Problem with ibm_emac driver

[Ian Remmler <ian@remmler.org>]

Hi,

I'm having a problem with the ibm_emac driver for the built in
gigabit ethernet on the 440gx.  I was hoping someone could shed
some light or at least point me in the right direction.

I'm using a GMS P502 board runing 2.4.27-pre3 (from GMS).  The
problem we are having is this: when we push data over the emac
interface (eth0 and eth1 both show the problem), we sporadically
get a "MAL: Rx descriptor error..." from mal_rxde in
ibm_ocp_mal.c.

Occasionally, the interface will "freeze up" for a few seconds.
An ifconfig down/up will bring it back, but from then on it will
freeze up again right away.

It looks to me like this error indicates that we're out of RX
buffers, but I don't how we would be running out.  I'm no kernel
or networking expert, but I thought the TCP stack would take
care of throttling itself to prevent that sort of thing.  I
would appreciate any help.


Thanks,
    - Ian.

-- 
"A shark on whiskey is mighty risky.
 A shark on beer is a beer engineer."
        -- Dr. Worm