nfe driver 6.2 stable

Chris chrcoluk at gmail.com
Thu Sep 27 10:30:22 PDT 2007


On 27/09/2007, Pyun YongHyeon <pyunyh at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 04:44:09PM +0100, Chris wrote:
>  > On 24/09/2007, Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu at freebsd.org> wrote:
>  > > On Mon, Sep 24, 2007 at 12:57:23AM +0100, Chris wrote:
>  > > > nfe0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>  > > >         options=8<VLAN_MTU>
>  > > >         inet x.x.x.x netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast x.x.x.x
>  > > >         inet x.x.x.x netmask 0xffffffff broadcast x.x.x.x
>  > > >         ether x
>  > > >         media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseTX <full-duplex>)
>  > > >         status: active
>  > > >
>  > > > 1 - is there a man page for nfe anywhere?
>  > >
>  > > Closest thing I can find would be the manpage from -CURRENT's nfe(4),
>  > > which is supposedly the same code.
>  > >
>  > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=nfe&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+7-current&format=html
>  > >
>  > > > 2 - does it support hardware checksum I remember reading it does but
>  > > > from ifconfig output it appears to not be in use so if it does support
>  > > > it how do I enable it?
>  > >
>  > > It does support it, but I don't know the circumstances surrounding when
>  > > it gets enabled.  That is to say, it's known that some versions of the
>  > > chip (and/or associated PHY) have bugs, so possibly hardware checksum
>  > > offloading is known to be broken on the system you're on.  Taken from my
>  > > 7-CURRENT box at home (Asus A8N-E, nForce 4-based):
>  > >
>  > > nfe0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
>  > >        options=10b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,TSO4>
>  > >        ether 00:15:f2:17:30:e9
>  > >        inet 192.168.1.51 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
>  > >        media: Ethernet 1000baseTX <full-duplex>
>  > >        status: active
>  > >
>  > > I do not explicitly specify rxcsum or txcsum in my rc.conf ifconfig
>  > > line.
>  > >
>  > > > 3 - same with TOS?
>  > >
>  > > TOS (type-of-service) or TSO?  If TSO, see above ifconfig.
>  > >
>  > > > 4 - how do I enable jumbo frames if it supports it?
>  > >
>  > > You should take a bit more itme to read the webpage you obtained the
>  > > driver from.  I see these on the page:
>  > >
>  > > 2007/01/06      Added jumbo frame support. [...] Fixed a bug to handle
>  > >                Tx/Rx checksum offload settings with ifconfig.
>  > > 2006/08/11      Added support for jumbo frame capability.
>  > >
>  > > yongari@ (Pyun YongHyeon) should be able to provide additional help
>  > > with both.
>  > >
>  > > > 5 - is it safe to use with zero copy sockets?
>  > >
>  > > No idea.
>  > >
>  > > > 6 - I currently have both net.isr.direct and mpsafenet disabled is
>  > > > this driver safe to use on them?
>  > >
>  > > No idea.
>  > >
>  > > --
>  > > | Jeremy Chadwick                                    jdc at parodius.com |
>  > > | Parodius Networking                           http://www.parodius.com/ |
>  > > | UNIX Systems Administrator                      Mountain View, CA, USA |
>  > > | Making life hard for others since 1977.                  PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
>  > >
>  > >
>  >
>  > Thanks yes I meant TSO sorry, I would guess with the checksum either
>  > the 6.x driver is older and not fully implemented yet, the 6.x driver
>  > does need more patches for certian chipsets so would indicate its
>  > older then the CURRENT driver.  Or as you said my chipset is known to
>  > be unstable with the hardware checksums.
>  >
>
> See the other mail I've posted.
>
>  > The card is more stable when using nve driver no crashes still but the
>  > performance is around the same maxing out at around 200mbit.  I was
>  > expecting nearer 400-500mbit.
>  >
>  > e1000phy0: <Marvell 88E1116 Gigabit PHY> on miibus0
>  >
>
> There had been issues nfe(4) with 88E1116/88E1149 PHYs but your issue
> seems to be different one. How about manually set media configuration?
> For example, "ifconfig nfe0 media 1000baseTX mediaopt full-duplex"
>
>  > Is the line from dmesg, I believe in CURRENT mpsafe is always on
>  > regardless so if you have no problems then its a good sign and I will
>  > reenable mpsafe networking (default).
>  >
>  > Thanks really appreciated.
>  >
>  > Chris
> --
> Regards,
> Pyun YongHyeon
>

I typod I meant to say nve was unstable and nfe has been rock solid so
great work with the driver.  I enabled mpsafe now and still no
problems and its gave me a little more performance as well, a shame my
nic has no hardware features (unusual for a gigabit nic) but overall
glad its at least stable.

Chris


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