[vortex] 3c905c-tx-m and rtl8139 combi problem?

Mon Jan 13 11:14:14 2003

hi,

I'm running an SMP linux 2.4.20 with a 3c905c-tx-m and an rtl8139.
Sometimes, the 3com seemed to lose carrier, judging from the many errors in ifconfig (and the sudden drops in throughput every so often)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:DA:4F:30:6E
          inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:20707843 errors:27956 dropped:0 overruns:1 frame:36256
          TX packets:9616341 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:10335
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:3347436984 (3192.3 Mb)  TX bytes:1050402561 (1001.7 Mb)
          Interrupt:19 Base address:0xc400

and the kernel log would show many events like this: every 10 seconds, almost on the mark (sometimes every 5 seconds)

Jan 12 14:44:36 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed out
Jan 12 14:44:36 localhost kernel: eth1: transmit timed out, tx_status 00 status e601.
Jan 12 14:44:36 localhost kernel: eth1: Interrupt posted but not delivered -- IRQ blocked by another device?

the other end is a 3com905b-tx on winxp which hasn't caused my any problems before. I've moved the 3c905c in the smp machine up one pci slot, it was first using the pci which is shared with the isa slots (though no isa's are installed). that seems to have "fixed" the problem, in a way that now the 3c card in the SMP machine is no longer timing out.

Instead, it's now my eth0 which is timing out, which is one slot above it. This is an rtl8139.
the kernel log shows
Jan 13 01:21:28 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Jan 13 01:21:28 localhost kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.

ifconfig shows errors also:
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:C0:0C:03:8B:14
          inet addr:131.155.228.29  Bcast:131.155.228.127  Mask:255.255.255.128
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:392568 errors:752 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:228459 errors:74 dropped:0 overruns:1 carrier:74
          collisions:117169 txqueuelen:100
          RX bytes:506564715 (483.0 Mb)  TX bytes:69595704 (66.3 Mb)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0xe000

all of this is only happening at high load ofcourse (but they should be able to handle that).

Is this something you guys can help me with, or do you have any pointers on where to look for help concerning this?

thank you,

Max