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r8169 doesn't report link state correctly.

DISCUSSION Ben Greear 3 participants 5 messages Apr 11, 2011 – Apr 21, 2011

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Ben Greear

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#0 lore raw

I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't report link down when in fact there is no cable connected. Instead, it shows 10Mbps half-duplex. I have no idea if this previously worked or not.

[root@lec2010-ath9k-1 lanforge]# ethtool -i eth1
driver: r8169
version: 2.3LK-NAPI
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:02:00.0
[root@lec2010-ath9k-1 lanforge]# ethtool eth1 Settings for eth1:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
Advertised pause frame use: No
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 10Mb/s
Duplex: Half
Port: MII
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Supports Wake-on: pumbg
Wake-on: g
Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
drv probe ifdown ifup
Link detected: yes

Thanks,
Ben

Signature · 2 lines
Ben Greear <[email protected]>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
#1 lore raw
Quoted 4 lines · Ben Greear

I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't report link down when in fact there is no cable connected. Instead, it shows 10Mbps half-duplex. I have no idea if this previously worked or not.

Thanks for the report. I'll try it tomorrow or friday.

Signature · 1 line
Ueimor
#2 lore raw

François Romieu <[email protected]> :

Quoted 3 lines · Ben Greear
Quoted 2 lines

I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't report link down when in fact there is no cable connected. Instead,

[...]

Quoted 1 line

Thanks for the report. I'll try it tomorrow or friday.

I have not been able to notice it with a current kernel.

I'd welcome the XID of the 8169 NIC (see dmesg) and a short explanation (no cable from boot ? cable removed after ifconfig up ? brand / ability of the switch / hub ?).

Thanks.

Signature · 1 line
Ueimor
author
#3 lore raw
Quoted 4 lines · Francois Romieu

François Romieu<[email protected]> :

Quoted 3 lines · Ben Greear
Quoted 2 lines

I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't report link down when in fact there is no cable connected. Instead,

Quoted 8 lines

[...]

Quoted 1 line

Thanks for the report. I'll try it tomorrow or friday.

I have not been able to notice it with a current kernel.

I'd welcome the XID of the 8169 NIC (see dmesg) and a short explanation (no cable from boot ? cable removed after ifconfig up ? brand / ability of the switch / hub ?).

Well, as luck would have it, my system will boot today's upstream kernel (39-rc4+). And, I no longer see the problem in that release, so it seems it is fixed (or harder to reproduce that I thought).

Basically, I was seeing it claim to have link in 'ethtool' output when there was no cable connected. It did go to 10Mbps/half duplex link speed when un-plugged. It showed full 1Gbps link when plugged in.

I'll let you know if I see this again.

Thanks,
Ben

Quoted 3 lines

Thanks.

Signature · 2 lines
Ben Greear <[email protected]>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
#4 lore raw
Quoted 18 lines · Ben Greear
Quoted 4 lines · Francois Romieu

François Romieu<[email protected]> :

Quoted 3 lines · Ben Greear
Quoted 2 lines

I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't report link down when in fact there is no cable connected. Instead,

Quoted 8 lines

[...]

Quoted 1 line

Thanks for the report. I'll try it tomorrow or friday.

I have not been able to notice it with a current kernel.

I'd welcome the XID of the 8169 NIC (see dmesg) and a short explanation (no cable from boot ? cable removed after ifconfig up ? brand / ability of the switch / hub ?).

Well, as luck would have it, my system will boot today's upstream kernel (39-rc4+). And, I no longer see the problem in that release, so it seems it is fixed (or harder to reproduce that I thought).

Quoted 6 lines

Basically, I was seeing it claim to have link in 'ethtool' output when there was no cable connected. It did go to 10Mbps/half duplex link speed when un-plugged. It showed full 1Gbps link when plugged in.

I'll let you know if I see this again.

I just had a user run into this bug yesterday on 2.6.38.3 and he described the exact symptoms in
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33782 . Essentially:

- cable plugged in
- ifconfig eth0 down
- wait a few seconds
- ifconfig eth0 up
- ifconfig eth0 (no LOWER_UP is shown)

If the cable is plugged in, and the device is UP, then we should expect LOWER_UP indicating the device has a carrier. But that's not happening. If there's any way to isolate a fix and push that fix to stable@ that would be great...

Dan