From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from gate.ebshome.net (gate.ebshome.net [64.81.67.12]) (using TLSv1 with cipher EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA (168/168 bits)) (Client CN "gate.ebshome.net", Issuer "gate.ebshome.net" (not verified)) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C73B67B9D for ; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 05:56:40 +1000 (EST) Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 12:56:37 -0700 From: Eugene Surovegin To: Ian Remmler Subject: Re: Problem with ibm_emac driver Message-ID: <20060720195637.GA9327@gate.ebshome.net> References: <20060720183242.GA22930@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <20060720183242.GA22930@localhost> Cc: linuxppc-embedded@ozlabs.org List-Id: Linux on Embedded PowerPC Developers Mail List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , On Thu, Jul 20, 2006 at 01:32:42PM -0500, Ian Remmler wrote: > 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. No idea what GMS is, but they seem to use old buggy EMAC driver. You can use kernel.org's 2.6 or 2.4.31 backport at http://kernel.ebshome.net/ As a side note, TCP cannot throttle _all_ Rx traffic, think for example of a fast box sending a lot of small UDP packets to the 440gx. -- Eugene