Intel e100 Ethernet card support in core Kernel

Intel e100 Ethernet card support in core Kernel

[java programmer]

Hi:

There is built in support for intel cards in the
core kernel. My question is, whether using this
kernel support is the best way to drive intel cards.

I have a dual port intel pro/100 adapter and am
experiencing a complete lockup (not even pingable)
after a certain amount of time. I am on kernel 2.4.7,
downloaded from kernel.org and compiled. I have 
libc-2.2.3.so in /lib

Here's the relevant section from dmesg (shown for 
eth0 only):

----------
Intel(R) PRO/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter - Loadable
driver, ver 1.6.13
Copyright (c) 2001 Intel Corporation

eth0: Compaq Fast Ethernet Server Adapter
Using specified speed/duplex mode of 0.
Using specified ucode value of 1.
Using specified CPU saver interrupt delay value of
1536.
Using specified CPU saver bundle max value of 10.
Mem:0xc6cf0000  IRQ:11  Speed:100 Mbps  Dx:Full
Hardware receive checksums disabled
----------------

And here is the module load line from
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules

/sbin/modprobe e100 ucode=1,1 IntDelay=0x600,0x600
BundleMax=10,6 e100_speed_duplex=0,0

The above is my current configuration that leads to
the lockup. Please note, this is the absolute latest
and well tested driver - for this card - straight from
intel.

Now here's the thing: initially I had a 2.4.5 kernel,
with a stock, built in driver for this card that gave
me the following dmesg:

-----
eth0: OEM i82557/i82558 10/100 Ethernet,
:50:8B:E3:AA:B4, IRQ 11.
Receiver lock-up bug exists -- enabling work-around.
Board assembly 009542-003, Physical connectors
present: RJ45
Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
General self-test: passed.
Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
Internal registers self-test: passed.
ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x24c9f043).
Receiver lock-up workaround activated.
------

I took the above driver out, in favor of the newer
intel driver, but note, the newer intel driver gives
me no message about the "lock up bug", that this other
older driver gives me (see first line in dmesg output
above).

So does anyone know what's going on and whether the
newer intel drivers are in fact more broken than the
older ones that came with the kernel ? I haven't tried
the older ones enough to know whether the lock up
would exist with them  too or not, any driver writers
care to shed some light on this ?

Best regards,

javadesigner@yahoo.com

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Re: Intel e100 Ethernet card support in core Kernel

[Ben Greear]

java programmer wrote:
> 
> Hi:
> 
> There is built in support for intel cards in the
> core kernel. My question is, whether using this
> kernel support is the best way to drive intel cards.

The intel driver is generally fast and stable, but I'm sure
it's not perfect.  Have you tried the eepro100 driver for
this NIC?

The fact that the eepro100 complains about the lockup bug,
and the e100 doesn't, probably does not mean the e100 doesn't
work around the bug too:  Intel is just more quiet about it's
hardware bugs :)

I'm not sure it will help you, but I have a listing of all the
cards I've tried (recently).  There is a 2-port Intel based NIC
on there (The Compaq one) but it may not be your particular version.
It did work very well for me.

Here's my ethernet NIC listing page:
http://www.candelatech.com/linux_ethernet.html

At any rate, you should probably send this question off to the
eepro100@scyld.com mailing list, especially if you have problems
with the eepro100 driver...

Enjoy,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>          <Ben_Greear@excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear