ISSUE: Built in etherexpress drivers on siemens scenic PC's hangs the networ

[Mark Wedel]

[1.] One line summary of the problem:
 Built in etherexpress drivers on siemens scenic PC's hangs the network

[2.] Full description of the problem/report:

 The built in intel etherexpress drivers on the siemens scenic pro c6 pcs
will hang the entire network.  This happens right when the system goes to init
state 3 (initializing the network devices).  By hang the network, I mean that
all other activity on the networked (which is switched in this case) is also
disrupted.  The boot process will hang there (and kill the network) without
end.

 If the ethernet is not plugged in during the boot process, the boot process
will complete fine and the ethernet can be plugged in at a later time and
also work.

 This problem does not exist in kernel 2.0.36 (will boot up just fine with
no network interruptions with ethernet plugged in).

 With further testing by explicity setting the card speed (ether=0,0,0x20,eth0
as kernel options), the system will fully boot if the card is forced at 10 mbs
(with or without cable plugged in).  Being it is on a 100 mbs switch, this does
not work very well.  Forcing either 100 mbs or 100 mbs full duplex will fail to
boot, either with or without the cable plugged in.

 Thus, I am guessing that under normal boot, it probes, finds 100 mbs hub, and
that breaks something when the interface is configured.  I don't know why it
then works when booted without the cable - I guess it is using defaults with
handles the speed OK.  If there is some option to force a no probe, this is
likely to be an acceptable workaround.

 the version of the eepro100.c file is 1.06

[3.] Keywords (i.e., modules, networking, kernel):

 networking

[4.] Kernel version (from /proc/version):

 2.2.0-pre7 and 2.1.132

[5.] Output of Oops.. message (if applicable) with symbolic information
     resolved (see Documentation/oops-tracing.txt)

 NA

[6.] A small shell script or example program which triggers the
     problem (if possible)
NA

[7.] Environment
[7.1.] Software (add the output of the ver_linux script here)
Kernel modules         2.1.121
Gnu C                  2.7.2.3
Binutils               2.9.1.0.15
Linux C Library        2.0.7
Dynamic linker         ldd (GNU libc) 2.0.7
Procps                 1.2.9
Mount                  2.8a
Net-tools              (1998-12-05)
Kbd                    0.96
Sh-utils               1.16

[7.2.] Processor information (from /proc/cpuinfo):
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 3
model name      : Pentium II (Klamath)
stepping        : 4
cpu MHz         : 266.323560
cache size      : 512 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
sep_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov mmx
bogomips        : 265.42



[7.3.] Module information (from /proc/modules):

 None (needed drivers compiled into kernel without modules)

[7.4.] SCSI information (from /proc/scsi/scsi)

Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IBM      Model: DCAS-34330W      Rev: S65A
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02

[7.5.] Other information that might be relevant to the problem
       (please look in /proc and include all information that you
       think to be relevant):

[X.] Other notes, patches, fixes, workarounds:


-- 

-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com