Broadcom BCM4401 NIC: Link is Down, Link is up

mr.wobble · 09-24-2005, 03:41 PM

Hi Guys,

I have an ASUS P4PE board with an onboard Broadcom BCM4401 NIC on my basic FC3 installation

It seems there is a driver problem and as yet I have been unable to resolve it. The driver works, but when anything more than a small amount of data is in transit it freaks out and data transfer consequently massively delayed (notably with samba)

dmesg is flooded with these messages:

Code:

b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.
b44: eth0: Link is down.
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.
b44: eth0: Link is down.
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.
b44: eth0: Link is down.
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.
b44: eth0: Link is down.
b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.

lspci output:

02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

I took time to read the hardware compatibility section of the forum and found this review:

<link removed because I have < 5 posts>

I then followed the link to the Broadcom website, obtained the new drivers, built them and installed them (I only did a basic complilation with nothing extra)

I have the same problem still. The support on the Broadcom site is atrocious so I am asking here if anyone has come across the same or similar problems and is able to offer any help?

mr.wobble · 09-25-2005, 11:01 AM

Mmm.... nobody has any suggestions yet - maybe I should have written about iPods instead

In that case I will remove the offending PoS and replace it with a proper NIC from a proper manufacturer.

teckk · 09-25-2005, 07:45 PM

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...cat=202&page=1

mr.wobble · 09-26-2005, 01:54 AM

Quote:

I took time to read the hardware compatibility section of the forum and found this review:

<link removed because I have < 5 posts>

Thanks for the link, but that was the link I was referring to in my original post but could not include it because I had < 5 posts.

I had already tried everything suggested in the link but nothing prevailed.

My kernel is 2.6.12-1.1376_FC3

DJE007 · 04-24-2006, 02:10 PM

try this in the modprobe.conf or modules.conf

options b44 FlowControl=0,0

That will turn off Hardware Flow Control

ScottReed · 04-24-2006, 09:06 PM

- Replace ethernet cable
- Check for IP Address conflicts
- Replace switch or hub

Any luck?

Scott

cengique · 08-31-2007, 10:48 AM

I have the same problem with my Dell Dimension 2350 with an Intel 82801 motherboard on a Debian Etch (testing) Linux system:

Code:

# uname -a
Linux salon 2.6.15.2 #1 PREEMPT Thu Aug 30 23:52:20 EDT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

with the same BCM4401 ethernet card:

Code:

salon:~# lspci -vv -s 01:09.0
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 8127
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort+ <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 32
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 20
        Region 0: Memory at e6002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e5020000 [disabled] [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-

The curious thing is, I found that the ethernet card conflicts with the Nvidia MX4000 graphics device. I get the same errors in my log, and my rates go down to zero and recover back slowly:

Code:

Aug 31 10:59:40 salon kernel: b44: eth0: Link is down.
Aug 31 10:59:43 salon kernel: b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
Aug 31 10:59:43 salon kernel: b44: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.

only when I move things on the screen! For example, during a transfer test, if I press enter and make the gnome-terminal scroll once, I get the errors. Otherwise I get full 100Mbps from the interface. I never get the errors if I switch to one of the consoles for the same test.

I figured it must have something to do with my IRQ settings:

Code:

salon:~# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:    4653606    IO-APIC-edge  timer
  1:       6678    IO-APIC-edge  i8042
  8:          0    IO-APIC-edge  rtc
  9:          0   IO-APIC-level  acpi
 14:      66618    IO-APIC-edge  ide0
 15:      41447    IO-APIC-edge  ide1
 16:          7   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb1
 17:      59595   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb2
 18:          0   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb3
 19:         25   IO-APIC-level  ehci_hcd:usb4
 20:    5341165   IO-APIC-level  Intel 82801DB-ICH4, eth0, nvidia
NMI:          0
LOC:    4654119
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

which had three devices (eth + grfx + IDE cont.) on IRQ 20. After struggling with all types of ACPI kernel parameters to no avail, I had to switch PCI slots of the graphics card to get a different configuration:

Code:

salon:~# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:    1910295    IO-APIC-edge  timer
  1:       3604    IO-APIC-edge  i8042
  8:          0    IO-APIC-edge  rtc
  9:          0   IO-APIC-level  acpi
 14:      13982    IO-APIC-edge  ide0
 15:      16823    IO-APIC-edge  ide1
 16:      27414   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb1, wlan0
 17:      28503   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb2
 18:     144530   IO-APIC-level  uhci_hcd:usb3, nvidia
 19:         25   IO-APIC-level  ehci_hcd:usb4
 20:     858715   IO-APIC-level  Intel 82801DB-ICH4, eth0
NMI:          0
LOC:    1910438
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

which had no effect on fixing my original problem with b44! So here I'm begging to hear what you have to say about this.

I tried the following things, but got no result:

I also tried turning off the flow control using ethtool. I actually tried all things I can change with ethtool: reducing the rate, full/half duplex, ring buffers, etc.
Although the b44 driver v0.97 I am using is the official driver supported by Broadcom and it is included in the kernel I use, I downloaded the newest driver v1.00g, which improved my maximal rates, but did not fix the problem.
As you can see from my uname line above that my kernel was compiled as a preemptible desktop kernel, which I though may have something to do with the kernel's response time to ethernet events. So I tried compiling my kernel as a server (non-preemptible), but did not help the problem

My graphics card is an Nvidia MX4000 (GeForce4) PCI card (not AGP! The motherboard has no AGP slots! cheap Dell computer

Code:

salon:~# lspci -vv -s 01:06.0
01:06.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 248 (1250ns min, 250ns max)
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
        Region 0: Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Region 1: Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e5000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

with the nvidia driver 1.0.8776-3.

Here's the output of my lspci for completeness:

Code:

salon:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
00:02.0 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:04.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
01:06.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000 AGP 8x] (rev c1)
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

Any ideas?

P.S. I have another graphics card on the computer so I may try switching to it. But I would probably prefer buying another ethernet card than doing that.

Thanks...