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WARNING:et131x_send_packet Can't obtain a TCB

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TwangThunk
2007-04-15
2013-04-18
  • TwangThunk

    TwangThunk - 2007-04-15

    When I leave large/fast transfers running for awhile (i.e. FTP sessions between 2 local GigE-equipped PCs) I see this in the logs fairly often, and the FTP transfers stop (but the FTP program eventually retries):

        et131x.ko:WARNING:et131x_send_packet Can't obtain a TCB
        et131x.ko:WARNING:et131x_send_packets Resources problem, Queue tx packet

    I know it's just a warning, and things like samba and FTP recover, but is it something I should be worried about? It seems to make the connection hiccup. I get it when I have the systems connected through a GigE switch, and also when I connect them together directly.

    I don't know what a TCB is, but is it something I can tune the kernel to have more of?

    Thanks!

     
    • TwangThunk

      TwangThunk - 2007-04-16

      Also, maybe related, maybe not...

      ...when I actually started to graph my transfers (using MRTG) I can see that:

      a) Speeds would slow over time (i.e. 10MB/s FTP would be at 100KB/s in an hour
      b) The connection occasionally totally stops (the interface is dead: you cannot ping, no traffic). If I unplug the cable from the interface and plug it back in again it restarts at full speed. I've tried 2 different non-et131x interfaces on the second PC (Nvidia and Broadcom), as well as putting a switch between them and it's the et131x that always need the reset (i.e. with the switch in place, the switch->et131x cable needs to be reset... the switch->PC#2 cable makes no difference when reset.

      This is driving me crazy: maybe I'm just unlucky.... but when I drive low/slow traffic through any of my 3 et131x cards they are fine... lots of traffic and they get flakey.

       
    • TwangThunk

      TwangThunk - 2007-04-17

      Even stranger... when the connection stops it's affecting all 3 interfaces (i.e. the transfer rate graphs for all 3 drop to zero). Why would unplugging/plugging-in the ethernet cable on eth1 also affect eth2 and eth3?

      Maybe one of the 3 cards is bad: I'll try shuffling them around in different slots to see if the problem follows one card around.

       
    • TwangThunk

      TwangThunk - 2007-04-17

      Ooops... all 3 may be affected because when one interface goes down the routing tables get altered and flushed... so apps that were balanced over the 2 internet connections all have to reconnect etc. So maybe it is just a problem with one card.

       

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