Bug 531810

Summary: Upgrade from RHEL4U7 to U8 fails to bring up networking with forcedeth driver.
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Reporter: Flavio Leitner <fleitner>
Component: kernelAssignee: Ivan Vecera <ivecera>
Status: CLOSED DUPLICATE QA Contact: Red Hat Kernel QE team <kernel-qe>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: urgent    
Version: 4.8CC: dhoward, ivecera, rryder, vmayatsk
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Regression
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of:
: 532593 (view as bug list) Environment:
Last Closed: 2009-11-10 17:14:20 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 532593    
Attachments:
Description Flags
Proposed patch none

Description Flavio Leitner 2009-10-29 15:16:06 UTC 
Description:

We are experiencing intermittent problems with HP xw9400 models after the 
update (and also when kickstarted directly with 4.8).

The problem is that after an update, sometimes the network does not come up.
The link lights are on and flashing, but it can't pass any traffic. If the
network cable is unplugged and plugged back in, it starts to work. A reboot
after the update will almost always fail to bring up the network.

After a power cycle, the network generally comes up on boot, but not always.
The problem seems to be most pronounced when connected to a Cisco core 
switch with GB.

The same systems had no problems previously on 4.7, and the exact same
system, using the same network port, and kickstart it with RHEL5.3 doesn't
have any issues.

The same system which fails to initialize the network at boot time will
reliably bring up the network during the boot process if we insert a
100Mbps switch in between it and the Cisco.
Comment 9 Issue Tracker 2009-10-30 13:45:56 UTC 
Event posted on 10-30-2009 10:45am BRT by fbl


I started another brew build with that patch[1] applied, it's here:
http://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/brew/taskinfo?taskID=2054674

The other previous patches were removed in this new build.

A CVS diff between -78 and -89 releases shows the following:
+      /* restart auto negotiation, power down phy */
+       mii_control = mii_rw(dev, np->phyaddr, MII_BMCR, MII_READ);
+-      mii_control |= (BMCR_ANRESTART | BMCR_ANENABLE);
++      mii_control |= (BMCR_ANRESTART | BMCR_ANENABLE | BMCR_PDOWN);
+       if (mii_rw(dev, np->phyaddr, MII_BMCR, mii_control)) {
+               return PHY_ERROR;
+       }


So, release -89 started to power down PHY.
thanks,
Flavio

[1]
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=5a9a8e32ebe269c71d8d3e78f9435fe7729f38e9

Internal Status set to 'Waiting on Support'

This event sent from IssueTracker by fbl 
 issue 358551
Comment 10 Ivan Vecera 2009-10-30 15:26:37 UTC 
Created attachment 366813 [details]
Proposed patch

Here is proposed patch for RHEL4's forcedeth. It's practically the backport of the latest upstream driver from Linus. It fixes the situation with PHY powered down, also includes fixes several race conditions, NAPI fixes, support for MCP89.

There are kernel packages for testing at:
http://people.redhat.com/ivecera/rhel-4-ivtest/

Could you please test them? My internal testing on xw9400 from RHTS has not show any problem.
Comment 11 RHEL Program Management 2009-10-30 15:30:42 UTC 
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release.  Product Management has requested
further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential
inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed
products.  This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update
release.
Comment 19 Ivan Vecera 2009-11-10 17:14:20 UTC 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 532593 ***