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Date:      Sat, 19 Sep 1998 14:23:15 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
To:        kong@kong.spb.ru (Hostas Red)
Cc:        dag-erli@ifi.uio.no, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: strange things
Message-ID:  <199809191823.OAA19799@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980919193324.307E-100000@kong.dorms.spbu.ru> from "Hostas Red" at Sep 19, 98 07:35:46 pm

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Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Hostas Red had 
to walk into mine and say:

> Hi!
> 
> On 17 Sep 1998, Dag-Erling [iso-8859-1] Coïdan[iso-8859-1] Smørgrav
> wrote:
> 
> > Hostas Red <kong@kong.spb.ru> writes:
> > > kong@kong:~> ping www.freebsd.org
> > > PING freefall.freebsd.org (204.216.27.21): 56 data bytes
> > > ping: sendto: No buffer space available
> > > [...]
> > > When i use
> > > ifconfig xl0 down
> > 
> > This shouldn't be necessary.
> > 
> > If you type 'ifconfig xl0' at this point, is the OACTIVE flag set?
> 
> Yes. And sometimes i get 'xl0: watchdog timeout' on console. In last 20
> minutes it was 3 times. 'ifconfig xl0 up' helps.
> 
> > Do you run NFS?
> 
> No.
> 
> > Can you identify a specific action that triggers this, such as
> > starting or ending a large NFS transfer?
> 
> No, nothing special.
> 
> > > ifconfig xl0 up
> > > everything works again, but time passes and again 'No buffer space...'
> > Sounds very much like the good ol' ep bug that made me switch to fxp
> > across the slate. (Well, it wasn't the only reason, but it was an
> > important motivation. Getting rid of my last ISA boards was another.)
> 
> On vx driver there was no such things, but it doesn't works now. :(

The vx driver doesn't use DMA!

*sigh*

I see everybody has decided to completely forget how to report bugs.
So far I've found about four messages related to this, which all of
the following things in common:

- The subject line doesn't even mention the xl driver, which means it
  was only by pure chance that I happen to find this thread in my mail
  backlog.

- Nobody has mentioned what version of the xl drive they are using.
  For all I know you downloaded an old version from www.freebsd.org
  and are complaining about bugs that are already fixed. Run, don't
  walk, to /sys/pci/if_xl.c and show me the RCS $Id$ string so I have
  some idea what's going on here.

- Nobody has bothered to describe the hardware they're using. What kind
  of CPU do you have? What other PCI devices do you have?

- Nobody has told me EXACTLY WHAT 3COM CARD THEY HAVE! Is it a 3c905-TX?
  3c900? 3c905B? 3c980?

- Nobody has bothered to show a dmesg output with the probe information
  from the xl driver.

- Nobody has said exactly what version of FreeBSD they're running (yes,
  I know this is the -current mailing list; that doesn't guarantee that
  people are actually running the latest and greatest -current).

- Nobody has said what kind of network they're using. (10Mbps? 100Mbps?
  full duplex? half duplex? switched? shared? 10baseT? 10base2?)

Now, I have gotten mail from many other people who report no problems
whatsoever with the xl driver, and I havent had problems with my own
3c905B hardware in a long time, so I'm highly inclined to blame people
for pilot error, particularly when presented with such meager details.

This is really starting to annoy me. Everybody just assumes they can
say "I'm having a problem, please fix it" and I can just read tea leaves
or something and instantly divine the exact nature of their problems
without even the slightest amount assistance. Well it doesn't work that
way: I'm not a mind reader. DO NOT just say you have a problem and leave
it at that, expecting somebody else to pry the details out of you later.
Provide all the details up front or don't even bother posting.

-Bill

-- 
=============================================================================
-Bill Paul            (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu
Work:         wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research
Home:  wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City
=============================================================================
 "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness"
=============================================================================

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