Subject: Status update...
To: None <macbsd-development@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@puma.bevd.blacksburg.va.us>
List: macbsd-development
Date: 03/23/1995 18:37:45
Here's a little update for you...  I've been spending some time and
sanity looking at the ethernet timeout problems that I see on my system.
I'm pretty sure that these are caused by the combination of two things:

	* poor interrupt handling in via.c, and
	* vertical retrace interrupts from my video card coming in
	  rather steadily (hence my earlier request for a way to disable
	  them).

I'd like someone else to look over the current version of via.c and
let me know if they see any errors.  Please take the time to do some
experimentation if at all possible--I don't have as much time as I'd
like to devote to NetBSD at the moment and there are other things in
NetBSD that I'd like to get to.  It's currently kludged to work.  The
system seems to drop interrupts on occasion, but the ethernet watchdog
timer will try to recover before trying to reset the card (which never
worked because the interrupts were still hosed).  I think the current
code will work on the IIci, but I have no way to test it and neither
does anyone else because of the ADB problems.  :-(  On my list is to
make a temporary fix to not try to init the MRG code if the serial
console is enabled--this should allow systems with non-working ADB and
working serial consoles to boot.

I'm still seeing sessions wedge with data in the Send-Q on the NetBSD
side--I don't know what's causing this, but it's on my list...  After
some other things like the above...

If you're trying to keep -current with the kernel, please run config.new
after your next sup that updates Makefile.mac68k.  A -D_KERNEL was added
to that Makefile template and I went ahead and updated the mac68k-specific
files to test against that instead of KERNEL.

Please don't be shy about finding, fixing, and sending in patches for
bugs...  In dt, the kernel, hfs, anything...  I keep seeing people on
the net dismissing this as "not usable," but I don't see anyone
contributing to the mac-specific stuff--with only a couple of notable
exceptions.  This is the -development list--if you're on it, I assume
that you're interested in doing development... ;-)

-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs - end killing - allen.briggs@bev.net ** MacBSD == NetBSD/mac68k **