[eepro100] Re: Card reports no resources/can't fill rx buffer

[Andrey Savochkin]

Hello,

On Tue, Dec 05, 2000 at 04:16:36PM +0100, Helge MEINHARD (CERN-EP) wrote:
[snip]
> The machine is running with increased values for /proc/sys/fs/file-max
> (32768) and /proc/sys/fs/inode-max (131072). It is connected to a 3COM 3300
> switch.
> 
> Since some time, messages appear frequently on the console such as "eth0:
> card reports no resources", "eth0: can't fill rx buffer", "restart the
> receiver after a possible hang" etc. appear. An excerpt of the dmesg output
> is attached.
> 
> Are these messages any serious? What exactly do they mean? How can I get
> rid of the underlying problem?

The driver experiences the shortage of buffers to receive packets and
verbosely explains how it tries to recover.
If the network doesn't hang after that, it means that it's not a bug
anywhere.
The core reason for this problem is a simple disbalance of memory.
I suppose, the increased amount of inodes made it harder to free memory in
time.  If you use a 2.2 kernel, try to increase /proc/sys/vm/freepages as
well.

[snip]
> eth0: card reports no resources.
> eth0: can't fill rx buffer (force 0)!
> eth0: Tx ring dump,  Tx queue 509480684 / 509480683:
> eth0:     0 200ca000.
[snip]
> eth0:    31 000ca000.
> eth0: Printing Rx ring (next to receive into 501003140, dirty index 501003132).
> eth0:     0 00000000.
[snip]
> eth0:    31 00000000.
> eth0: restart the receiver after a possible hang.

Best regards
					Andrey V.
					Savochkin