"Transmit timed out" with EtherExpress Pro100B

[Robert G. Brown]

On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, James Stevens wrote:

> Robert G. Brown wrote:
> > 
> > A few questions (I don't remember your original posting):
> > 
> >   a) Are your systems SMP or UP?  Fast (e.g. PPro or PII)?
> 
> Single CPU. Linux 2.0.34, on a MedixGX chipset, this is a "pentium
> system on a chip" type silicon. i.e. it has all the CPU, cache, USB,
> T.V., video, sound, chipset (PCI, EIDE, Floppy), 2xserial, parallel, LCD
> interface, mouse, KBD etc on the single chip which makes for a VERY
> small box (500 sheets of A4 paper type size, which includes internal
> power, 3.5 Hdd & floppy !!). It is REALLY CUTE, we pay $250 and just
> have to add ram & hdd.
> 
> >   b) Is your 10Mbps interconnect crossover wire or hub or switch?
> 
> Cheap D-Link 8 port Hub, so switching, no full-duplex etc. But the same
> hub works fine with a different box which also has the Intel chip on
> board but is a proper (custom) mainboard with Intel chipset and Celery
> 266. Up till we got the 2nd box I thought the problem was the 10Mbps,
> but not anymore. Now I think it is the CPU not servicing the EEPro fast
> enough.

This is an interesting setup.  What does your /proc/pci look like?
/proc/interrupts?  /proc/ioports?  The reason that I ask is that if the
PCI bios were at all munged, you might be sharing an interrupt or
overlapping in iospace with some other device, e.g. a video controller
or the sound card.  I've certainly seen problems like that on a "normal"
system with lots of slots, but in many cases they go away if you
rearrange the cards or are firm with the firmware.  With all this stuff
onboard and a system designed (I'm sure:-( to run Windows, maybe it has
hardware PnP stuff with "dumb" PCI conflicts that it expects Windows to
be straightening out at boot time.

> 
> I have not tried this box on cross over, it will be worth a try.
> 
> > The curious thing is that your card works for a while and then fails,
> 
> No. It runs fine under virtually no load, but fails quite quickly even
> under light / medium load and within 3 seconds under heavy load.
> 
> It is another box altogether that works fine.
> 
> > Have you ruled out bad silicon? 
> 
> No, good point. We do have two of these little boxes, so I could try the
> other one. But I know Doug Karl who make the freeware & commercial
> KarlBridge (firewall / Brouter), and he said he had BIG problems with
> the Intel in this box, but could not tell me about it because of an
> Intel NDA.

Is the eepro100 also onboard?  Can you put a $30 tulip on the PCI bus
(you said it has one, right)?  I think all of Don's drivers are very
similar in general layout, and differ primarily only where it counts,
but it would help narrow down the cause of failure either way.

> 
> > Are you overclocking?  
> 
> No chance. It is not possable with the MediaGX in the box we have.
> 
> > Could the net adapter be failing because of excessive heat in the cases?
> 
> I don't think so. It runs surprisingly cool for such a small box.

Dumb questions, maybe, but a lot of people write driver problems into
lists and you find out after everybody has been scratching their heads
for a week that oh, yeah, they're running a 200 MHz system at 400 MHz
with a turbocharged heatsink and when they put the clock back to normal
(and let everything cool off) things "magically" start to work again...

It sounds like it might well be an Intel problem; maybe you should try
for the NDA...

   rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu