igb and ALTQ in 9.1-rc3

[Nick Rogers]

On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 9:36 AM, Jack Vogel <jfvogel at gmail.com> wrote:
> Fortunately, Barney doesn't speak for me, or for Intel, and I've long ago
> realized its pointless to
> attempt anything like a fair conversation with him. The only thing he's ever
> contributed is slander
> and pseudo-critique... another poison thread I'm done with.
>
> Jack

Multiqueue or not, I would appreciate any help with this thread's
original issue. Whether or not its the ideal thing to do, I cannot
simply just replace the NICs with an em(4) variant, as I have hundreds
of customers/systems already in production running 8.3 and relying on
the igb driver + ALTQ. I need to be able to upgrade these systems to
9.1 without making hardware changes.

>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 8:45 AM, Pieper, Jeffrey E
> <jeffrey.e.pieper at intel.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-freebsd-net at freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-net at freebsd.org]
>> On Behalf Of Barney Cordoba
>> Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 5:51 AM
>> To: Jack Vogel; Nick Rogers
>> Cc: freebsd-net at freebsd.org; Clement Hermann (nodens)
>> Subject: Re: igb and ALTQ in 9.1-rc3
>>
>>
>>
>> --- On Thu, 3/28/13, Nick Rogers <ncrogers at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > From: Nick Rogers <ncrogers at gmail.com>
>> > Subject: Re: igb and ALTQ in 9.1-rc3
>> > To: "Jack Vogel" <jfvogel at gmail.com>
>> > Cc: "Barney Cordoba" <barney_cordoba at yahoo.com>, "Clement Hermann
>> > (nodens)" <nodens2099 at gmail.com>, "freebsd-net at freebsd.org"
>> > <freebsd-net at freebsd.org>
>> > Date: Thursday, March 28, 2013, 9:29 PM
>> > On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 4:16 PM, Jack
>> > Vogel <jfvogel at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > > Have been kept fairly busy with other matters, one
>> > thing I could do short
>> > > term is
>> > > change the defines in igb the way I did in the em
>> > driver so you could still
>> > > define
>> > > the older if_start entry. Right now those are based on
>> > OS version and so you
>> > > will
>> > > automatically get if_transmit, but I could change it to
>> > be IGB_LEGACY_TX or
>> > > so,
>> > > and that could be defined in the Makefile.
>> > >
>> > > Would this help?
>> >
>> > I'm currently using ALTQ successfully with the em driver, so
>> > if igb
>> > behaved the same with respect to using if_start instead of
>> > if_transmit
>> > when ALTQ is in play, that would be great. I do not
>> > completely
>> > understand the change you propose as I am not very familiar
>> > with the
>> > driver internals. Any kind of patch or extra
>> > Makefile/make.conf
>> > definition that would allow me to build a 9-STABLE kernel
>> > with an igb
>> > driver that works again with ALTQ, ASAP, would be much
>> > appreciated.
>> >
>> > >
>> > > Jack
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 2:31 PM, Nick Rogers <ncrogers at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 1:09 AM, Jack Vogel <jfvogel at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > >> > On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 11:58 PM, Gleb
>> > Smirnoff <glebius at freebsd.org>
>> > >> > wrote:
>> > >> >
>> > >> >> On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 03:31:19PM -0800,
>> > Jack Vogel wrote:
>> > >> >> J> UH, maybe asking the owner of the
>> > driver would help :)
>> > >> >> J>
>> > >> >> J> ... and no, I've never been aware of
>> > doing anything to stop
>> > >> >> supporting
>> > >> >> altq
>> > >> >> J> so you wouldn't see any commits. If
>> > there's something in the altq
>> > >> >> code
>> > >> >> or
>> > >> >> J> support (which I have nothing to do
>> > with) that caused this no-one
>> > >> >> informed
>> > >> >> J> me.
>> > >> >>
>> > >> >> Switching from if_start to if_transmit
>> > effectively disables ALTQ
>> > >> >> support.
>> > >> >>
>> > >> >> AFAIR, there is some magic implemented in
>> > other drivers that makes them
>> > >> >> modern (that means using if_transmit), but
>> > still capable to switch to
>> > >> >> queueing
>> > >> >> mode if SIOCADDALTQ was casted upon them.
>> > >> >>
>> > >> >>
>> > >> > Oh, hmmm, I'll look into the matter after my
>> > vacation.
>> > >> >
>> > >> > Jack
>> > >>
>> > >> Has there been any progress on resolving this
>> > issue? I recently ran
>> > >> into this problem upgrading my servers from 8.3 to
>> > 9.1-RELEASE and am
>> > >> wondering what the latest recommendation is. I've
>> > used ALTQ and igb
>> > >> successfully for years and it is unfortunate it no
>> > longer works.
>> > >> Appreciate any advice.
>> > >>
>> >
>> >Do yourself a favor and either get a cheap dual port 82571 card or
>> >2 cards and disable the IGB ports. The igb driver is defective, and until
>> >they back out the new, untested multi-queue stuff you're just neutering
>> >your system trying to use it.
>> >
>> >Frankly this project made a huge mistake by moving forward with multi
>> >queue just for the sake of saying that you support it; without having
>> >any credible plan for implementing it. That nonsense that Bill Macy did
>> >should have been tarballed up and deposited in the trash folder. The
>> >biggest mess in programming history.
>> >
>> >That being said, the solution is not to hack the igb driver; its to make
>> >ALTQ if_transmit compatible, which shouldn't be all that difficult.
>> >
>> >BC
>>
>> I may be misunderstanding what you are saying, but if the solution is, as
>> you say "not to hack the igb driver", then how is it defective in this case?
>> Or are you just directing vitriol toward Intel? Multi-queue is working fine
>> in igb.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> freebsd-net at freebsd.org mailing list
>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net
>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>> _______________________________________________
>> freebsd-net at freebsd.org mailing list
>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net
>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-net-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>
>