[realtek-bug] Write lockup with rtl8139.c:v1.16a

[John M. LoSecco]

I have been running the rtl8139.c:v1.16a driver in a 2.4.26 kernel with Red hat 7.2.

It appears to lockup under heavy write load.  The driver worked well for several

days as data was transfered from a remote archive to the local disk.  But in trying

to NFS serve the data to a local application on another node the networking locked up

in a few hours of constant 100 BaseT use.  After the network lockup I got no network

response in or out.  I was able to repeat the problem.  But it took less time to

lockup.

I have rerun the application with the server running the 8139too driver without lockups.

/proc/pci tells me:

  Bus  0, device  13, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8129 (rev 0).
      IRQ 11.
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=32.Max Lat=64.
      I/O at 0xc000 [0xc07f].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd7004000 [0xd700407f].

/var/log/messages had nothing of interest after the lockups.

Is this a known problem?  Is there a cure?  How can I help provide a diagnosis.

Thanks

--
John M. LoSecco
Internet: losecco@attbi.com