Problems with VIA vr device/driver (possibly O/T)
Seth Henry
jshamlet at hotmail.com
Fri Oct 17 12:15:34 PDT 2003
Has anyone had any issues with the vr device driver, or the VIA Rhine
ethernet adapter? I recently built an Internet gateway box using FreeBSD
4.8-REL. I used a 3Com 3C905C-TX board for the internal interface, and used
the internal vr interface for the external interface (to the cable modem). I
have noted in the past that sometimes this device has "issues", particularly
under load.
When I was using this ITX board as an X terminal, sometimes it would "hang"
for a few seconds. Eventually, it would work - but it could be a bit
annoying. I wasn't sure if it was a problem with the chip, or just the CPU
load. The little CPU's on these boards aren't screamers by any means.
Now, I have noticed that the interface is stable when using SSH alone, but
if I try to window X applications through it, it will randomly hang both
itself AND the cable modem. I have a COM21 cable modem, and when I come home
(after losing connectivity) I find it has locked up, and it seems to believe
that there is no LAN cable attached (which there is). That is why I'm
posting from a hotmail account. My connection home is dead again...
I suspect the PHY is crapping out under load, leading the cable modem to
believe it is disconnected, then coming back up with a load of data in its
buffers, blasting the poor cable modem into oblivion. I can't tell if this
is just a lousy chip, a defective mainboard, or what. It only occurs when
the interface is under a fair outbound load. I've downloaded huge files (ISO
images) with no problems, but uploads cause trouble.
I somehow doubt this is a FreeBSD problem, so I'm going to note it as
"off-topic", but I'd be curious to hear about other people's experiences
with this device. Either way, I've already got a dual PCI riser in this
chassis, so I'm going to stuff another 3Com card in to replace the onboard
LAN port.
Thanks,
Seth Henry
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