watchdog timeout

[Pyun YongHyeon]

On Wed, Apr 08, 2009 at 10:41:44AM +0200, xer wrote:
> Hello
> I have some problems with 3Com nics, after a upgrade from 5.5-STABLE to 
> 6.4-STABLE.
> 
> This machine has two 3com nics (one is LAN other is WAN) and i see too much 
> "watchdog timeout" on both cards.
> This on/off up/down on cards, affect the interrupt to clients that are 
> downloading from apache web server, especially on large files.
> 
> --------------------------------------------
> xer:/root# dmesg
> xl1: watchdog timeout
> xl1: link state changed to DOWN
> xl1: link state changed to UP
> xl1: watchdog timeout
> xl1: link state changed to DOWN
> xl1: link state changed to UP
> xl1: watchdog timeout
> xl1: link state changed to DOWN
> xl1: link state changed to UP
> ---------------------------------------------
> 
> xer:/root# cat /var/run/dmesg.boot | grep xl
> xl0: <3Com 3c905C-TX Fast Etherlink XL> port 0xec00-0xec7f mem 
> 0xfceffc00-0xfceffc7f irq 23 at device 11.0 on pci2
> miibus0: <MII bus> on xl0
> xlphy0: <3c905C 10/100 internal PHY> on miibus0
> xlphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
> xl0: Ethernet address: 00:01:02:e0:04:1b
> xl1: <3Com 3c905C-TX Fast Etherlink XL> port 0xe880-0xe8ff mem 
> 0xfceff800-0xfceff87f irq 20 at device 12.0 on pci2
> miibus1: <MII bus> on xl1
> xlphy1: <3c905C 10/100 internal PHY> on miibus1
> xlphy1:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
> xl1: Ethernet address: 00:01:02:df:fe:ed
> ---------------------------------------------
> Another doubt would be my kernel config, maybe there is something wrong 
> that i cannot see, i'll post at the end of this post, 'cause is too long.
> 
> As you can see, the cards are 3c905C-TX model.
> Someone told me to change drivers, but i cannot understand this advice.
> I got same errors with same cards but with another mainboard, same problem, 
> watchdog appears after an upgrade from 5.4-STABLE to 6.4-STABLE.
> 
> I don't think that to change nic's pci slots, will solve the problem, i 
> think that maybe change the nics would resolve the matter, but i cannot 
> access to both FreeBSD phisically, cause the boxes are too far from me 
> (about 3500 km).
> 
> I'm asking you some advices, and i can i fix this problem.
> p.s. with both 5.4 or 5.5 old kernel, the nics was fine.
> 

I vaguely remember there were a couple of reports on xl(4) watchdog
timeouts. I'm not sure this came from missing Tx interrupts but
would you try attached patch?
Note, it was generated against HEAD and you should experiment the
attached patch on local box prior to applying to your production
server.
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