via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

[Christian Guggenberger]

I like to report some Problems with the NIC integrated in the via kt8235 
chipset.
(Mobo is a Epox 8k5a3+, network is 10 MBit half-duplex)

1.
This concerns both 2.4 and 2.5 kernels  (testet with 2.4.20pre*aa series, and 
with 2.5.43, 2.5.44 and 2.5.44-ac1):

When I enable APIC in the Bios, the via-rhine module will insert properly, but 
I won't get a link... With APIC disabled, link is ok.
Ok, this could be caused by buggy bios, so I'll try again, when a new 
biosversion is available.

2.
This only happens with the 2.5 series (testet with 2.5.43 and above):
When there's much flow on the nic, I get many timeouts ending in dead NIC and 
I've to reboot...

Oct 23 14:56:45 bonnie79 kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Oct 23 14:56:45 bonnie79 kernel: eth0: Transmit timed out, status 0000, PHY 
status 786d, resetting...
Oct 23 14:56:49 bonnie79 kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Oct 23 14:56:49 bonnie79 kernel: eth0: Transmit timed out, status 0000, PHY 
status 786d, resetting...
Oct 23 14:56:59 bonnie79 kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Oct 23 14:56:59 bonnie79 kernel: eth0: Transmit timed out, status 0000, PHY 
status 786d, resetting...

I remember a discussion (Sep. 26th, I think), where such problems had been 
reported for the 2.4.20pre kernels.... which now seem to be fixed in the 
latest 2.4 series.

Christian
  

Re: via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

[Roger Luethi]

On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 15:49:31 +0200, Christian Guggenberger wrote:
> This concerns both 2.4 and 2.5 kernels  (testet with 2.4.20pre*aa series,
> and with 2.5.43, 2.5.44 and 2.5.44-ac1):
> 
> When I enable APIC in the Bios, the via-rhine module will insert
> properly, but I won't get a link... With APIC disabled, link is ok.  Ok,
> this could be caused by buggy bios, so I'll try again, when a new
> biosversion is available.

Yeah, it seems there's a problem with IO-APICs. I currently don't have a
machine with IO-APIC for testing, though, so...

> 2.
> This only happens with the 2.5 series (testet with 2.5.43 and above):

2.5 is carrying an old version of the driver. I will post an update with
additional fixes for both 2.4 and 2.5 before it's 2.6 :-).

Roger

Re: via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

[Christian Guggenberger]

> On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 15:49:31 +0200, Christian Guggenberger wrote:
>> This concerns both 2.4 and 2.5 kernels  (testet with 2.4.20pre*aa series,
>> and with 2.5.43, 2.5.44 and 2.5.44-ac1):
>> 
>> When I enable APIC in the Bios, the via-rhine module will insert
>> properly, but I won't get a link... With APIC disabled, link is ok.  Ok,
>> this could be caused by buggy bios, so I'll try again, when a new
>> biosversion is available.
> 
> Yeah, it seems there's a problem with IO-APICs. I currently don't have a
> machine with IO-APIC for testing, though, so...
> 

A new Biosversion is installed on my mobo now, but that APIC problem is still
there.
Are there some dumps I could post to get some light on that topic?

Maybe some outputs of via-diag, mii-diag, lspci, dmesg ...?
If they could help, what options should I pass to mii-diag and via-diag ?


Christian

Re: via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

[Erik Hensema]

Christian Guggenberger (christian.guggenberger@physik.uni-regensburg.de) wrote:
>> On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 15:49:31 +0200, Christian Guggenberger wrote:
>>> This concerns both 2.4 and 2.5 kernels  (testet with 2.4.20pre*aa series,
>>> and with 2.5.43, 2.5.44 and 2.5.44-ac1):
>>> 
>>> When I enable APIC in the Bios, the via-rhine module will insert
>>> properly, but I won't get a link... With APIC disabled, link is ok.  Ok,
>>> this could be caused by buggy bios, so I'll try again, when a new
>>> biosversion is available.
>> 
>> Yeah, it seems there's a problem with IO-APICs. I currently don't have a
>> machine with IO-APIC for testing, though, so...
>> 
> 
> A new Biosversion is installed on my mobo now, but that APIC problem is still
> there.
> Are there some dumps I could post to get some light on that topic?
> 
> Maybe some outputs of via-diag, mii-diag, lspci, dmesg ...?
> If they could help, what options should I pass to mii-diag and via-diag ?

I've had the exact same problems with via-rhine and APIC. I donated (well,
actually sold, but not voluntarily ;-)) my card to Roger Luethi so he can
look into the bug. And yes, it's an actual PCI card, which seems to be rare
with via-rhines.

-- 
Erik Hensema (erik@hensema.net)

Re: via-rhine weirdness with via kt8235 Southbridge

[Nicolas Mailhot]

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Hi,

	Please see http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10, I think
that's the very same problem on another mobo.

(was also in 2.5 problem reports, do not remember the exact number)

Maybe you should take ownership of this bug ?

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot

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