Bug 88477

Summary:	Possible addition to xl(4) manpage, Diagnostics section
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	reko.turja
Component:	Books & Articles	Assignee:	Tom Rhodes <trhodes>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description reko.turja 2005-11-04 02:10:15 UTC

The 3com xl-series of adapters usually emit some messages like:

+xl0: transmission error: 90
+xl0: tx underrun, increasing tx start threshold to 180 bytes
+xl0: transmission error: 90
+xl0: tx underrun, increasing tx start threshold to 240 bytes
+xl0: transmission error: 90
+xl0: tx underrun, increasing tx start threshold to 300 bytes         

when the interface tunes itself.

Although usually harmless, I think the messages could/should be documented
in the xl manpage

Fix: 

There might be some other underlying technical snags with this one (I guess
if these messages appear constantly and tx treshold goes over some value
the adapter is broken...), but I'd suggest the following: 

Add another entry under diagnostics (maybe as the last one):

xl%d: transmission error: 90
xl%d: tx underrun, increasing tx start threshold to xxx bytes
This message may appear while the adapter tunes it's transmission buffers
under load. If these messages won't appear constantly but only soon after
reboot, or during heavy network load spikes, they can be probably ignored.
How-To-Repeat: Give network adapter using the xl(4) driver some workload

Comment 1 dfilter service freebsd_committer

2008-01-24 00:39:42 UTC

trhodes     2008-01-24 00:39:39 UTC

  FreeBSD src repository

  Modified files:
    share/man/man4       xl.4 
  Log:
  Add a diagnostic note about "transmission error ... tx underrun, increasing
  tx start threshold ..."  Looking around on the mailing lists, and even having
  one of these cards I agree the messages should be documented.
  
  Bump doc date.
  
  PR:     88477
  
  Revision  Changes    Path
  1.39      +6 -1      src/share/man/man4/xl.4
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Comment 2 Tom Rhodes freebsd_committer

2008-01-24 00:39:55 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->patched

Patched in current.  I have one of these cards and get the same messages, 
it would have been nice to see it in the manual page.  Thanks!

Comment 3 Tom Rhodes freebsd_committer

2008-01-24 00:39:55 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-doc->trhodes

Over to me, MFC reminder.

Comment 4 dfilter service freebsd_committer

2008-07-20 17:00:20 UTC

trhodes     2008-07-20 15:59:44 UTC

  FreeBSD src repository

  Modified files:        (Branch: RELENG_7)
    share/man/man4       xl.4 
  Log:
  SVN rev 180632 on 2008-07-20 15:59:44Z by trhodes
  
  MFC r175615:
  
  Add a diagnostic note about "transmission error ... tx underrun, increasing
  tx start threshold ..." Looking around on the mailing lists, and even having
  one of these cards I agree the messages should be documented.
  
  Bump doc date.
  
  PR: 88477
  
  Revision  Changes    Path
  1.38.2.1  +6 -1      src/share/man/man4/xl.4
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Comment 5 dfilter service freebsd_committer

2008-07-20 17:51:27 UTC

trhodes     2008-07-20 16:51:14 UTC

  FreeBSD src repository

  Modified files:        (Branch: RELENG_6)
    share/man/man4       xl.4 
  Log:
  SVN rev 180634 on 2008-07-20 16:51:14Z by trhodes
  
  MFC r175615:
  
  Add a diagnostic note about "transmission error ... tx underrun, increasing
  tx start threshold ..." Looking around on the mailing lists, and even having
  one of these cards I agree the messages should be documented.
  
  Bump doc date.
  
  PR: 88477
  
  Revision  Changes    Path
  1.34.2.4  +6 -1      src/share/man/man4/xl.4
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Comment 6 Tom Rhodes freebsd_committer

2008-07-20 17:51:32 UTC

State Changed
From-To: patched->closed

MFC completed, thanks!