A while back I posted a message here saying that I'd changed the xl driver
a bit to hopefully improve performance for 3c90xB and later adapters (i.e.
the "cyclone," "hurricane" and "tornado" chipsets). I asked for people
to report if the changes helped, hurt, made no difference or were totally
broken.
So far not one person has said so much as a word to me on this subject.
I need feedback from people so that I know it's safe to merge this
stuff into -stable, so let's hear it already. It's been several weeks
since I made the changes. Surely there are people running -current
with 3Com 3c90xB cards.
To reiterate, this only concerns people with the following adapters:
- 3c905B-TX 10/100
- 3c905B-FX/SC fiber optic
- 3c905B-COMBO 10/100 plus BNC and AUI
- 3c905C-TX 10/100
- 3c980-TX server adapter
- 3c980B-TX server adapter
- 3c980C-TX server adapter
- 3cSOHO100-TX 10/100
To a lesser extent it also concerns people with these adapters (these
are 10Mbps only so the change isn't likely to be as noticable):
- 3c900B-TPO twisted pair only
- 3c900B-TPC twisted paid and coax (BNC)
- 3c900B-COMBO twisted pair, AUI and BNC
- 3c900B-FL fiber optic
Ideally, the changes should provide slightly faster performance with
less CPU usage. Performance/CPU overhead comparisons with other cards
(in the same machine!) would he helpful as well as comparisons with
the same 3Com card using the older driver revision.
Things that would not be helpful include:
- Asking about an unrelated problem from 3.2-RELEASE, 3.3-RELEASE or
3.3-STABLE.
- Telling me that your card isn't detected properly and not realizing
that you have "plug and play OS" set to "yes" in your BIOS config.
- Asking about a completely different card. From a completely different
manufacturer.
- Saying that you'll be happy to run some tests "as soon as you find
some time." If you couldn't find the time by now, you never will.
- Giving me an excuse for not sending me any feedback earlier. I
don't care if your dog got run over, your house was invaded by
giant ants, your entire family contracted the bubonic plague or
aliens stole your computer.
- Asking me how to set up a 3Com card in Linux. (Comparing the xl
driver's performance with the Linux 3Com driver is acceptable,
provided you run the comparison on the same hardware. Comparing
a PIII 600Mhz host running Linux to a PII 300Mhz host running
FreeBSD is not a fair comparison. Unless FreeBSD ends up being
faster. :)
-Bill
--
=============================================================================
-Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu
Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Center for Telecommunications Research
Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Columbia University, New York City
=============================================================================
"It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness"
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