Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello,

I was observing this strange problem today while verifying performance of 
Sequoia board.

Initial conditions:
1) 2.6.12-rc3_L002 kernel from PMCS ftp, compiled for 32bit mode
2) bridge code is compiled into kernel
3) four 100Mbps ethernet devices and one onboard Gigabit link are joined 
into bridge using bridge-utils-1.1
4) I connected board gigabit link to SmartBit Gb interface and four 100mbps 
links to SmartBit FastEthernet interfaces

But 'brctl showmacs br0' shows only fast ethernet links being learned, but 
never gigabit. We have suspicion that Titan driver affects this somehow.

Does anybody have any idea about it or ran into this before?

Thanks in advance!

With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello,

I was observing this strange problem today while verifying performance of 
Sequoia board.

Initial conditions:
1) 2.6.12-rc3_L002 kernel from PMCS ftp, compiled for 32bit mode
2) bridge code is compiled into kernel
3) four 100Mbps ethernet devices and one onboard Gigabit link are joined 
into bridge using bridge-utils-1.1
4) I connected board gigabit link to SmartBit Gb interface and four 100mbps 
links to SmartBit FastEthernet interfaces

But 'brctl showmacs br0' shows only fast ethernet links being learned, but 
never gigabit. We have suspicion that Titan driver affects this somehow.

Does anybody have any idea about it or ran into this before?

Thanks in advance!

With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Ralf Baechle]

On Mon, Jun 19, 2006 at 06:02:08PM +0900, Roman Mashak wrote:

> I was observing this strange problem today while verifying performance of 
> Sequoia board.
> 
> Initial conditions:
> 1) 2.6.12-rc3_L002 kernel from PMCS ftp, compiled for 32bit mode
> 2) bridge code is compiled into kernel
> 3) four 100Mbps ethernet devices and one onboard Gigabit link are joined 
> into bridge using bridge-utils-1.1
> 4) I connected board gigabit link to SmartBit Gb interface and four 100mbps 
> links to SmartBit FastEthernet interfaces
> 
> But 'brctl showmacs br0' shows only fast ethernet links being learned, but 
> never gigabit. We have suspicion that Titan driver affects this somehow.

The Titan driver (the version on linux-mips.org and any other version I've
seen) are pretty broken and remarkably ugly pieces of code.  The authors
of the Basler eXcite platform have contributed their driver and I hope it
will show up upstream soon.  Afaik it has not been tested with any of
PMC's eval boards but the necessary changes should not be hard.

  Ralf

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello, Ralf!
You wrote to "Roman Mashak" <mrv@corecom.co.kr> on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:51:56 
+0100:

 RB> The Titan driver (the version on linux-mips.org and any other version
 RB> I've seen) are pretty broken and remarkably ugly pieces of code.  The
On the other hand, bridge works fine on 2.4.26 kernel on PMC board with 
Titan driver, which is much more broken AFAIK rather then in 2.6.X.

 RB> authors of the Basler eXcite platform have contributed their driver and
 RB> I hope it will show up upstream soon.  Afaik it has not been tested
When is it supposed to be merged into CVS ?

 RB> with any of PMC's eval boards but the necessary changes should not be
 RB> hard.


With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello, Ralf!
You wrote to "Roman Mashak" <mrv@corecom.co.kr> on Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:51:56 
+0100:

 RB> The Titan driver (the version on linux-mips.org and any other version
 RB> I've seen) are pretty broken and remarkably ugly pieces of code.  The
On the other hand, bridge works fine on 2.4.26 kernel on PMC board with 
Titan driver, which is much more broken AFAIK rather then in 2.6.X.

 RB> authors of the Basler eXcite platform have contributed their driver and
 RB> I hope it will show up upstream soon.  Afaik it has not been tested
When is it supposed to be merged into CVS ?

 RB> with any of PMC's eval boards but the necessary changes should not be
 RB> hard.


With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

RE: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Raj Palani]

Hi Ralf and Roman, 

> 
> The Titan driver (the version on linux-mips.org and any other 
> version I've
> seen) are pretty broken and remarkably ugly pieces of code.  
> The authors of the Basler eXcite platform have contributed 
> their driver and I hope it will show up upstream soon.  Afaik 
> it has not been tested with any of PMC's eval boards but the 
> necessary changes should not be hard.

I would request that you take a look at our current GE driver (msp85x0_ge.c) for the Sequoia platform and send us your feedback.  This is currently available on our ftp site ftp.pmc-sierra.com under /pub/linux/2.6.12/linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz.  The driver has been completely re-written and we welcome any feedback on the same.

The patches that have been generated for fixes that were made after this release are available under /pub/linux/2.6.12/patches-2.6.12-rc3_L002.  

We are in the process of generating a patch for the Sequoia platform (for the MSP85x0) to be submitted to Linux/MIPS.  Note that we will be having a separate GE driver for the MSP85x0, while the old Titan GE driver (titan_ge.c) would support the Titan (RM912x) chip on the Yosemite platform.  FYI, the MSP85x0 is the new name for the RM915x device.

-Raj

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Ralf Baechle]

On Tue, Jun 20, 2006 at 09:15:56AM -0700, Raj Palani wrote:

> > The Titan driver (the version on linux-mips.org and any other 
> > version I've
> > seen) are pretty broken and remarkably ugly pieces of code.  
> > The authors of the Basler eXcite platform have contributed 
> > their driver and I hope it will show up upstream soon.  Afaik 
> > it has not been tested with any of PMC's eval boards but the 
> > necessary changes should not be hard.
> 
> I would request that you take a look at our current GE driver (msp85x0_ge.c) for the Sequoia platform and send us your feedback.  This is currently available on our ftp site ftp.pmc-sierra.com under /pub/linux/2.6.12/linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz.  The driver has been completely re-written and we welcome any feedback on the same.
> 
> The patches that have been generated for fixes that were made after this release are available under /pub/linux/2.6.12/patches-2.6.12-rc3_L002.  
> 
> We are in the process of generating a patch for the Sequoia platform (for the MSP85x0) to be submitted to Linux/MIPS.  Note that we will be having a separate GE driver for the MSP85x0, while the old Titan GE driver (titan_ge.c) would support the Titan (RM912x) chip on the Yosemite platform.  FYI, the MSP85x0 is the new name for the RM915x device.

Unless my memory is wrong Seqoia and Yosemite have the same ethernet
controller, so why two drivers?

  Ralf

RE: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Raj Palani]

Hi Ralf,

> Unless my memory is wrong Seqoia and Yosemite have the same 
> ethernet controller, so why two drivers?

They have similar, but not the same ethernet controller and they are different enough to qualify having separate drivers.  We found that maintaining both of them with #ifdef's all over the code, was simply not the right way to go about.

-Raj

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello, Raj!
You wrote to "Ralf Baechle" <ralf@linux-mips.org>; "Roman Mashak" 
<mrv@corecom.co.kr> on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:15:56 -0700:

 RP> I would request that you take a look at our current GE driver
 RP> (msp85x0_ge.c) for the Sequoia platform and send us your feedback.
 RP> This is currently available on our ftp site ftp.pmc-sierra.com under
 RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz.  The driver has been
 RP> completely re-written and we welcome any feedback on the same.
As you could notice in my first message in this thread I reffered to 
2.6.12-rc3_L002 from PMC ftp site. And Ethernet bridging behavior I 
described is occurring at that particular kernel.

 RP> The patches that have been generated for fixes that were made after
 RP> this release are available under
 RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/patches-2.6.12-rc3_L002.

With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Roman Mashak]

Hello, Raj!
You wrote to "Ralf Baechle" <ralf@linux-mips.org>; "Roman Mashak" 
<mrv@corecom.co.kr> on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:15:56 -0700:

 RP> I would request that you take a look at our current GE driver
 RP> (msp85x0_ge.c) for the Sequoia platform and send us your feedback.
 RP> This is currently available on our ftp site ftp.pmc-sierra.com under
 RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz.  The driver has been
 RP> completely re-written and we welcome any feedback on the same.
As you could notice in my first message in this thread I reffered to 
2.6.12-rc3_L002 from PMC ftp site. And Ethernet bridging behavior I 
described is occurring at that particular kernel.

 RP> The patches that have been generated for fixes that were made after
 RP> this release are available under
 RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/patches-2.6.12-rc3_L002.

With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr 

RE: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

[Raj Palani]

Hi Roman,

   Just wanted to make sure that you had applied the patch mentioned in my earlier e-mail on top of the linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz release.

-Raj 

-----Original Message-----
From: Roman Mashak [mailto:mrv@corecom.co.kr] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 5:35 PM
To: Raj Palani; Ralf Baechle
Cc: linux-mips@linux-mips.org
Subject: Re: Ethernet bridging on 2.6.12-rc3 (PMC-sierra patched)

Hello, Raj!
You wrote to "Ralf Baechle" <ralf@linux-mips.org>; "Roman Mashak" 
<mrv@corecom.co.kr> on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:15:56 -0700:

 RP> I would request that you take a look at our current GE driver  RP> (msp85x0_ge.c) for the Sequoia platform and send us your feedback.
 RP> This is currently available on our ftp site ftp.pmc-sierra.com under  RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/linux-2.6.12-rc3_L002.tar.gz.  The driver has been  RP> completely re-written and we welcome any feedback on the same.
As you could notice in my first message in this thread I reffered to
2.6.12-rc3_L002 from PMC ftp site. And Ethernet bridging behavior I described is occurring at that particular kernel.

 RP> The patches that have been generated for fixes that were made after  RP> this release are available under  RP> /pub/linux/2.6.12/patches-2.6.12-rc3_L002.

With best regards, Roman Mashak.  E-mail: mrv@corecom.co.kr