[Devil-linux-develop] RTL8169 bugs in 2.4.26

[Tim T. <t....@co...>]

Found this patch set for the RTL8169 for 2.4.26, no idea if it fixes the 
problem but I'll try it if I can figure it out...

A couple of questions:
- Does DL support the "NMI" watchdog? Is that what that make menuconfig 
pick is supposed to do? I had it on but it didn't seem to do anyhing.

- Where do I turn on the "magic" Alt-sysrq-T thingy? I see it being 
turned on if  support in the init.d/boot script, so it must no be 
comiled in cause the /proc... file does not exist.

Thanks-

Tim

from message thread: 
<http://oss.sgi.com/archives/netdev/2004-04/msg00341.html>

----------- from 
<http://www.fr.zoreil.com/linux/kernel/2.4.x/2.4.26/README.txt> :

This is an updated version of the r8169 patchset. The fix are directly
included in the relevant patches.

Apply/compile/test to vanilla 2.4.26 in following order:

              file                   |               md5
-------------------------------------+---------------------------------
r8169-upgrade-to-2.6.4-rc2.patch      b3bc23560b2c642669c4aa4fb25f3572
r8169-dma-api-tx.patch                a028c8710ed54d4447d9236f482b6c84
r8169-dma-api-rx-buffers.patch        9d242d745b5054127d7a81587fbbb18c
r8169-dma-api-tx-buffers.patch        7370aa7904228bbb19588b1ac18e283c
r8169-rx_copybreak.patch              dd0a99f3d5cbba194af9ca2fe297b801
r8169-mac-phy-version.patch           6430bfbbad8cb107975d61e4ffcf93a0
r8169-init_one.patch                  d71baaee42398f173894b08a6e130dbf
r8169-timer.patch                     de72e4825867f22f0b302edb985c9a02
r8169-hw_start.patch                  8427a73de3f1c2c72f69da81dde0c9fc
r8169-intr_mask.patch                 08d386707a2a67a0cddaf3d748df8ff2
r8169-suspend.patch                   e7832871558326cf9e1a4d8a15cacfa5
r8169-endianness.patch                e99ad19f62cca91e48a29f8fcd5f1ceb
r8169-getstats.patch                  b36929bae4b35f6bd8fb6de356eb6475
r8169-ethtool-introduction.patch      2323a525428cd8247e531116d7abbad0
r8169-missing-static.patch            ab65bb8ffcab7695663e12b5349c5fe7
r8169-barrier.patch                   81a6e52ff808abe0abd9678ea3ed465a
r8169-kill-potential-busy-loop.patch  69cdc5de2f9c45d84b2921968d035363
r8169-dac-10.patch                    b99a95566e141df52de6b63fc707905b
r8169-irq-handler-status.patch        0a5b62497984acd4185e81a14226e37b

Each patch must be applied on top of the preceeding one: there
should be zero warning from the patch command.

If the patches do not apply cleanly, please provide an (sh-)history of
the issued commands as well as md5sum of the relevant files.

Please compile and report after each patch if the driver is stable
without/under load. A fix related to a bug under load has been merged
in recent 2.4.26-xx. It should help.

Comparisons with/without SMP support enabled in the kernel will be welcome.

If something goes wrong:
- verify that the problem disappears when the latest patch is not applied;
- send:
  - the list of applied patches ;
  - 'dmesg', 'lspci', 'lsmod', 'cat /proc/interrupts', 'ifconfig' output ;
  - a few words of explanation ;
- disable acpi if it was enabled and try again ;
- please Cc: ne...@os....

Depending on your hardware configuration (Intel + apic), you may use the
nmi watchdog if things go really scary. Enable it in the configuration menu
and include an 'nmi_watchdog=1' option on the kernel boot command-line.

The magic sysrq (alt+sysrq+t) may help too. Please check it is not disabled
in your /etc/sysctl.conf (distribution dependant ?).

Thank you for your contribution.