>Number:         7975
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       Net install doesn't work on systems with quad eepro100
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    kern-bug-people (Kernel Bug People)
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Jul 12 23:20:00 1999
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Hal Murray
>Organization:
Compaq Computer Corporation
>Release:        NetBSD-1.4
>Environment:
	Any system with a quad Intel 82558/7 card.  (eepro100 driver)
	(It might take one more network card.) I've tried it on
	both Intel and Alpha platforms.  The Intel system had
	a Tulip too.  That didn't hang, but the ping checks didn't
	get anywhere.  On an Alpha with 2 Tulips, it hung during
	initialization.
>Description:
	The eepro100 driver allocates 64 mbufs.  The GENERIC and INSTALL
	kernels only have 256.  So with a quad card, there won't be
	any mbufs availiable for other uses, like sending user packets.
>How-To-Repeat:
	Try a network install, or try ping after booting a GENERIC
	kernel.
>Fix:
	I don't know of anything clean and simple.  Here are
	several possibilities:

	Make the default NMBCLUSTERS bigger.  That might
	break tiny configurations.

	It might be possible to make NMBCLUSTERS biggert early
	in the startup sequence if there is lots of memory or
	lots of network drivers.

	Make the eepro100 driver grab fewer buffers,
		at least until it gets ifconfig-ed.

	The workaround is to remove enough network cards to get
	off the ground and then build a custom kernel with a
	bigger NMBCLUSTERS.
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: