bce0: Error mapping mbuf into TX chain!

[Scott Wilson]

On 8/8/06, David (Controller AE) Christensen <davidch at broadcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > Since BCE_MAX_SEGMENTS is too small I guess it will happen on highly
> > fragmented packets under heavy loads. To simulate the situation
> > you can use m_fragment(9) to fragment the frame in bce_tx_encap().
> > With m_fragment(9), "ping -f -s 65507 x.x.x.x" may trigger it.
> >
>
> I didn't know about m_fragment before.  I'll write a note to myself
> and look at how to add it to the debug path for a future driver
> revision.
>
> > Btw, I've never seen this small number of Tx DMA segments support(
> > BCE_MAX_SEGMENTS == 8) on GigE. Is this hardware limitation?
> >
>
> The real value for BCE_MAX_SEGMENTS should be 16, not 8.  I chose 8 as a
> reasonable value to start with.  If the number of fragments exceeds 16
> then we would expect to see performance drop and it is probably faster
> to
> have the OS defragment the packet rather than try to perform so many
> DMAs.
>

What I don't understand is why the driver stays locked up after it
gets into this mode.  I guess that's a separate issue from the low max
segments which is triggering it in the first place?

 -scott