Re: Synology PPCBoot SK98 network bug fix

[Frank Wille <frank%phoenix.owl.de@localhost>]

On Mon, 30 May 2011 15:59:07 +0100
Julian Coleman <jdc%coris.org.uk@localhost> wrote:

> I think the problem is the number of other packets that we receive (this
> network has switches with IGMP and bridging).  If we only have 2 receive
> descriptors, we can receive two multicast or broadcast packets and return
> these.  That means that we can miss out on the replies to our requests.

Yes, that could be the problem, indeed.

Even if you didn't tell your routers/switches via IGMP that you want
to receive multicast packets, you are receiving them anyway, because the
NIC is in promiscious mode? :|


> I increased the number of receive buffers to 8 and that usually gets
> further - it got part way through loading the kernel a couple of times,
> but it has never managed to load the whole kernel without failing at some
> point.  I also tried ignoring packets with RXSTAT_BROADCAST or
> RXSTAT_MULTICAST set, and immediately checking for another packet.  In
> that case, it gets further (bootp, arp, nfs)  but still hasn't succeeded
> to load a complete kernel.

You really must have a lot of traffic on your net.

I admit that my home network is quite calm. Three or four clients
maximum. And usually no traffic at all.

The problem you describe would affect all network drivers in altboot,
not just skg.c. No driver uses more than two descriptors.

Probably it is better to define in the documentation that you need to
provide a network with low traffic for installation.

-- 
Frank Wille