Problem with Adaptec 4-port fast Ethernet in AlphaPC

[Chance Reschke]

> 
> At moment, it seems that both ANA-6944A/TX and Intraserver ITI-5232E
> do not work under AXP-Linux (even under 2.1.122-rth-18).
> This is _not_ a tulip problem, it's IMHO a PCI problem under
> Linux/AXP.
> If anybody has such a card work under Linux/AXP; speak now
> (which board, which console, which kernel, which tulip/de4x5)
> or be quiet forever... ;-(

A couple of weeks ago I began benchmarking the ANA-6944A/TX on a PC164
machine running Alpha firmware 4.49-9, RedHat 5.1, kernel 2.0.34, 
de4x5.c version 0.535.  It seemed to work fine:

  ./netperf -H 192.168.2.6 -l 60 -t TCP_STREAM
  TCP STREAM TEST to 192.168.2.6
  Recv   Send    Send
  Socket Socket  Message  Elapsed
  Size   Size    Size     Time     Throughput
  bytes  bytes   bytes    secs.    10^6bits/sec

  65535  65535  65535    60.00      93.98

With three ports active:

  65535  65535  65535    60.01      55.84
  65535  65535  65535    60.00      63.27
  65535  65535  65535    60.00      63.62

The netperf UDP tests were very flaky, but I think this might be a
Netperf thing...


> PS.: I've seen this on LX && SX boards, SRM && AlphaBIOS. And like
>      you reported, it works without problems under Linux/i386.

I spent many days trying to get this same board to work in a Dell
PowerEdge 6300 server (Dual PII-300/PR440FX) running a 2.1 series SMP
kernel.  No dice.  If more than one port saw more than the smallest
amount of traffic, the whole board wedged.  Only a module
unload/reload could revive it.  I think I stopped trying at kernel
version 2.1.107.

 - Chance