843671 [17501 MB] [17.5 GB]
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker
http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/eepro10$
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.20.2.10 $ 2000/05/31
Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <[email protected]$
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro100 82557,
00:30:48:21:2F:9E, I/O at 0xd400, IRQ 31.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Board assembly 000000-000, Physical
connectors present: RJ45
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: General self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Internal registers self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x04f4518b).
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Receiver lock-up workaround activated.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker
http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/eepro100.html
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.20.2.10 $ 2000/05/31
Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <[email protected]> and o$
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Partition check:
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 >
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 52k freed
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Adding Swap: 136512k swap-space (priority -1)
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.


I believe this has been an ongoing issue for these intel nics?

--Michael



2000-11-11 00:24:41

by Allen, David B

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: RE: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

FWIW, I have a dual-proc SuperMicro motherboard P3DM3 with integrated
Adaptec SCSI and Intel 8255x built-in NIC.

Sometimes on a cold boot I get the "kernel: eth0: card reports no RX
buffers" that repeats, but if I follow it with a warm boot the message
doesn't appear (even on subsequent warm boots). So this is definitely
reproducible, but it doesn't happen every time.

I can't offer much more than that, but at least you know you're not the only
one experiencing this.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 9:00 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

We have several Supermicro 370DL3 boards (scsi, built into epro100, dual
pentium iii) - which are giving the following ethernet card error on
2.2.18p21, but not on 2.2.18p17. This error has happened on 3 out of 4
boards with this configuration.

Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.
The above message repeats itself and the ethernet card does not work.

On bootup:
<SNIP>
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker
http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/eepro10$
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.20.2.10 $ 2000/05/31
Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <[email protected]$
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro100 82557,
00:30:48:21:2F:9E, I/O at 0xd400, IRQ 31.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Board assembly 000000-000, Physical
connectors present: RJ45
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: General self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Internal registers self-test: passed.
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x04f4518b).
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Receiver lock-up workaround activated.
<SNIP>
Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.


I believe this has been an ongoing issue for these intel nics?

--Michael


2000-11-11 18:01:29

by michael

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: RE: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

We have the SUPER 370DL3 SuperMicro boards w/ the integrated Intel NIC,
unfortunately a warm boot does not help. The problem also seems to happen
when I turn on the alias ip feature in the kernel under network options.


On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Allen, David B wrote:

> FWIW, I have a dual-proc SuperMicro motherboard P3DM3 with integrated
> Adaptec SCSI and Intel 8255x built-in NIC.
>
> Sometimes on a cold boot I get the "kernel: eth0: card reports no RX
> buffers" that repeats, but if I follow it with a warm boot the message
> doesn't appear (even on subsequent warm boots). So this is definitely
> reproducible, but it doesn't happen every time.
>
> I can't offer much more than that, but at least you know you're not the only
> one experiencing this.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 9:00 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17
>
> We have several Supermicro 370DL3 boards (scsi, built into epro100, dual
> pentium iii) - which are giving the following ethernet card error on
> 2.2.18p21, but not on 2.2.18p17. This error has happened on 3 out of 4
> boards with this configuration.
>
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.
> The above message repeats itself and the ethernet card does not work.
>
> On bootup:
> <SNIP>
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker
> http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/eepro10$
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.20.2.10 $ 2000/05/31
> Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <[email protected]$
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: Intel PCI EtherExpress Pro100 82557,
> 00:30:48:21:2F:9E, I/O at 0xd400, IRQ 31.
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Board assembly 000000-000, Physical
> connectors present: RJ45
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: General self-test: passed.
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Internal registers self-test: passed.
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x04f4518b).
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: Receiver lock-up workaround activated.
> <SNIP>
> Oct 18 12:17:34 db1 kernel: eth0: card reports no RX buffers.
>
>
> I believe this has been an ongoing issue for these intel nics?
>
> --Michael
>
>

2000-11-13 09:31:33

by Andrey Savochkin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

Hello,

On Fri, Nov 10, 2000 at 04:24:12PM -0800, Allen, David B wrote:
> FWIW, I have a dual-proc SuperMicro motherboard P3DM3 with integrated
> Adaptec SCSI and Intel 8255x built-in NIC.
>
> Sometimes on a cold boot I get the "kernel: eth0: card reports no RX
> buffers" that repeats, but if I follow it with a warm boot the message
> doesn't appear (even on subsequent warm boots). So this is definitely
> reproducible, but it doesn't happen every time.

Yes, it's a problem, and it indeed happens not every time.
Dragan Stancevic has promised to check it against Intel's errata.

Best regards
Andrey V.
Savochkin

2000-11-14 22:49:54

by Dennis

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: RE: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

At 12:15 PM 11/11/2000, [email protected] wrote:
>We have the SUPER 370DL3 SuperMicro boards w/ the integrated Intel NIC,
>unfortunately a warm boot does not help. The problem also seems to happen
>when I turn on the alias ip feature in the kernel under network options.
>
>
>On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Allen, David B wrote:
>
> > FWIW, I have a dual-proc SuperMicro motherboard P3DM3 with integrated
> > Adaptec SCSI and Intel 8255x built-in NIC.
> >
> > Sometimes on a cold boot I get the "kernel: eth0: card reports no RX
> > buffers" that repeats, but if I follow it with a warm boot the message
> > doesn't appear (even on subsequent warm boots). So this is definitely
> > reproducible, but it doesn't happen every time.
> >
> > I can't offer much more than that, but at least you know you're not the
> only
> > one experiencing this.
> >

There is a flaw in the eepro100 driver that apparently doesnt initialise
something properly. The problem is exasperated by the fact that the
eepro100 driver doesn handle the buffer problem properly. We've corrected
it by (effectively) resetting the card (by calling close and then open)
when the first out of resources event occurs. Its not elegant, but it seems
to work.

We have identical hardware with dual boot disks (linux and freebsd) and the
problem only occurs with linux, and it only seems to occur with linux. Of
course on the DLE supermicro boards FreeBSD complains about an unsupport
PHY, so there is no joy in mudville no matter what you do :-)

Dennis

2000-11-17 09:37:14

by Andrey Savochkin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: intel etherpro100 on 2.2.18p21 vs 2.2.18p17

Hello,

On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 05:18:25PM -0500, Dennis wrote:
> There is a flaw in the eepro100 driver that apparently doesnt initialise
> something properly. The problem is exasperated by the fact that the

If one want to say it politely, the driver and the hardware sometimes
disagree about the initializing sequence.
Without full documentation, it's hard to say if the driver doesn't follow the
specification or it is a faulty hardware.
For example, I've never observed these problems on hardware except 82559ER.

> eepro100 driver doesn handle the buffer problem properly. We've corrected
> it by (effectively) resetting the card (by calling close and then open)
> when the first out of resources event occurs. Its not elegant, but it seems
> to work.

Best regards
Andrey V.
Savochkin