On Fri, Nov 19, 2004 at 09:12:03PM +0100, Francois Romieu wrote:

Dorn Hetzel [off-list ref] :
[Abit AA8 experience]

Do something else:
- take a look at the changes for the 8169 driver in Jeff Garzik's -netdev
  patchkit (included in -mm). It may be interesting to know how it behaves;

Thank you very much for the pointers.  I have been using Linux for
ages (well, since 1993 anyway), but this is my first attempt at fixing
something in the kernel.  (first time I've needed to :) )

I'm off to look for and try the -mm patchkit after I write this?
Will it apply to 2.6.10-rc2?  (I had to get to rc2 to get my SATA controller
 to work) :)

- less +/8169 MAINTAINERS;
- provide a more elaborate description of the issue with your computer
  (+ gcc version, lspci -vx, dmesg at boot, lsmod, /proc/interrupts, ifconfig);

with regard to the "original" version shipping with 2.6.10-rc2
(which seems to be identical to the version in 2.6.9)...

gcc version = 2.95.4  (happy to update that if you think it will help)

see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/orig/lspci.txt   for the lspci -vx
see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/orig/dmesg.txt   for the dmesg

lsmod returns empty because though I have module support enabled, I'm
building everything I'm using in directly...

see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/orig/interrupts.txt   for the /proc/interrupts
see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/orig/ifconfig.txt   for the ifconfig -a

"NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out" is one of the observed
errors.  "RX: no buffer available" (or similar, from memory) is another.

with regard to version "2.3" (my hacked version)...

gcc version = 2.95.4  (happy to update that if you think it will help)

see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/v23/lspci.txt   for the lspci -vx
see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/v23/dmesg.txt   for the dmesg

lsmod returns empty because though I have module support enabled, I'm
building everything I'm using in directly...

see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/v23/interrupts.txt   for the /proc/interrupts
see   http://www.hetzel.org/8169/v23/ifconfig.txt   for the ifconfig -a

- realize that the so called version number in 2.6.9 has no meaning.

By this, do you mean that the comment of version number in the r8169.c
of 2.6.9 is no longer related to the version numbers at Realtek?
 

Last time I looked at Realtek's driver (linux-8169(220).zip), it still
contained bugs which had been fixed in mainline (though it merges some
part of it) and I did not find anything which should do a difference
from a correctness POV. Intermediate versions of Realtek's code are
not available and the datasheet has disappeared from their website.
With due respect for Realtek's work (serious, really) it does not make
my life fun _at all_ (and I guess that "my" is also accurate for anyone
who tries to work with the 8169 driver on the long run).

Yeah, I noticed just one version and no history, but to the good, it
does work for me, at least so far, after the minor patch :)
 

Btw merging a 20 megaton patch is not the way network drivers changes
are submitted. People expect a serie of small changes whose effects
are clearly explained (see http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html for
the suggested format).

I was pretty sure the Godzilla patch was not the answer, I just couldn't
figure out what the answer was...  I had fixed *my* problem, for now,
but it would be nice to share it if it's worth sharing...
 

Imho your issue is not completely specific to the 8169 hardware. With
a wet finger in the wind, I'd suspect something related to timing or irq
(duration of locking or such).

Please Cc: netdev@oss.sgi.com on further messages. Cc: jgarzik@pobox.com
for network devices patches is also suggested.

Done.

-Dorn


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