8.1 xl + dual-speed Netgear hub = yoyo

[Damien Fleuriot]

On 10/21/11 5:00 PM, perryh at pluto.rain.com wrote:
> I have an 8.1-RELEASE system with an xl on the mainboard:
> 
>   xl0: <3Com 3c905C-TX Fast Etherlink XL> port 0xdc80-0xdcff mem 0xf8fffc00-0xf8fffc7f irq 16 at device 4.0 on pci2
>   miibus0: <MII bus> on xl0
>   xlphy0: <3c905C 10/100 internal PHY> PHY 24 on miibus0
>   xlphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
>   xl0: Ethernet address: 00:b0:d0:22:5a:14
>   xl0: [ITHREAD]
> 
> It has been working properly while connected to an old 10-BaseT hub,
> but when I moved it to a (not as old) Netgear 10/100 dual-speed hub
> the link started to yo-yo:
> 

Pray tell, what's a "dual-speed hub" , marketing mumbo-jumbo ?
If that's a hub that supports negotiation of different speeds (10 vs
100), then yes, I call that marketing mumbo-jumbo ;)



>   Oct 21 07:16:00 fbsd81 kernel: xl0: link state changed to DOWN
>   Oct 21 07:16:02 fbsd81 kernel: xl0: link state changed to UP
>   Oct 21 07:16:12 fbsd81 kernel: xl0: link state changed to DOWN

[snip]

> 
> Both connections were using the same (short) Cat5 cable, I tried two
> different ports on the 10/100 hub, and other systems work OK on that
> 10/100 hub.
> 
> How do I get this interface to operate properly at 100MB?


You change your faulty cable and enjoy ;)
It is totally possible that your cable be the cause, and that it can
operate just fine at 10MB but not at 100.