kern/104485: [bge] Broadcom BCM5704C: Intermittent on newer chip version: CS0424 P20

Senandung Mendonan mendonan at gmail.com
Mon Oct 16 20:50:28 PDT 2006


>Number:         104485
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       [bge] Broadcom BCM5704C: Intermittent on newer chip version: CS0424 P20
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Oct 17 03:50:23 GMT 2006
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Senandung Mendonan
>Release:        FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE i386
>Organization:
Sidi Gentala
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD raksasa.sidigentala.org 6.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE #0: Sun May 7 04:42:56 UTC 2006 root at opus.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SMP i386

pci5: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib4
bge0: <Broadcom BCM5704C Dual Gigabit Ethernet, ASIC rev. 0x2100> mem 0xdcff0000-0xdcffffff irq 48 at device 1.0 on pci5
miibus0: <MII bus> on bge0
brgphy0: <BCM5704 10/100/1000baseTX PHY> on miibus0
brgphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseTX, 1000baseTX-FDX, auto
bge0: Ethernet address: 00:10:18:11:2a:0d
bge1: <Broadcom BCM5704C Dual Gigabit Ethernet, ASIC rev. 0x2100> mem 0xdcfe0000-0xdcfeffff irq 49 at device 1.1 on pci5
miibus1: <MII bus> on bge1
brgphy1: <BCM5704 10/100/1000baseTX PHY> on miibus1
brgphy1:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseTX, 1000baseTX-FDX, auto
bge1: Ethernet address: 00:10:18:11:2a:0a

>Description:

I'm running the latest FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p3 on the following piece of
hardware:-
IBM xSeries 336
- 1 add-on PCI dual-port NIC (IBM Netxtreme Dualpt Ethernet adapter)
matching the Broadcom BCM5704C Dual Gigabit Ethernet chipset (detected
as bge0 and bge1)
- 2 internal built-in NICs matching the Broadcom BCM5721 Gigabit
Ethernet chipset. (detected as bge2 and bge3)

The internal NICs work fine (bge2 and bge3), however the add-on PCI NIC
has the following issues:-
On a GB Ethernet switchport (I am using Cisco Catalyst C3750G):-
- When set to auto-detect, or forced 1000baseTX on both sides
(switchport and server), the LED on both switchport and NIC dies the
moment FreeBSD OS is booting (i.e. when FreeBSD bge driver activated).
Previously, it was working fine at BIOS level.
- The only working setup is forced 100baseTX full-duplex on both sides
(switchport and server), however with intermittent link (ping yields
packet loss every 2-3 out of 10 packets or so, and simple file transfers
get stuck/stalled).

After deploying on a few servers, we realized some of the servers work
OK, and some not, although the cards are apparently same model, with
same dmesg shown in the Environment section.

Upon closer inspection, we found out that the two NICs' chipsets
differ in minor revision:-

1. The working NIC:-

Broadcom BCM5704CKRB TS0341 P13 706741 B (manufactured 23/12/2004,
older revision of the same BCM5704C chipset supported by the FreeBSD
bge driver.

( Picture: http://absolute-p.ath.cx/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/old-23-12-2004.jpg
)

2. The intermittent NIC:-

Broadcom BCM5704CKRB CS0424 P20 723153B B (unknown manufacture date,
but probably newer than the working NIC).

( Picture: http://absolute-p.ath.cx/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/new.jpg )

I have posted this issue on freebsd-net:-
http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=209582+0+/usr/local/www/db/text/2006/freebsd-net/20060820.freebsd-net

Thanks.

>How-To-Repeat:

With hardware matching the above description, just boot up and do:-
1. Ping test on another host connected e.g. via cross cable: packet loss
every few packets.
2. Perform simple file transfers, e.g. scp, for files > 20K. The transfer
gets stalled indefinitely and unable to complete.

>Fix:

None

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:


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