Re: e1000 driver and samba

["L F" <lfabio.linux@gmail.com>]

On 9/14/07, Kok, Auke <auke-jan.h.kok@intel.com> wrote:
> this slowness might have been masking the issue
That is possible. However, it worked for upwards of twelve months
without an error.

> I have not yet seen other reports of this issue, and it would be interesting to
> see if the stack or driver is seeing errors. Please post `ethtool -S eth0` after
> the samba connection resets or fails.
If you look for it on the Realtek cards, there had been sporadic
issues up to late 2005. The solution posted universally was 'change
card'.

I include the content of ethtool -S as requested:
beehive:~# ethtool -S eth4
NIC statistics:
     rx_packets: 43538709
     tx_packets: 68726231
     rx_bytes: 34124849453
     tx_bytes: 74817483835
     rx_broadcast: 20891
     tx_broadcast: 8941
     rx_multicast: 459
     tx_multicast: 0
     rx_errors: 0
     tx_errors: 0
     tx_dropped: 0
     multicast: 459
     collisions: 0
     rx_length_errors: 0
     rx_over_errors: 0
     rx_crc_errors: 0
     rx_frame_errors: 0
     rx_no_buffer_count: 0
     rx_missed_errors: 0
     tx_aborted_errors: 0
     tx_carrier_errors: 0
     tx_fifo_errors: 0
     tx_heartbeat_errors: 0
     tx_window_errors: 0
     tx_abort_late_coll: 0
     tx_deferred_ok: 486
     tx_single_coll_ok: 0
     tx_multi_coll_ok: 0
     tx_timeout_count: 0
     tx_restart_queue: 0
     rx_long_length_errors: 0
     rx_short_length_errors: 0
     rx_align_errors: 0
     tx_tcp_seg_good: 0
     tx_tcp_seg_failed: 0
     rx_flow_control_xon: 488
     rx_flow_control_xoff: 488
     tx_flow_control_xon: 0
     tx_flow_control_xoff: 0
     rx_long_byte_count: 34124849453
     rx_csum_offload_good: 43449333
     rx_csum_offload_errors: 0
     rx_header_split: 0
     alloc_rx_buff_failed: 0
     tx_smbus: 0
     rx_smbus: 0
     dropped_smbus: 0

I am no expert, but I do not see anything that obviously points to an
issue there.
Now, something I did not mention before, though it was clearly evident
from context, is that the errors ONLY occur on samba WRITE. I can read
hundreds of GBs of data without error.

> Just as a precaution, try a different ethernet cable. Even the switch in between
> the target and you might have issues.
I will try that and report back. I would not suspect the switch
because transferring between other machines - WinXP machines -
operates correctly, as far as I can tell.

> I know our lab folks do plenty of samba testing but I will see if they can run a
> stress test against a smb target in the way that you describe.
Thank you, I would appreciate that. My concern is more generalised
than this single machine: I will have to check a significant number of
other production machines to see if such errors are common.

Rgds,
Luigi Fabio