[netdrivers] D-Link DFE580tx lots of errors

[Efler, Lukas]

I have two D-Link DFE580tx 4 port ethernet cards in a system running RedHat 7.3 on a 2.4.18-5smp kernel. I have compiled in the sundance module (v1.09a) from the netdrivers.tgz package. Some of the attached networks go via switches, some to older 10mbit hubs.
Now what puzzles me is that I get a lot of interface errors, but for the 10mbit interfaces only. I had to force those interfaces into 10baseT-HD with mii-tool first, since they would start in 10baseT-FD which is AFAIK wrong for a hub (or are there hubs that can do FD?).

Now what I'm seeing is a lot of RX errors and some drops:
netstat -iv :
Kernel Interface table
Iface   MTU Met   RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR   TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg
eth0   1500   0 5087496  46729      2      0 4706525      0      0      0 BMRU
eth1   1500   0 7945678      0    285      0 7414006      0      0      0 BMRU
eth2   1500   0  718183   1508      0      0  486230      0      0      0 BMRU
eth3   1500   0 2516564      0     10      0 2731629      0      0      0 BMRU
eth4   1500   0  876202  92954      0      0  904893      0      0      0 BMRU
eth5   1500   0       0      0      0      0       4      0      0      0 BMRU
eth6   1500   0  119017    191      0      0  129338      0      0      0 BMRU
eth7   1500   0  242377      0      0      0  237794      0      0      0 BMRU
lo    16436   0     224      0      0      0     224      0      0      0 LRU

mii-tool:
eth0: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
eth1: 100 Mbit, full duplex, link ok
eth2: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
eth3: 100 Mbit, full duplex, link ok
eth4: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
eth5: 10 Mbit, half duplex, no link
eth6: 10 Mbit, half duplex, link ok
eth7: 100 Mbit, full duplex, link ok

There's also some infrequent log messages like this:
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 16:56:28 csigs91 kernel: eth4: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 009cc5eb.
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 17:00:58 csigs91 kernel: eth2: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 0018c5ed.
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 17:21:34 csigs91 kernel: eth0: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 0018c5eb.
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 17:39:11 csigs91 kernel: eth0: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 0018c5eb.
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 18:01:26 csigs91 kernel: eth0: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 009cc5ec.
/var/log/messages.1:Dec  6 18:49:29 csigs91 kernel: eth0: Oversized Ethernet frame, status 009cc5eb.

Now I thought maybe the statistics are reporting simple collisions on the hub, but then again that sort of thing should be handled by the ethernet protocol and not appear as an error? Or could this be a faulty card (but then both cards show these errors)? 

I have another linux box in the network connected to eth4, which sees it like this:
netstat -iv :
Kernel Interface table
Iface   MTU Met   RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR   TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg
eth0   1500   0  674421      1      0      0  727544   6315      0      0 BMRU
lo    16436   0    9973      0      0      0    9973      0      0      0 LRU

and a solaris box:
netstat -iv :
Name  Mtu  Net/Dest      Address        Ipkts  Ierrs Opkts  Oerrs Collis Queue
lo0   8232 loopback      localhost      82375  0     82375  0     0      0
elx0  1500 193.135.254.64 csusv101       436514 0     519325 0     116326 0

Note that the solaris box does not see errors, just collisions.

Any help or explanation is appreciated, thanks!

Lukas Efler