netdev - Re: r8169 doesn't report link state correctly.

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Date:	Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:55:31 -0500
From:	Dan Williams <dcbw@...hat.com>
To:	Ben Greear <greearb@...delatech.com>
Cc:	Francois Romieu <romieu@...zoreil.com>,
	netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: r8169 doesn't report link state correctly.

On Wed, 2011-04-20 at 14:56 -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> On 04/20/2011 12:14 PM, Francois Romieu wrote:
> > François Romieu<romieu@...zoreil.com>  :
> >> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 01:09:19PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
> >>> I notice that in kernel 2.6.38-wl, the realtek 8169 NIC doesn't
> >>> report link down when in fact there is no cable connected.  Instead,
> > [...]
> >> Thanks for the report. I'll try it tomorrow or friday.
> >
> > I have not been able to notice it with a current kernel.
> >
> > I'd welcome the XID of the 8169 NIC (see dmesg) and a short explanation
> > (no cable from boot ? cable removed after ifconfig up ? brand / ability
> > of the switch / hub ?).
> 
> Well, as luck would have it, my system will boot today's upstream
> kernel (39-rc4+).  And, I no longer see the problem in that release,
> so it seems it is fixed (or harder to reproduce that I thought).
> 
> Basically, I was seeing it claim to have link in 'ethtool' output
> when there was no cable connected.  It did go to 10Mbps/half duplex
> link speed when un-plugged.  It showed full 1Gbps link when plugged
> in.
> 
> I'll let you know if I see this again.

I just had a user run into this bug yesterday on 2.6.38.3 and he
described the exact symptoms in
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33782 .  Essentially:

- cable plugged in
- ifconfig eth0 down
- wait a few seconds
- ifconfig eth0 up
- ifconfig eth0 (no LOWER_UP is shown)

If the cable is plugged in, and the device is UP, then we should expect
LOWER_UP indicating the device has a carrier.  But that's not happening.
If there's any way to isolate a fix and push that fix to stable@ that
would be great...

Dan


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