Dell PE 1950 bce NICs revisited

[Scott Long]

Josh Paetzel wrote:
> I've been using 6.1-R on a PE1950 for some time now.  The stock bce 
> driver doesn't work at all.  I dug up a driver off the web (0.9.6) 
> that worked fine with my workload (basically all TCP) but in talking 
> to Scott I discovered that UDP traffic was a problem for this driver.  
> Some time ago I upgraded to the driver in -STABLE.  This driver also 
> appears to work fine, but about once a day I get the following:
> 
> Nov 29 01:16:47 server2 kernel: 
> bce1: /usr/src/sys/dev/bce/if_bce.c(5000): Watch
> dog timeout occurred, resetting!
> Nov 29 01:16:47 server2 kernel: bce1: link state changed to DOWN
> Nov 29 01:16:48 server2 kernel: bce1: link state changed to UP
> 
> Pretty minor complaint, as it doesn't really affect the operation of 
> the box, but I suppose it's a sign that there's still some work to be 
> done.
> 
> $FreeBSD: src/sys/dev/bce/if_bce.c,v 1.2.2.6 2006/10/24
> 
> As I write this I see there has been some further work on the driver, 
> so I think I'll upgrade it and see what happens.
> 

It's possible that rev 1.2.2.6 will fix what you're seeing.  If not,
then it might be the general issue with the watchdog framework being
unreliable that we addressed with the em driver.  If so, then it's
mostly harmless.

Scott