How to debug a driver which hangs (niu)?

How to debug a driver which hangs (niu)?

[Andrew Brooks]

Hello

I'm using a network driver (niu) which regularly locks-up after
printing the message "transmit timed out"
(i.e. nothing else can be sent/received over that interface after the event).

Does anyone have any tips for helping me to debug this?
eg. how to find out what is causing the transmit timed out message;
how to find out what state the driver is going into which causes the lock-up;
how to get it out of this state and working again?

I'm a programmer but I'm new to kernel drivers so all tips are most
welcome, thanks!

Andrew

Re: How to debug a driver which hangs (niu)?

[Jesper Dangaard Brouer]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2013, Andrew Brooks wrote:

> I'm using a network driver (niu) which regularly locks-up after
> printing the message "transmit timed out"
> (i.e. nothing else can be sent/received over that interface after the event).

What kernel version are you using?
I seem to remember to have fixed an issue with NIU driver, long time ago.


> Does anyone have any tips for helping me to debug this?

First thing you could do is to increase the message level in the driver (I 
remeber NIU uses these msglvl settings).

By command:
  ethtool -s eth0 msglvl $((0x7fff))

View the message level by command:
  ethtool eth0


Cheers,
   Jesper Brouer

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