Subject: No buffer space available (again)
To: None <port-arm32@netbsd.org>
From: S.J. Borrill <sjb42@cus.cam.ac.uk>
List: port-arm32
Date: 08/24/1998 11:30:38
Yes, it's another mail from me about No buffer space available, this time
on a different platform. I've just got a new CATS with Dec Ethernet.
However, networking is proving to be a big problem. I've got it currently
connected only to a RiscPC running 1.3F. I tried to FTP a file between the
two machines, but it stalled. So I tried pinging from the CATS to the
RiscPC. About 10 packets went out fine, but then it just stopped.  After a
large time (up to 60 seconds) all the packets came back at the same
time (i.e. no packets lost, but with 60000 ms ping times). It then chugged
on for a bit more before halting and doing the same thing. This time ping
reported no buffer space available. Doing an ifconfig de0 down; ifconfig
de0 up briefly got it to work.

This isn't just a one-off either; I had exactly the same behaviour last
week with a different RiscPC, with a different ethernet card and on a
different network (but the same CATS).

systat mbufs on either of my CATS shows a full bar for data, whereas it
looks a lot more sensible on the RiscPC. Note, my other CATS board which
is using an older kernel works fine.

So, my question is 'why am I getting the same errors on all sorts of
different hardware when I'm doing basic things?'. This is a serious
problem, I need to rely on NetBSD as a server solution and I'm finding it
increasing unreliable.

Stephen Borrill