netdev - Problems with Freescale FEC PHY driver

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Date:	Mon, 3 Jun 2013 23:07:46 -0400
From:	John Clark <inindev@...il.com>
To:	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Problems with Freescale FEC PHY driver

I am having problems with the Freescale FEC PHY driver on a Boundary
Devices Nitrogen6x iMX6 quad-core board.  I noticed the problem with
the 3.9 kernels and it continues with the 3.10 series.  I just tested
the 3.10.0-rc4 kernel on wheezy and I am still seeing similar problems
(although it does appear to have improved since the 3.9 kernel).

[    2.412887] fec 2188000.ethernet eth0: registered PHC device 0
[    8.672688] fec 2188000.ethernet eth0: Freescale FEC PHY driver
[Generic PHY] (mii_bus:phy_a)
[    8.684003] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   13.130344] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready

The problem in 3.9:
Starting a compile or other processor intensive activity will cause a
series of link up / down messages to be logged:

[ 2654.484410] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Up - 1000/Full
[ 2656.484371] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Down
[ 2657.484425] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Up - 1000/Full
[ 2669.494347] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Down
[ 2671.494509] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Up - 1000/Full
[ 2679.494387] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Down
[ 2682.494398] libphy: 2188000.ethernet:06 - Link is Up - 1000/Full

The system starts stalling and lagging badly with unpredictable and
long lags between keystrokes for example.

In 3.10.0-rc4, I still am able to get the errors in the log by
starting a compile, but the stuttering and lagging seems to be gone
(just ran a few quick tests).

I saw this link which looks a lot like what I am seeing, but it may
not have been entirely fixed for 3.10.0-rc4:

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.network/267535

John Clark
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