recent stability problems with fxp driver

[Vivek Khera]

>>>>> "JP" == John Polstra <jdp at polstra.com> writes:

JP> The problem is real, at least on some hardware.  I had to give up on
JP> using the two integrated fxp devices on my Dell 1550 -- which is a
JP> real bummer, since it's a 1U box that only has two PCI slots.  With
JP> the latest -stable driver, I couldn't fetch a 560 MB file from
JP> another machine on the LAN using FTP without killing the fxp device.
JP> The messages vary in detail, but this will give you the general idea:

I've a handful of 1550s as well.  None of them exhibit any problems
speaking to the network as connected to Netgear 10/100 switches (well,
one did at one time, but it turned out to be a motherboard hardware
fault).  One of the servers' sole duty is to take backups of various
large files on other machines on the LAN and it works just fine.
Here's the pciconf output from that 'backup' machine:

fxp0 at pci0:1:0:  class=0x020000 card=0x00da1028 chip=0x12298086 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
    device   = '82557/8/9 EtherExpress PRO/100(B) Ethernet Adapter'
    class    = network
    subclass = ethernet
fxp1 at pci0:2:0:  class=0x020000 card=0x00da1028 chip=0x12298086 rev=0x08 hdr=0x00
    vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
    device   = '82557/8/9 EtherExpress PRO/100(B) Ethernet Adapter'
    class    = network
    subclass = ethernet

uname -r: 4.8-RELEASE-p3

I wouldn't rule out hardware.  The Dell diagnostics are amazingly good
at finding hardware faults.  It could just as well be your switch/hub.
I have an old 5-port hub that none of my fxp ports will speak to, but
the de and sis ones do.

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Vivek Khera, Ph.D.                Khera Communications, Inc.
Internet: khera at kciLink.com       Rockville, MD       +1-240-453-8497
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