em(4) on FreeBSD is sometimes annoying

[Jack Vogel]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 8:22 AM, Jack Vogel <jfvogel at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 3:04 AM, Markus Vervier <markus at vervier.info> wrote:
>> Jack Vogel wrote:
>>>
>>>  I didn't mean the NIC EEPROM, but the system BIOS, make sure you are
>>>  running the version that Jeremy said he was, if that matches you might go
>>>  look at settings in the BIOS that are about management.
>>>
>> I'm now running the latest BIOS for my X60 version 2.22 with the same
>> results. Jeremy runs version 1.15 but on a T60.
>>>
>>>  I thought you told us that when you had a back to back connection that it
>>>  worked, no??
>>
>> Sorry, it does not work when having a b2b connection, never said that. But I
>> noticed another thing:
>>
>> It is important that the device was up without a cable connected:
>>
>> 1. power off completely
>> 2. boot freebsd without a cable connected
>> 3. in a rootshell do ifconfig em0 up
>> 4. connect the cable
>> 5. no link
>
> Hmmm, well let me see if I can get ahold of an X60.
>
> Jack
>

Markus,

I have reproduced the problem, you are correct. Thank you for
persisting thru my doubts :)
There is a flip side to the problem, once the interface is up and
active, if you remove the
cable it never shows inactive :(

It must be some interrupt handling/media status issue, I'll be looking
into a fix this
afternoon.

OH, I should note that as long as you put in a cable before you
ifconfig up its fine so
its not that hard to work around the issue.

Stay tuned....

Jack