Hi,
I upgraded recently my Macbook Pro to gentoo-sources 2.6.31 and I have
annoying network hiccups which I didn't have with the old 2.6.24.

b.g.o. and google return me something on sky2-related hiccups, but only
related to very old kernels (<2.6.23), but maybe you know better.

(Hopefully) relevant infos below, I hope someone can give me some hint
about this problem. Thanks!


uname -a:
---------
Linux kircher 2.6.31-gentoo-r6 #8 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 25 00:57:17 GMT
2009 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux


Example of logs entries:
---------------
Jan 2 17:47:42 kircher sky2 eth0: rx error, status 0x620020 length 98
Jan 2 17:47:49 kircher sky2 eth0: rx error, status 0x690020 length 105
Jan 2 17:48:11 kircher sky2 eth0: rx error, status 0x4990020 length 1177
Jan 2 17:48:25 kircher sky2 eth0: rx error, status 0x13f0020 length 319
Jan 2 17:48:46 kircher sky2 eth0: rx error, status 0x1350020 length 309


Relevant lspci -vvv :
------------
0c:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Marvell Yukon
88E8058 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 00ba

Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop-
ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 256 bytes

Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 29

Region 0: Memory at 97200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
[size=16K]
Region 2: I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]

Expansion ROM at 9b600000 [disabled] [size=128K]

Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3

Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA
PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=1 PME-

Capabilities: [50] Vital Product Data <?>

Capabilities: [5c] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+
Count=1/1 Enable+
Address: 00000000fee0300c Data: 4191
Capabilities: [e0] Express (v1) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s
unlimited, L1 unlimited
ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal-
Unsupported-
RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 2048 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr+
TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1,
Latency L0 <256ns, L1 unlimited
ClockPM+ Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled; RCB 128 bytes Disabled-
Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+
DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
UESta: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt-
UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
UEMsk: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt-
UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
UESvrt: DLP+ SDES- TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt-
UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSVoil-
CESta: RxErr+ BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout-
NonFatalErr+
CESta: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout-
NonFatalErr+
AERCap: First Error Pointer: 1f, GenCap- CGenEn- ChkCap-
ChkEn-
Kernel driver in use: sky2


emerge --info:
---------
Portage 2.1.6.13 (default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.1.2,
glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.31-gentoo-r6 i686)
================================================== ===============

System uname:
Linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r6-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T7700_@_2.40GHz-with-gentoo-1.12.11.1

Timestamp of tree: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:30:01 +0000

app-shells/bash: 3.2_p39

dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.1.9-r2

dev-lang/python: 2.4.4-r13, 2.5.4-r3, 2.6.4

dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6

dev-util/cmake: 2.6.2-r1

sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1

sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2

sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.63

sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2

sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3

sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4

sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.26

virtual/os-headers: 2.6.27-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=nocona -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d
/etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild
/etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d
/etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c
/etc/udev/rules.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=nocona -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox
sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://de-mirror.org/distro/gentoo/
http://files.gentoo.org http://ftp.uoi.gr/mirror/OS/gentoo/
http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/gentoo/
http://mirror.ing.unibo.it/gentoo/
http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo http://gentoo.tiscali.nl/ "
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
LINGUAS="it en en_GB"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times
--compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180
--exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/portage/local/layman/pro-audio /usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi aiglx alsa avi berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2
cairo cddb cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus
divx4linux dri dts dvd dvdr dvdread emboss encode evo fam ffmpeg firefox
flac fortran ftp gcj gdbm gif gimp glitz gnustep gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2
hal iconv imagemagick ipv6 jabber jack java jpeg kde ladspa ldap
libnotify lm_sensors mad mikmod mmx mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mplayer mtp
mudflap ncurses networkmanager nls nodrm nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia
ogg opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl pmu png ppds pppd python qt3support
qt4 quicktime readline reflection samba sdl session spell spl ssl
startup-notification subtitles svg svga sysfs tcpd theora thunar tiff tk
truetype unicode usb v4l v4l2 vorbis wifi win32codecs wmf x264 x86
xcomposite xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel"
ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug
file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw
multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions
alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default
authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host
authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir
disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info
log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif
speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc"
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux"
LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb
ncurses text" LINGUAS="it en en_GB" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU"
VIDEO_CARDS="vesa fbdev nv nvidia"
Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK,
LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS,
PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

On 01/02/2010 09:52 AM, bn wrote:

Hi,
I upgraded recently my Macbook Pro to gentoo-sources 2.6.31 and I have
annoying network hiccups which I didn't have with the old 2.6.24.


By that you mean the chip works, but prints error messages that you
didn't see before?

Looking at the kernel commit logs for the sky2 driver, I see hundreds
of changes since 2.6.24, so this driver is very actively developed.
I would try building a vanilla kernel somewhere between 6.24 and 6.31
and see if it makes any difference.

walt ha scritto:
> On 01/02/2010 09:52 AM, bn wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I upgraded recently my Macbook Pro to gentoo-sources 2.6.31 and I have
>> annoying network hiccups which I didn't have with the old 2.6.24.
>
> By that you mean the chip works, but prints error messages that you
> didn't see before?

Ehm, no, it disconnects randomly every about ~5 minutes, and then comes
back.

> Looking at the kernel commit logs for the sky2 driver, I see hundreds
> of changes since 2.6.24, so this driver is very actively developed.
> I would try building a vanilla kernel somewhere between 6.24 and 6.31
> and see if it makes any difference.

Well, yes, this "brute force" approach could theoretically help, but if
there's any chance of narrowing down this I'd be happy. I don't exactly
have the time to recompile 7 kernel versions and try until I find the
golden one.

thanks,
m.

bn wrote:
> Ehm, no, it disconnects randomly every about ~5 minutes, and then comes
> back.
>

Most network problems can be traced to the cable or connectors. Have you
tried
a different cable?

> Well, yes, this "brute force" approach could theoretically help, but if
> there's any chance of narrowing down this I'd be happy. I don't exactly
> have the time to recompile 7 kernel versions and try until I find the
> golden one.
>

I have a similar chipset in this desktop:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E
Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 00ba

It's worked perfectly with the sky2 driver in all kernel versions since
goodness knows
what. It certainly worked with all of the 2.6.31 releases. It's
currently on gentoo-sources 2.6.32-r1.


Be lucky,

Neil
http://www.easy-ebay.com

Neil Walker ha scritto:
> bn wrote:
>> Ehm, no, it disconnects randomly every about ~5 minutes, and then comes
>> back.
>>
>
> Most network problems can be traced to the cable or connectors. Have you
> tried
> a different cable?

No, but before the kernel upgrade it seemed to work OK.
However I will check when I can.

> I have a similar chipset in this desktop:
>
> 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E
> Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
> Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 00ba
>
> It's worked perfectly with the sky2 driver in all kernel versions since
> goodness knows
> what. It certainly worked with all of the 2.6.31 releases. It's
> currently on gentoo-sources 2.6.32-r1.

Good to know, I hope it's just a cable issue, but the coincidence with
the upgrade makes me worry.

Thanks,
m.

On 01/03/2010 08:14 AM, bn wrote:

Neil Walker ha scritto:

I have a similar chipset in this desktop:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E
Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device 00ba

It's worked perfectly with the sky2 driver in all kernel versions since
goodness knows
what. It certainly worked with all of the 2.6.31 releases. It's
currently on gentoo-sources 2.6.32-r1.


Good to know, I hope it's just a cable issue, but the coincidence with
the upgrade makes me worry.



sky2 seems to be kind of touchy with different chipsets. I have a circa
2008 Mac Mini running CentOS (so it's got whatever voodoo magic
backported version of sky2 that RedHat included) and it was giving me
all sorts of grief with hangup/reset issues (apparently related to
issues with bridged connections). I also have a Gentoo box with 2 NICs
(one being an 88E8053, just like the Mac Mini) that was having issues
with large transfers on the sky2 connection years ago so I switched over
to the other NIC.


Good luck with your search.

Aaron
--
"The goblins are in charge of maintenance? Why not just set it on fire
now and call it a day?"

--Whip Tongue, Viashino Technician

Neil Walker ha scritto:
> bn wrote:
>> Ehm, no, it disconnects randomly every about ~5 minutes, and then comes
>> back.
>>
>
> Most network problems can be traced to the cable or connectors. Have you
> tried
> a different cable?

It was the cable, indeed.
Thanks for the hint!

m.