Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 13:30:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> To: stable@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Looking for feedback on xl (3c905/3c905B) driver Message-ID: <199808291730.NAA00918@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Okay people, it's been some time since I put the xl0 driver in -current and -stable. I need to know if people are having problems with the driver or not. So far I've gotten startlingly little feedback. This either means that it's working so well that nobody has had any trouble with it, or you guys are all just slackers and are too lazy to speak up. Basically I'm looking for as many success or failure reports as possible. If you're having trouble with the driver and you don't tell me about it, I can't help you, so speak up. If you're not having trouble and it's working well, I'd like to know that too. Here are some things I'd like to know: - What kind of adapter you have. Note that a 3c905-TX is NOT THE SAME as a 3c905B-TX. (See the 'B'? It makes a difference.) Double and triple check the model. Don't tell me you have a 3c905B when you actually only have a 3c905. If you want to be really nice, do 'dmesg | grep xl' and show me the output. - The driver version you're using. If you obtained the driver by cvsup'ing -current or -stable, then you have the latest one. If you downloaded the driver from www.freebsd.org/~wpaul/3Com within the last week, then you also have the latest one. If you're not sure, show me the rcsid strings from if_xl.c and if_xlreg.h. - Does the driver detect all of the adapter's media types correctly? - Is the system stable? Have you had problems with kernel panics since you started using the driver? Is mbuf usage normal or does it look like there's an mbuf leak? (use netstat -m to monitor mbuf usage) - Type of system (CPU type/speed). Are you using a slower system like a 486 or older Pentium (P75, P90, P1xx, etc...)? If so, are there problems with performance? Are you using SCSI disks or IDE disks? - Type of network to which the adapter is attached. Are you using a hub? A switch? Crossover cable to another machine? Coax? AUI? If a hub, are there lots of hosts on the same segment? - How many adapters in the system. - How heavily loaded is the system. Is this just a personal machine with occasional network traffic or is it a heavily used server? (http, FTP, NFS, login shell box, etc...) Is it a router? - Observed performance. Does the adapter/driver work well under load? Does the adapter lock up or otherwise misbehave under high-load conditions? Are there lots of input or output errors? (use netstat -in to check) Do you ever have to ifconfig down and ifconfig up the adapter to reset it? - 'Out of buffers' problems. Does the 'OACTIVE' flag ever show up when you do 'ifconfig xl0'? - Unusual error messages. Are there any diagnostics generated by the driver that don't look normal? (timeouts, transmission errors, etc...) - Multicast operation. Is the adapter receiving all the multicast frames that it should? (Note that the 3c905B adapters have a hash filter whereas the 3c900 and 3c905 adapters have only a 'receive all multicast frames' mode, so reports about the 3c905B are more useful.) - Unusual configurations. Are you using firewalling? Network address translation? Proxy ARP? IP aliases? Shitloads of IP aliases? Do you have Lose95/98/NT installed on your machine along with FreeBSD? Do you have problems warm booting from Lose95/98/NT to FreeBSD? (Adapter not probed, adapter not reset correctly after warm boot...) - Benchmarks. Have you compared the xl driver's performance against any others? What were the numbers? What benchmarks did you use? Was performace good? Bad? Ugly? Here are some things I don't want to hear: - "I saw some error but I forgot it, and I didn't write it down. Does this help?" - "I saw somewhere you were interested in information about 3c905 performance with FreeBSD. What exactly do you need to know?" - "I can give you the information you want, but I wanted to send you a short note first just to see if you were really interested." - "You can use Internet Explorer to find out more information about 3Com products by going to www.3Com.com..." - "Well, I'm having some trouble, but I don't have time to give you the details as I'm just about to leave for the airport and fly to some remote part of deepest, darkest Africa to start a tour with the Red Cross, and I won't be able to use my computer again for about three years. But I can try to give you more information when I get back. Is that okay?" - "It works just fine with Windows!" - "It works just fine with Linux!" - "I can't help you with this 3Com thing, but do you have a driver for the Gronkulator 2000 board? I've got, like, 20 of them and they only cost, like, $5 each." - "D00d, got any war3z?" - "Are you being investigated?" - "How do I get FreeBSD? I have Windows 98 and the Internet; will it work with that?" So speak up everyone. Send your cards and letters to wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu. Operators are standing by. -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" ============================================================================= To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199808291730.NAA00918>