[vortex-bug] sporadic "eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82." Errors

[Andrew Morton]

Andi Hechtbauer wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm using 3c59x.c:v0.99H 11/17/98 Donald Becker with two
> 3Com 3C905B 100bTX (rev 48) NICs in a AMD-K6(tm) 3D /400
> Linux 2.2.12 Machine.
> 
> The system is a server under high network load and works
> reliably;  every some weeks or so, though, the NIC which
> really does all the work (eth0), stops doing just that.
> 

I suspect the transmit error is unrelated to the network stoppage.

error 82 refers to the NIC detecting a collision after more than 128
bytes of a single packet have been sent.  Yes, this is probably be due
to something misbehaving on your network but the driver recovers.

The stock 2.2.12 driver has a number of quite serious problems.  One
which comes to mind was a packet counter wraparound thinko which could
cause the receive path to fail after the interface has received 2
gigapackets.  I note that you've almost hit that level again....

The answer is to apply the latest service pack :).

http://www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html leads to Donald's latest
driver.

http://www.uow.edu.au/~andrewm/linux/#3c59x-2.2 leads to the current
2.2.17 driver.

I'd expect either one to fix this problem.