[tulip] Re: Problems with the Netgear FA310TX - Reset Chip

[Steven Fosdick]

Hello Donald (and list),

I was wondering if you had any further thoughts on the TX lockup
problem I am having with the FA310TX card in 10MbitHD mode that I
mentioned in my e-mail to the list on 4th May, with further
information on 6th May?

When the driver detects a TX timeout it stops and starts the receiver,
but in my case that doesn't seem to get the transmitter working again
- it remains "waiting for TX to finish".

Using ifconfig to take the interface down, then bring it up again does
get things going again.  Assuming the has the effect of calling
tulip_close followed by tulip_open I would guess that it is resetting
the chip that actually does the trick, so I then thought that it may
be possible to work around this problem by resetting the chip when we
detect a TX timeout.  That brings me on to a couple of other questions:

1. In the tulip_open function it says that we must wait 50 PCI cycles
   between asserting the reset bit and clearing it again, but the only
   function to be called between these two is request_interrupt and I
   am not clear as to how this waits the appropriate time.

2. Having reset the chip, how much of the work in tulip_open has to be
   re-done?  I would guess at everything except the request_interrupt
   and tulip_init_ring, but I would like your guidance on that one.

With this information I would hope to test a modified version of the
driver that resets the chip upon detecting the timeout.  I am quite
happy to try making the necessary modifications and let you know the
outcome.

Unless, of course, you have any other ideas.

Steve Fosdick.