[eepro100] Re: Semi-OT: protocol type 8808

[Donald Becker]

On 5 Jul 2001, Henrik Christian Grove wrote:
> On Mon, 28 May 2001 Derek Glidden dglidden@illusionary.com wrote: 
> 
> > This isn't entirely eepro100-driver related, but is related to my
> > eepro100 cards which are only running under Linux...
> > 
> > I have an SMC "EZSwitch 1024" 24-port 10/100 switch for my home
> > network.  EEpro100 cards cause the "Activity" lamp on both the cards and
> > the switch to come on and stay pretty much lit up.  None of my other
> > NICs, 10 or 100, cause this behaviour.  (3c509, NE2000 clone, Sun Ultra
> > 5 hme, 3c590, also chained to a little 5-port 10/100 switch
> > downstairs.)  
...
> I've found that the traffic stops, when I turn "flow control" off, on
> the port of the switch the eepro100 is connected to.

Very interesting!

This triggers a memory: I added code to the driver to explicitly disable
flow control if the link partner did not advertise it.  The chip is
supposed to handle this automatically, without driver intervention, but
the documentation didn't match reality.

> PS: I use a 2.4.4-kernel.

Hmmm, the driver in the 2.4 kernel has the check, but not the fix.  As
is all too common, it was hacked by people that "fixed" things that were
not problems...



Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Second Generation Beowulf Clusters
Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993