Stephen L Arnold
2000-Jun-08 20:16 UTC
interface negotiation questions (slightly off-topic)
Howdy:
This is (at least slightly) off-topic, but I've seen more knowledgeable
folks than I mention autonegotiation in this venue and, since I didn't get
any response on the vortex-bugs mailing list, I thought I'd ask here (also,
the interface in question supports samba so...). And there should be some good
news for some folks too.
If this is old news, sorry (I've been too busy to keep up with the samba
list lately...)
First off, if you're tired of messing with those stupid DOS utility disks to
change the configuration of your NIC, you're in luck, Fred. Donald
Becker's new site has a bunch of diagnostic and setup utilities for newer
NICs (eepro, ne2k, tulip, vortex, etc). Go here to get them:
http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
Now on to the questions and stuff:
I have a Dell PIII-500 with a 3COM 3c905c (Tornado) NIC, running RedHat 6.1,
samba 2.05a (I know, I'm planning on upgrading samba real soon now...),
apache, etc. I noticed that network performance seemed slow (when working with
apache cgi stuff) and when I actually timed some file transfers (both SMB and
ftp) I was getting anywhere from 50 - 150 k/sec. Huh? This is supposed to be a
100 Mbps full duplex network (segmented with 4 8-port switches; LinkSys
EtherFast 10/100s - about $180 each). When I used the dmesg command on the
linux box, all I could see was:
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
...
immediately after booting. The switch port I was plugged into said I was
running at 100 Mbps, but only half duplex (while all the stupid windoze boxes
with NetGear 310 rev D2 cards were full duplex). I found Donald's new
stuff, and I got this output from mii-diag:
[root@shiva test]# ./mii-diag -v eth0
mii-diag.c:v2.00 4/19/2000 Donald Becker (becker@scyld.com)
http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
MII PHY #24 transceiver registers:
3000 780d 0040 6176 05e1 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
1000 0300 0000 0000 0000 03ed 0300 0000
0036 000c 0f00 ff40 0026 0000 0000 000b.
Basic mode control register 0x3000: 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 not complete.
Your link partner does not do autonegotiation, and this transceiver type
does not report the sensed link speed.
MII PHY #24 transceiver registers:
3000 780d 0040 6176 05e1 0000 0000 0000
0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
1000 0300 0000 0000 0000 01dd 0400 0000
0036 000c 0f00 ff40 0026 0000 0000 000b.
Basic mode control register 0x3000: Auto-negotiation enabled.
Basic mode status register 0x780d ... 780d.
Link status: established.
Capable of 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD 10baseT.
Able to perform Auto-negotiation, negotiation not complete.
Vendor ID is 00:10:18:--:--:--, model 23 rev. 6.
No specific information is known about this transceiver type.
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 0000:.
Negotiation did not complete.
(and file transfers were only going about 100 KBytes/sec). When I used mii-diag
to force the interface to 100BaseTX-FD (which turns off the autonegotiate stuff)
my SMB/ftp transfers bumped up to ~5 MBytes/sec and web stuff got much faster
too (and the switch port now says I'm running full duplex). And the eth0
transmit errors went away, however, now dmesg fills up with:
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
VFS: Disk change detected on device ide1(22,0)
...
There must be some goofiness between the PCI bus handling code and network/disk
driver codes...
Questions (from a dumb-ass with no formal network training):
How can the switch light up the right lights if it can't autonegotiate?
Is it doing something non-standard for determining the duplex/speed of a
particular link?
How can one know whether to trust the autonegotiate stuff in general? Just test
it and see?
If the switch can't negotiate properly, why don't the windoze drivers
get horked up?
How do I determine the actual duplex modes if I can't trust the switch
indicators?
Since I get 900k/sec or better on my 10 Mbps half duplex network at home, is the
5M/sec indicative of half or full duplex operation?
Is there anything else I forgot to ask?
Thanks in advance (and sorry for the off-topic-ness).
****************************************************************
Stephen L. Arnold
with Std.Disclaimer; use Std.Disclaimer;
****************************************************************
On Fri, 9 Jun 2000, Stephen L Arnold wrote:> Howdy: > > This is (at least slightly) off-topic, but I've seen more > knowledgeable folks than I mention autonegotiation in this venue and, > since I didn't get any response on the vortex-bugs mailing list, IThat's too bad, try linux-net or linux-kernel, and maybe a Cc to Andrew Morton <andrewm@uow.edu.au>. He has been fixing problems with the 3c59x driver in both 2.2 and 2.3/2.4-test.> I have a Dell PIII-500 with a 3COM 3c905c (Tornado) NIC, running > RedHat 6.1, samba 2.05a (I know, I'm planning on upgrading samba realUpgrade your kernel to 2.2.16 ...> eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.... it should make these go away, at least 2.2.16-pre2 did for me. Then report again (to a better place) if the duplex/performance stuff is still a problem. You want 2.2.16 anyway: http://www.linux.org.uk/VERSION/relnotes.2216.html> Is there anything else I forgot to ask?No, I think you asked almost everything ;-) /Urban