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Date:      Thu, 27 Jul 2000 23:45:38 +0200 (CEST)
From:      Blaz Zupan <blaz@amis.net>
To:        Jim Flowers <jflowers@peony.ezo.net>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: fbsd 4.0Release
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007272340210.8748-100000@titanic.medinet.si>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007271540340.77091-100000@peony.ezo.net>

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> Does this indicate that my new hardware is probably not going to work with
> fbsd 4.0?
[snip]
> rl0: <RealTek 8139 10/100BaseTX> port 0xde00-0xdeff mem
[snip]

I notice that you use a RealTek card in your router. First of all, there is a
bug in the RealTek driver in 4.0 that crashes the system (more info on that in
PR kern/17582), this is probably what you are seeing. You should either
upgrade the driver or upgrade the whole system to 4.0.

Second, reconsider your choice of network card. I quote Bill Paul's comment in
the rl driver sources:

 * The RealTek 8139 PCI NIC redefines the meaning of 'low end.' This is
 * probably the worst PCI ethernet controller ever made, with the possible
 * exception of the FEAST chip made by SMC. The 8139 supports bus-master
 * DMA, but it has a terrible interface that nullifies any performance
 * gains that bus-master DMA usually offers.
...
 * It's impossible given this rotten design to really achieve decent
 * performance at 100Mbps, unless you happen to have a 400Mhz PII or
 * some equally overmuscled CPU to drive it.


I would think twice before using such a card in router....

Blaz Zupan,  Medinet d.o.o, Linhartova 21, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
E-mail: blaz@amis.net, Tel: +386-2-320-6320, Fax: +386-2-320-6325



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