RTL8139 keeps losing 100/FD, only reboot helps
Pekka Savola
pekkas@netcore.fi
Mon Aug 9 13:57:25 1999
Hello all,
I have had a couple of Allied Telesyn RTL8139 NIC's for over half a year
now, but they keep losing their 100/Full-duplex only a couple of hours
after rebooting. My driver version at the moment is 1.08. The other card
is in Win98, the other
in Linux 2.2.10.
The most important thing here might be that these two computers have been
cross-overed with a 2m CAT5 cable.
I have configured both cards to auto sensing w/ the configuration floppy,
and from Windows (advanced driver settings) and Linux (mii-diag). I have
also tried almost every other conceivable combination, most notably forcing
both to 100/FD from the driver and the OS.
If I use auto-negotiation, in my NICs both 10 and 100mbit/s LEDS are alight
at the same time. The card still transfers data at ~3.5Mbytes/s, but after
a while, the transfer speeds just drop to something like 600kbytes/s.
I have monitored the ethernet interface of the Linux box with "mii-diag
--watch eth1", but there has been nothing to report during the time
transfers worked fine and the time they were below 10mbit level.
Once the transfer rates have dropped, restarting Win98, resetting Linux's
NIC card w/ mii-diag or forcing it to 100/FD does not help. The only thing
that works (for a couple of hours) is rebooting the Linux computer.
If I use 100/FD forcing, the effect is the same except that only 100mbit
LED is alight.
Anyone noticed anything like this? Has anyone used Linux-Linux or
Windows-Windows, or Windows-Linux with a cross-over cable
succesfully/unsuccessfully? I suspect this is a Linux problem (because
rebooting Windows does not work),
but I'd like to be sure.
mii-diag -v eth1 says:
-----------------
mii-diag.c:v1.05 2/17/99 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
MII PHY #32 transceiver registers:
1100 782d 0000 0000 05e1 45e1 0001 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
Basic mode control register 0x1100: Auto-negotiation enabled.
You have link beat, and everything is working OK.
This transceiver is capable of 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD 10baseT.
Able to perform Auto-negotiation, negotiation complete.
Your link partner can do 45e1: Flow-control 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx
10baseT-FD 10baseT.
MII PHY #32 transceiver registers:
1100 782d 0000 0000 05e1 45e1 0001 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
Basic mode control register 0x1100: Auto-negotiation enabled.
Basic mode status register 0x782d ... 782d.
Link status: established.
Capable of 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD 10baseT.
Able to perform Auto-negotiation, negotiation complete.
This transceiver has no vendor identification.
I'm advertising 05e1: Flow-control 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD 10baseT
Advertising no additional info pages.
IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD protocol.
Link partner capability is 45e1: Flow-control 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx
10baseT-FD 10baseT.
Negotiation completed.
---------
And rtl8139-diag says:
----------
rtl8139-diag.c:v1.01 4/30/99 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a RealTek RTL8139 adapter at 0x6100.
The RTL8139 does not use a MII transceiver.
It does have internal MII-compatible registers:
Basic mode control register 0x782d.
Basic mode status register 0x1100.
Autonegotiation Advertisement 0x05e1.
Link Partner Ability register 0x45e1.
Autonegotiation expansion 0x0001.
Disconnects 0x0000.
False carrier sense counter 0x0000.
NWay test register 0x0004.
Receive frame error count 0x0000.
MII PHY #-1 transceiver registers:
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
Basic mode control register 0x0000: Auto-negotiation disabled!
Speed fixed at 10 mbps, half-duplex.
Basic mode status register 0x0000 ... 0000.
Link status: not established.
Capable of <Warning! No media capabilities>.
Unable to perform Auto-negotiation, negotiation not complete.
This transceiver has no vendor identification.
I'm advertising 0000:
Advertising no additional info pages.
Using an unknown (non 802.3) encapsulation.
Link partner capability is 0000:.
Negotiation did not complete.
--------
Thanks for your help,
Pekka Savola
Pekka Savola Pekka.Savola@netcore.fi
----- Stephen Donaldson: The Power That Preserves -----
- So you have given up hate.
- Given up -? Maybe I have. It doesn't seem like a very good answer.
- It is the only answer. Look about you. Health, love, duty. None suffice
against this winter. Only those who hate are immortal.
- Immortal?
- Certainly. Death claims all else in the end.
| To unsubscribe, send mail to Majordomo@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov, and within the
| body of the mail, include only the text:
| unsubscribe this-list-name youraddress@wherever.org
| You will be unsubscribed as speedily as possible.