r8169: RxConfig hack for the 8168evl.
authorfrançois romieu <romieu@fr.zoreil.com>
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:09:18 +0000 (12:09 +0000)
committerBen Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
Thu, 2 Aug 2012 13:37:40 +0000 (14:37 +0100)
commite67de1a52fb8fdad45a4a99d2bcb0ac41d1a75ab
tree27a5b0e07c6163a28c445e78e36e8bc937ab9c95
parent2c608967d48e65f6d6ef3727a58e4608c1784f22
r8169: RxConfig hack for the 8168evl.

commit eb2dc35d99028b698cdedba4f5522bc43e576bd2 upstream.

The 8168evl (RTL_GIGA_MAC_VER_34) based Gigabyte GA-990FXA motherboards
are very prone to NETDEV watchdog problems without this change. See
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42899 for instance.

I don't know why it *works*. It's depressingly effective though.

For the record:
- the problem may go along IOMMU (AMD-Vi) errors but it really looks
  like a red herring.
- the patch sets the RX_MULTI_EN bit. If the 8168c doc is any guide,
  the chipset now fetches several Rx descriptors at a time.
- long ago the driver ignored the RX_MULTI_EN bit.
  e542a2269f232d61270ceddd42b73a4348dee2bb changed the RxConfig
  settings. Whatever the problem it's now labeled a regression.
- Realtek's own driver can identify two different 8168evl devices
  (CFG_METHOD_16 and CFG_METHOD_17) where the r8169 driver only
  sees one. It sucks.

Signed-off-by: Francois Romieu <romieu@fr.zoreil.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169.c