# nfe stability on 8.0-RELEASE



## ninja430 (Aug 3, 2010)

Hardware:
ASUS M2N-VM DVI

Issue:
Integrated network chipset locks network during file transfers.
Hardware probe detects the chipset correctly and loads the "nfe" driver.

Remedies attempted:
Recompiling the kernel and modules from latest cvs.

Temporary fix:
[CMD="ifconfig"]nfe0 down[/CMD]
[CMD="ifconfig"]nfe0 up[/CMD]

I have this issue with ftp/scp/smb transfers.
Using ssh and http don't seem to trigger the lockup.

After a little googling I found someone with the exact same problem, but I wasn't able to find the solution (or maybe I didn't understand it :stud).
Reference: http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/freebsd-current/2008/1/22/591839
Above mentioned post is mirrored over many mailing lists, and I believe it is the only relevant documentation of this issue.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.


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## jb_fvwm2 (Aug 3, 2010)

Just a slight bit
curious if you've tried some of the ftp
programs (ports) in /usr/ports/ftp/... to
see if some of them fix the ftp problem
at least...
Reason... with the "bwlimit" parameter to
rsync I fixed a similar-but-dissimilar 
pci controller problem (the data was
transferring too quickly for the 
pci-sata controller to reliably handle).


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## ninja430 (Aug 3, 2010)

I am transferring from a client to the server.  The clients don't have ftp servers, so the data is being handled by the ftpd in /usr/libexec.  It allows full ftp service, except when the transfers exceed ~1.5GB and the network locks up, even when rate limiting the upload from the client.  The same applies to sftp-server, it works perfectly until the transfer speeds exceed ~2MB/s and/or ~1.5GB.  The server usually handles ~10GB of data transfer daily, and weekly backups of archives use ~100GB, speed is absolutely necessary.

This is a clean install from the net iso using the freebsd ftp as the source.

I've never had an issue like this on any of my other freeBSD machines, this is my second board with an nForce chipset.  An older server had an nforce2 chipset, and this one is an nforce 630a.


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## Erratus (Aug 3, 2010)

Have M2N-VM-DVI too, and had also problems with nfe on RELEASES < 8.0. What messages do you find in your logfiles? I was thinking about adding a good nic-card for mental peace.


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