Re: [Linuxptp-users] "poll tx timestamp timeout", problem since v1.2, igb, stmmac

[Keller, J. E <jac...@in...>]

Hi, 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vick, Matthew [mailto:mat...@in...]
> Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 9:13 AM
> To: Jean-Baptiste Maillet; lin...@li...
> Subject: Re: [Linuxptp-users] "poll tx timestamp timeout", problem since
> v1.2, igb, stmmac
> 
> On 10/25/13, 8:47 AM, "Jean-Baptiste Maillet"
> <jea...@pa...> wrote:
> 
> >On 10/25/2013 05:09 PM, Richard Cochran wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> I don't really trust the Debian kernels. I would try the igb driver
> >> from a recent mainline kernel. The igb driver really should be working
> >> in mainline Linux.
> >
> >OK, will do. I need a hardware and upstream reference point known to
> work.
> >It's (bad) luck I didn't tried the Debian igb driver right away but the
> >highly experimental
> >igb_avb first. My only suspect was stmmac.
> >
> >BTW igb support 2-3 families of chip (82575, 82576, 82580, then i210,
> >i211, and i350, i354):
> >do any users out there can share their experience using it specifically
> >with i210?
> 
> I210 should definitely be working in the upstream Linux kernel. Please let
> me know if it is not.
> 
> I'm uncertain what the Debian kernel version of igb looks like. It's
> possible some critical patch is missing. You can try the latest version
> (5.0.6) from e1000.sf.net and compiling with CFLAGS_EXTRA=-DIGB_PTP
> to see
> if that driver works for you.
> 
> Cheers,
> Matthew
> 
> Matthew Vick
> Linux Development
> Networking Division
> Intel Corporation
> 

I second this. The igb driver definitely had some fixes in place over time, which may be the case that the debian kernel didn't manage to include (or included with bugs). My guess is the avb driver has the proper code to fix this issue.

In general, since we moved to using poll() for a longer period of time, this error indicates a more serious issue, and I am thinking of submitting a patch to update the error text to be more indicative of what happened.

Regards,
Jake