Subject: [netatalk-admins] Problems getting appletalk to work at 100MBs

From: Hannu Krosing <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 16:55:25 +0300

Hi,

I have been trying to get netatalk working on a Dell Optiplex GXpro 
computer (uses Intel FX (Natoma) chipset ) with some success (transfer 
about 10x faster than NT4.0, 7500 write/5500 read, using TCP/IP), but 
I have some problems getting the 100MBs ethernet cards to work using 
appletalk.

when I use Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 (whith 82558 chip), then the 
card functions quite ok, but every few (5-50) seconds it gets stuck 
and reports:

eth0: Transmit timed out: status 0050 command 0000.
eth0: Trying to restart the transmitter...

when i replaced eepro with D-Link 500TX (based on Dec tulip 21140),
i don't get this, but I don't get any routing between this and other 
(3com 590 @ 10Mbs) card either :(, (I do get routing with eepro100)

the configuration is the same om both tries, only change is that eth0 
is either eepro100 or tulip.

I use kernel 2.0.34, with latest (?) drivers from cesdis.

I also use the latest ip-enabled (with asun patches) netatalk from
ftp.u.washington.edu.

Does anyone have any suggestions where (and how) should I start digging
?

Hannu Krosing

---

From: Donald Becker <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 12:31:10 -0400 (EDT)

> eth0: Trying to restart the transmitter...

The i82557 and i82558 (Speedo3 and Mt. Bachelor) chips take a long time to
digest longer multicast filter lists.
This can be avoided by switching to rx-all-multicast mode sooner.
The parameter that sets this is:
/* Maximum number of multicast addresses to filter (vs. rx-all-multicast) */
static int multicast_filter_limit = 64;

Append the following /etc/conf.modules:
  options eepro100 multicast_filter_limit=2;

Please report the result.
If it works, try increasing it -- I'm interested in knowing at what value it
becomes a problem.  (I don't have an Appletalk environment to test in...)

Donald Becker					  [email-masked]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882	     http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html