NIC problem: Hangs

Alvin Sim alvin@alloycp.com.au
Mon Oct 19 20:52:42 1998 

I'm having some problems (intermittent?) with an Alloy 1430TX (rev U4
hardware):
The chip is a DEC 21143-PD (PCI) 10/100Mb NIC with 1 MII port (as
opposed to 1430TX rev D2/D3/D4 which presents itself with 4 interfaces,
non MII [10/100/FD/HD]).

I can get link off the cards (10 and 100Mb). Upon booting of Win98, the
first packet can potentially cause the Linux machine to crash. Some
other packets on the network appear to cause it to hang too, but I'm not
sure what it is for now.
There are other situations when this happens to, and the two error
messages are similar to:
"Aieee, interrupt in scheduler"(continuous scroll)
"Kernel panic: skput:over: 0200bcb0:16444" (hang)
"Kernel panic: skput:over: 0200bcb0:16564
 In swapper task - not syncing" (hang - has seen 16444 as well in its
place)
Occasionally it'd dump some messages when link dies:
"eth0: No link beat on the MII interface, status then 7809 now 7809."
Running Linux (Slackware) 3.5, with kernel 2.0.35, driver 0.89K (module
compile)

Dump of tulip-diag follows:

Bootup status (no cable):
tulip-diag.c:v1.05 8/28/98 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a Digital DS21143 Tulip adapter at 0x6000.
Digital DS21143 Tulip Tulip chip registers at 0x6000:
  f9a04800 ffffffff ffffffff 002d7028 002d7228 f0660000 f20e2002
fbfffbff
  e0000000 fffd83ff ffffffff 00000000 000000c6 ffff0000 fff80000
8ff0c008
 The Rx process state is 'Waiting for packets'.
 The Tx process state is 'Idle'.
Transmit started, Receive started, half-duplex.
 The transmit threshold is 128.
 Port selection is MII, half-duplex.
EEPROM contents:
  1011 0019 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0200
  086f 0104 4000 99c7 6a06 1e00 0000 0800
  8d01 0003 0000 7800 01e0 5000 1800 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 6759
  0000 0000 0000 4000 99c7 0000 0040 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00f7
 ID CRC 0x6f (vs. 0x6f), complete CRC 98d48aaf.
EEPROM transceiver/media description for the Digital DS21143 Tulip chip.

Leaf node at offset 30, default media type 0800 (Autosense).
 1 transceiver description blocks:
  Media MII,  block type 3.
   MII interface PHY 0 (media type 11).
 MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x7809.
 MII PHY #1 transceiver registers:
   3100 7809 0181 b802 01e1 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0640 f010 6800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
  Internal autonegotiation state is 'Autonegotiation disabled'.

[plug into 10Mb hub - Half duplex]
tulip-diag.c:v1.05 8/28/98 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a Digital DS21143 Tulip adapter at 0x6000.
Digital DS21143 Tulip Tulip chip registers at 0x6000:
  f9a04800 ffffffff ffffffff 002d7028 002d7228 f0660000 f20e2002
fbfffbff
  e0000000 fffd83ff ffffffff 00000000 000000c6 ffff0000 fff80000
8ff8c008
 The Rx process state is 'Waiting for packets'.
 The Tx process state is 'Idle'.
Transmit started, Receive started, half-duplex.
 The transmit threshold is 128.
 Port selection is MII, half-duplex.
EEPROM contents:
  1011 0019 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0200
  086f 0104 4000 99c7 6a06 1e00 0000 0800
  8d01 0003 0000 7800 01e0 5000 1800 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 6759
  0000 0000 0000 4000 99c7 0000 0040 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00f7
 ID CRC 0x6f (vs. 0x6f), complete CRC 98d48aaf.
EEPROM transceiver/media description for the Digital DS21143 Tulip chip.

Leaf node at offset 30, default media type 0800 (Autosense).
 1 transceiver description blocks:
  Media MII,  block type 3.
   MII interface PHY 0 (media type 11).
 MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x782d.
 MII PHY #1 transceiver registers:
   1000 782d 0181 b802 01e1 0021 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0640 1018 6800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
  Internal autonegotiation state is 'Autonegotiation disabled'.
[plug into 100Mb NIC (crossover cable) - Half Duplex]
tulip-diag.c:v1.05 8/28/98 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a Digital DS21143 Tulip adapter at 0x6000.
Digital DS21143 Tulip Tulip chip registers at 0x6000:
  f9a04800 ffffffff ffffffff 002d7028 002d7228 f0660000 f20e2002
fbfffbff
  e0000000 fffd83ff ffffffff 00000000 000000c6 ffff0000 fff80000
8ff8c008
 The Rx process state is 'Waiting for packets'.
 The Tx process state is 'Idle'.
Transmit started, Receive started, half-duplex.
 The transmit threshold is 128.
 Port selection is MII, half-duplex.
EEPROM contents:
  1011 0019 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0200
  086f 0104 4000 99c7 6a06 1e00 0000 0800
  8d01 0003 0000 7800 01e0 5000 1800 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 6759
  0000 0000 0000 4000 99c7 0000 0040 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00f7
 ID CRC 0x6f (vs. 0x6f), complete CRC 98d48aaf.
EEPROM transceiver/media description for the Digital DS21143 Tulip chip.

Leaf node at offset 30, default media type 0800 (Autosense).
 1 transceiver description blocks:
  Media MII,  block type 3.
   MII interface PHY 0 (media type 11).
 MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x782d.
 MII PHY #1 transceiver registers:
   3000 782d 0181 b802 01e1 0081 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0640 4018 6800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
  Internal autonegotiation state is 'Autonegotiation disabled'.
[after 10Mb hub then cable disconnect]
tulip-diag.c:v1.05 8/28/98 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a Digital DS21143 Tulip adapter at 0x6000.
Digital DS21143 Tulip Tulip chip registers at 0x6000:
  f9a04800 ffffffff ffffffff 002d7028 002d7228 f0660000 f20e2002
fbfffbff
  e0000000 fffd83ff ffffffff 00000000 000000c6 ffff0000 fff80000
8ff0c008
 The Rx process state is 'Waiting for packets'.
 The Tx process state is 'Idle'.
Transmit started, Receive started, half-duplex.
 The transmit threshold is 128.
 Port selection is MII, half-duplex.
EEPROM contents:
  1011 0019 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0200
  086f 0104 4000 99c7 6a06 1e00 0000 0800
  8d01 0003 0000 7800 01e0 5000 1800 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 6759
  0000 0000 0000 4000 99c7 0000 0040 0000
  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00f7
 ID CRC 0x6f (vs. 0x6f), complete CRC 98d48aaf.
EEPROM transceiver/media description for the Digital DS21143 Tulip chip.

Leaf node at offset 30, default media type 0800 (Autosense).
 1 transceiver description blocks:
  Media MII,  block type 3.
   MII interface PHY 0 (media type 11).
 MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x7809.
 MII PHY #1 transceiver registers:
   1000 7809 0181 b802 01e1 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0640 1010 6800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
  Internal autonegotiation state is 'Autonegotiation disabled'.



Stats update:
Network cards known to work with Linux drivers that you've written>

NE2k (PCI)
========
Alloy-2900P2 [all revision - rtl8029]

Rtl8139
=====
Alloy-1439 [all revision - rtl8139 based]

tulip
===
Alloy-9400P3 [all revision]
Alloy-1430TX [rev D1/D2 - non-MII OK, D3/D4 - non MII fails on
link/transfer (obsolete now), rev U3/U4 - MII based (see above problem)]

finally,Keep up the good work!!

---------------------
Alvin Sim
Technical Support,
Alloy Computer Products (Australia) Pty Ltd
Ph: +61-3-9701-0362
---------------------

PS. Hopefully with this problem fixed, all our PCI network cards down
here will work with Linux 100%!
PPS. If you need some node ID strings to detect for the Alloy cards,
they start with "00 40 c7"