Subject: Re: IP when date is wrong
To: Greg Ingram <ingram@symsys.com>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-vax
Date: 01/18/2001 10:01:12
> I thought my DEQNA ethernet adaptor died after a recent power outage.
> The kernel properly detected and configured it but I couldn't ping
> anybody.  It turns out that the date was wrong (0) and when I set the
> correct date IP traffic started flowing again.

> I suspect this isn't a VAX-specific problem, but is it proper
> behavior or is it a bug?

In my experience, if the date is 0 then the clock chip isn't running at
all, and in that case a whole bunch of timeout-based things seem to
fall over.  I've never tried doing networking when in that state, but
it wouldn't surprise me if clock interrupts weren't happening and hence
soft interrupts (soft network interrupts in particular) weren't
happening - which would break much of networking.

This "experience" is on a uVAX-II.  (You mention a DEQNA, but that
merely means a Qbus VAX, not necesarily the uV2.)

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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