[Avila] Problem with wds bridging on avila board

Wed May 16 13:52:17 EDT 2007

Joel,

"Received packet with  own address as source address" would indicate a bridge
loop.  Are you sure your setting things up correctly?

Tim

--- Joel Lindsay <joel at waveteq.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have repeasted the problem with the 2348 boards and everything works as 
> expected.
> 
> The problem is limited to the 2347 boards, and I have tried several 
> different boards, including my newest ones which should be the last 
> revision.
> 
> Are there some patches I need to apply for the 2347 board?  Maybe I didn't 
> allow all the ixp Components/Codelets and that I need?  Is there 
> documentation on what all these mean somewhere?  I have never found them.
> 
> With the 2347 the error I get in the logs is
> 
> <14>Jan  1 00:00:24 kernel: br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
> <14>Jan  1 00:00:24 kernel: br0: topology change detected, propagating
> <14>Jan  1 00:00:24 kernel: br0: port 1(ixp0) entering forwarding state
> <12>Jan  1 00:00:58 kernel: ixp0: received packet with  own address as 
> source address
> <12>Jan  1 00:00:58 last message repeated 1 time(s)
> <86>Jan  1 00:00:58 dropbear[931]: Child connection from 
> 192.168.100.170:1657
> <12>Jan  1 00:00:58 kernel: ixp0: received packet with  own address as 
> source address
> <12>Jan  1 00:01:00 last message repeated 6 time(s)
> 
> This error does not appear with the 2348.
> 
> This is using the exact same software image and settings; only difference is 
> in the boards.  The occasional ping does get through however.
> 
> Joel Lindsay, B.Eng
> Project Engineer
> WaveTeq Communications
> (250) 766-9229
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tim Harvey" <tim_harvey at yahoo.com>
> To: "Avila" <avila at lists.unixstudios.net>
> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 10:31 AM
> Subject: RE: [Avila] Problem with wds bridging on avila board
> 
> 
> > Joel,
> >
> > I have not heard of anyone porting the GPL driver back to 2.6.15 - it was
> > originally written for something around 2.6.18 and is only maintained for 
> > the
> > newer kernels.  Its possible to port back but you'll have to take care of 
> > the
> > fact that certain kernel API's (like the mutex stuff you ran into) has 
> > changed.
> > Personally, if your going to expend that effort, your better off moving 
> > your
> > environment up to a more recent kernel.  Of course, its always a moving 
> > target.
> >
> > If you follow the patches at
> > http://trac.nslu2-linux.org/kernel/browser/trunk/patches you can patch the
> > standard linux kernel to support your avila board.  If you run into 
> > problems,
> > you can post to either the NSLU project or here for help from the people 
> > here
> > that have done this (I know of at least two others on this list that have
> > patched their own kernel up).  I believe there is also at least one VAR 
> > that I
> > know of on this list that will sell you a debian based kernel devel system 
> > that
> > supports the gateworks boards.
> >
> > With regards to your bridging issue:
> >
> > Its definitely not the IAL as I do what your doing with both the IAL and 
> > the
> > GPL drivers.  I don't like the IAL personally because its not GPL and 
> > therefore
> > not part of the mainstream kernel, which simply makes it a major pain to 
> > update
> > kernels as you have to port the IAL to the new kernel, but I also do not 
> > have
> > any issues with the IAL driver's performance or functionality.  You can 
> > search
> > this list for numerous discussions about this topic.  I have done a simple
> > throughput test with both drivers (2.6.15-uc0 + IAL NPE vs 2.6.19 + GPL 
> > NPE)
> > and did not find a significant performance difference.  I 'always' use the
> > 'npe_learning=0' mod param as I've been told that the npe_learning feature 
> > has
> > had memory leaks in the past (never confirmed this myself and am not sure 
> > if it
> > was fixed).
> >
> > I have experienced an issue with some early 2347 boards where the PHY 
> > would not
> > maintain a 100mbps link with certain phy's of other equipment I was using. 
> > The
> > 2347 uses a phy that is different from all the other IXP based boards I 
> > know of
> > and its not entirely supported in the kernel/driver your using.  I can't 
> > say
> > for sure this is what your seeing (I don't see it with 'newer' boards).
> >
> > Can you repeat your issue with 2348's?
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > --- Joel Lindsay <joel at waveteq.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Tim,
> >>
> >> I am using the 2.6.15 kernel, as that is what came with my avila dev kit 
> >> and
> >> I haven't upgraded.  Do you know if this will work with the GPL drivers?
> >>
> >> I am using Gateworks 2347 board with atheros and madwifi.
> >>
> >> The thing that struck me as most odd was that the problem only occurred 
> >> when
> >> connected to my LAN (with all the associated network and broadcast 
> >> traffic)
> >> but it worked perfectly when just straight bridging 2 laptops.  This was
> >> very similar to what I saw with the intel drivers before using
> >> npe_learning=0, which is why I thought they might be related.
> >>
> >> Maybe I will need to upgrade my kernel and try out the GPL drivers, or
> >> possibly the problem is something else.  I have had some ideas from some
> >> other board users that I will try.
> >>
> >> Thanks for the help!
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Tim Harvey [mailto:tim_harvey at yahoo.com]
> >> Sent: May 13, 2007 8:51 PM
> >> To: Avila
> >> Subject: Re: [Avila] Problem with wds bridging on avila board
> >>
> >> Joel,
> >>
> >> What board are you using?  What are you using for WiFi/WDS (Atheros cards 
> >> w/
> >> madwifi?).  I assume your setting everything up on the same subnet 
> >> (bridge)
> >> vs
> >> routing?  I do what your talking about all the time both with the IAL and
> >> GPL
> >> NPE drivers.
> >>
> >> As for the GPL NPE driver, I've had it working on 2.6.18 and 2.6.19 using
> >> the
> >> patches at http://trac.nslu2-linux.org/kernel/browser/trunk/patches.  I
> >> noticed
> >> that they no longer have the 2.6.18/19 patches there but you should find
> >> them
> >> if you go back in their subversion rev's you'll find them.  I have no 
> >> reason
> >> to
> >> believe the patches they have for 2.6.20/21 would give you any compile
> >> problems, I just haven't moved to that kernel.  I never had any compile
> >> issues
> >> but I could see issues if your trying to put the driver on other 
> >> kernels -
> >> there were a few changes that affect the driver between 2.6.18-2.6.21
> >>
> >> Tim
> >>
> >> --- Joel Lindsay <joel at waveteq.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > I am seeing a weird problem.  When I create a wds link between 2 avila
> >> > boards with a laptop connected on both ends, everything works just as
> >> > expected.  When I take one end and put it on my network, suddenly I 
> >> > can't
> >> > ping past the board on that network side.  Its like the packets are 
> >> > being
> >> > dropped, but only when its part of a larger network (switch, then 
> >> > router)
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > It seems very similar to a former problem that was caused by multicast
> >> > traffic and was solved by setting the argument npe_learning=0 when
> >> > modprobing the ethernet driver.  This leads me to believe it is again a
> >> ixp
> >> > npe problem.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > I have tried compiling the GPL Ethernet driver to see if this helps, 
> >> > but
> >> am
> >> > having no luck as I keep getting mutex errors that I can't seem to make 
> >> > go
> >> > away.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Has anyone seen this problem before?  Anyone know how to fix it?  Is it
> >> > another npe problem?
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Any help appreciated.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Joel Lindsay
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
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