The transmitter stopped!

[Simon Josefsson]

Hello, we're using NetGear FA310TX (Tulip 21140A) on 440BX SMP
motherboards. We're getting the hung-on-big-loads problems, symptoms
varying from total lookups to network freezes which are solved by
doing a "ping -f" against the machine and then ifconfig down&up on the
machine.

Just upgraded to Linux 2.1.121 (SMP) and Tulip.c v0.89K and are having
the same problems, but noticed a syslog message -- "transmitter
stopped", right after the cards are detected.

What causes this?  Is it related to the network freezes?

Do anyone run MPICH successfully on Tulip clones with Pentium II and
BX chipset?  The problems we see are reproducable, and occurs when
running the NAS Parallel Benchmark. I'm unable to reproduce this
problem with ttcp.

I'm also getting the same problems without SMP, ie using a
uniprocessor kernel.

If I can do anything to help debugging this, please let me know!

/s

14:46:57 tulip.c:v0.89K 8/8/98 becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
14:46:57 eth0: Digital DS21140 Tulip at 0xd400, 00 40 05 a0 c2 a8, IRQ 11.
14:46:57 eth0:  EEPROM default media type Autosense.
14:46:57 eth0:  Index #0 - Media MII (#11) described by a 21140 MII PHY (1) block.
14:46:57 eth0: Checking for MII transceivers...
14:46:57 eth0:  MII transceiver found at MDIO address 0, config 1000 status 782d.
14:47:02 eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII Xcvr #0 parter capability of 45e1.
14:47:02 eth0: The transmitter stopped!  CSR5 is fc678006, CSR6 320e2202.