OpenVMS ALPLAN05_062 Alpha V6.2 LAN ECO Summary
NOTE: An OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file is stored
on the Internet in a self-expanding compressed file.
The name of the compressed file will be kit_name-dcx_vaxexe
for OpenVMS VAX or kit_name-dcx_axpexe for OpenVMS Alpha.
Once the file is copied to your system, it can be expanded
by typing RUN compressed_file. The resultant file will
be the OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file which
can be used to install the ECO.
Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1998. All rights reserved.
OP/SYS: OpenVMS Alpha
COMPONENT: LAN - Local Area Network
SOURCE: Digital Equipment Corporation
ECO INFORMATION:
ECO Kit Name: ALPLAN05_062
ECO Kits Superseded by This ECO Kit: ALPLAN04_062
ALPLAN03_062
ALPLAN02_062
AXPLAN01_062
ALPBOOT01_062
ECO Kit Approximate Size: 6063 Blocks
Saveset A: 6012 Blocks
Kit Applies To: OpenVMS Alpha V6.2, V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, V6.2-1H3
System/Cluster Reboot Necessary: Yes
Rolling Reboot Supported: Yes
Installation Rating: 2 : To be installed by all customers using
the following feature(s):
This kit is required for anyone using LAN.
This kit is also required if you need
support for the DE500-BA Fast Ethernet
adapter and/or RACORE Token Ring adapter.
KIT DEPENDENCIES:
The following remedial kit(s) must be installed BEFORE
installation of this kit:
None.
In order to receive the all the corrections listed in this
kit, the following remedial kits should also be installed:
If the DE500-BA Fast Ethernet adapter and/or the RACORE Token Ring
adapter is to be supported, then the appropriate ALPCPU* routines
remedial kit must be installed.
ECO KIT SUMMARY:
An ECO kit exists for LAN Driver on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 - V6.2-1H3.
This kit addresses the following problems:
Problems addressed in the ALPLAN05_062 kit:
o Most of the DECnet OSI Network Management problems included
incorrect data being returned, hangs on NCL commands, and
crashes when incorrect commands were issued.
o Many structure entities are displaying wrong values and some
NCL commands in DECnet/PLUS cause systems to crash.
o Add support for the DE500-BA adapter and the Gigabit Ethernet
adapter.
o For heavy Fast Ethernet devices, user buffer unavailable
counters and re-transmits increased, slowing performance.
o Changes were made so that 100 mbs devices will have more
receive buffers available to the users (VCI or QIO).
o When a cable is pulled or a link fails, due to an upstream
device losing power, the autosense fails to stay at
twisted-pair if the console is set to twisted-pair mode.
o BMAP/BNOMAP DMA error and oversize packet
1. A potential DMA error can occur from a multi-segment
transmit with a buffer that crossed the page boundary
between unmapped and mapped physical memory.
2. A second problem was that oversize packets were being
issued by the EWDRIVER devices.
o Pool consumption occurred while starting/stopping an
application interface to a LAN driver. After 100 start/stops,
pool was consumed. The problem only occurs when using Network
Management. i.e. NET$CSMACD, NET$FDDI, etc.
o Most customers are seeing the SS$_BADPARAM message when trying
to access MOP clients on the network.
o When using DE500 adapters, the system unavailable buffer
counter was incremented up to the thousands, along with
broadcast storms occurring.
o Numerous fixes for Token Ring on PCI adapters were done.
o Since a new version of the 3COM 3C589 PCMCIA Ethernet card was
released, the driver stopped working. The new card did not fit
the original timing parameters. A C589 Ethernet card, rev D,
reset timeout fix was needed.
o When a Satellite is booted over the DE425 and a system shutdown
is requested, the system will hang on the way down waiting for
access to the system disk. When the runtime driver for the
DE425 shuts down, it writes CSR13 with the value for twisted
pair, BNC or AUI to be used by the execlet bootdriver.
o Fatal device errors occurred due to transmit timeouts on the
DE205 when the 10baseT link is lost.
Problems addressed in the ALPLAN04_062 kit:
o This TIMA kit provides the necessary files to support the
DE500-AA Fast EtherWORKS PCI 10/100 adapter under the OpenVMS
V6.2 Operating System and the associated V6.2 Hardware
releases which includes; V6.2-1H1, V6.2-1H2, and V6.2-1H3.
This allows OpenVMS V6.2 users to take advantage of the newest
generation Fast Ethernet adapter from Digital Equipment
Corporation without requiring a total Operating System
upgrade.
The DE500-AA supersedes the DE500-XA which is currently
supported by OpenVMS V6.2. Please Note: OpenVMS V7.1 also
includes support for the DE500-AA, and that the DE500-XA will
be retired by the end of March, 1997. (Please refer to the
ALPHA qualified options list to confirm support for your
particular CPU.)
The combination of this TIMA kit and the DE500-AA provides a
form, fit, and functionally equivalent PCI to Fast Ethernet
adapter to the DE500-XA on OpenVMS V6.2 host CPUs. In
addition, the DE500-AA adapter implements industry standard
auto-negotiation for 10 or 100 Mbps and for half or full
duplex, and includes a socket for optional ROM support. Both
the DE500-XA and the DE500-AA utilize a single RJ45 connector
for connection to either a 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet network.
These adapters support full duplex Ethernet communication when
connected to a cooperating full duplex-compatible device.
Ensure that the connected device supports full duplex mode
before forcing this feature, or serious network problems can
result. If auto-negotiate mode is used, this is not a
concern, as the hardware will determine the duplex capability
of the connected device.
This kit also contains runtime images provided by previous
OpenVMS V6.2 LAN kits.
DE500-AA Runtime Device Driver (SYS$EWDRIVER.EXE)
This driver adds support for the DE500-AA and continues to
support the PCI Ethernet adapters that were previously
supported by OpenVMS V6.2. This includes the DE500-XA,
DE450, and the DE435. All these devices show up under
the Operating System as EWx0, where x is the controller
letter (e.g., A, B, C).
A new feature of this driver is the use of a console
environment variable to select the proper media
connection for all EW devices. For each EW device
recognized by the console there is a console environment
variable called EWx0_MODE. The console environment
variable is set with the command:
>>> SET EWx0_MODE media_selection
Where x is the controller letter (e.g., A, B, C) and
media_selection is one of the following:
Twisted-Pair
Full Duplex, Twisted-Pair
AUI
BNC
Fast
FastFD (Full Duplex)
Auto-Negotiate
If a console environment variable has been set with an
unsupported media type for the corresponding device then
the driver will attempt to autosense or auto negotiate the
media type.
Note that an OpenVMS Alpha system console may assign a
controller letter to an adapter differently than OpenVMS
VAX. It is recommended that the user issue a SHOW
CONFIGURATION command at the console to determine the
correct letter designation for each adapter. In the
case of different controller letter assignments, the
letter designation in messages broadcast to the console
by the driver may not agree with the console setting.
This runtime device driver supports twisted pair media at
speeds of 10 and 100 mbits/sec, full or half duplex, for the
DE500-XA and DE500-AA. A new feature of this driver, when
used with the DE500-AA, is support for auto negotiation as
proposed in the IEEE 802.3 standard.
Auto negotiation provides a method to detect the
operational characteristics supported by the device
at the other end of the link, negotiate common abilities,
and configure the link accordingly. Auto negotiation
always selects the highest common operating mode possible
between the two link partners. For the DE500-AA, the
highest operating mode is 100 mbit/sec full duplex unless
programmed to advertise a lesser mode.
Auto negotiation is enabled, or disabled, by setting a console
environment variable as described above. To enable auto
negotiation, set the console environment variable with the
following command at the console:
>>> SET EWx0_MODE AUTO-NEGOTIATE
If auto negotiation is enabled, the other end of the link must
also have auto negotiation enabled or the driver will not be
able to negotiate an operating mode. With auto negotiation
enabled on both link partners, the OpenVMS driver can also
dynamically detect changes in the link and renegotiate a new
operating mode. For this event the driver will broadcast
messages to the operator console as shown in this example for
EWB0:
%EWB0, Auto Negotiation detected link down
%EWB0, Fast(100baseT) Ethernet connection selected
To disable auto negotiation using the console environment
variable, the operating mode has to be explicitly selected.
This example shows how to disable auto negotiation and
enable the DE500-AA to operate at 100 mbits/sec full duplex:
>>> SET EWx0_MODE FASTFD
Restrictions
The system firmware must be at a revision level that
supports the DE500-AA. The Alpha Firmware CD V3.8
has the required support for each applicable system
type.
o A fix to cure a minor memory leak exposed a more severe
problem, double deallocation of pool, resulting generally
in a system crash. This kit removes the memory leak fix.
Both problems will be corrected in a future release of
OpenVMS.
Problems addressed in the ALPLAN03_062 kit:
Note: According to OpenVMS Engineering, the fixes described below
are included in the OpenVMS Alpha V7.1 software release.
o If the FDDI adapter (DEFTA, DEFPA, or DEFEA) suffers a fatal
error requiring the driver to reset and restart the adapter,
transmit workaround buffers may be lost resulting in cessation
of transmits which appears to be a hung system.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o For AlphaServer 1000-4/200 systems, on adapter reset, the DEFPA
requires an additional CSR write to turn off PFI chip
interrupts (as compared to the EISA, Turbochannel and
Futurebus+ versions of this adapter). This was being done on
reset but not in the adapter shutdown routine called during
system shutdown. The system would hang during shutdown, due to
DEFPA still interrupting.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o "ACCVIO" crashes in the LAN driver code (varying offsets on
different Ethernet only drivers) with R5 equal to zero.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o Modify the ISA Token Ring driver to allow multiple adapters to
be used in a system.
o Hang creating CSMA-CD or FDDI STATION on valid but
non-existant comm port.
o Crash in LAN modules creating CSMA-CD or FDDI STATION on
invalid comm port.
o CSMA and FDDI Port Ethernet Protocol Types are improperly
encoded.
o CSMA Port MAC Addresses are improperly encoded.
o Last Set Station ID encoded correctly.
o PHY Port Station Type incorrectly reported.
These problems are corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o Machinecheck , bugcheck(ICONIODB) crashes when DEFPA in use.
Crashed in EXCEPTION+0015D1C offset. Console version 4.1 is
installed for DEFPA support.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o ACCVIO" crash if physical memory is not available when
configuring the DEFPA, DEFEA, DEFTA and DEFAA.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o BUGCHECK NETDLLERR crash in SYS$FADRIVER+0031F8. The SHOW
LAN/DEV=FA displays the "Last error CSR" field equal to 606.
The system will also have more than 2 gigabytes of memory for
this problem to appear.
o The handling of more than 6 multicast addresses per user is
incorrect and may cause pool corruption and more likely just an
accvio and crash. Also, when using the HLL system code
debugger, multiple connections from the same node do not work.
o System crash during startup or shutdown at NET$FDDI+50DD when
trying to access an FDDI network management data structure that
does not exist. It is possible for a DECnet-OSI user to create
an FDDI station with CSMACD Network Management data structures.
o When stopping LAN protocols, some will not be removed from the
multicast table.
o INVEXCEPTN Bugcheck with DE205 @ PC 000B0004 0000. Crash in
ERDRIVER, LAN$COMPLETE_VCRP_NOPC using PHASE IV ADDRESS TRUE in
NCL routing script.
This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0
o DE450/DE500 adapters do not recognize station hardware address
if more than 16 multicast addresses are enabled.
o Allocating a local data structure and overwriting existing
pointers causes 106 bytes of memory to be "lost" when deleting
the last user of the port.
o When booting an 8200/8400 over the DEFPA, the boot process
hangs immediately after the transition to the runtime DEFPA
driver, at the point of checking the status of the system disk.
%EXECINIT-I-ACTIVESET, joining ACTIVE set
%EXECINIT-S-CIAO, transferring to the scheduler
%SWAPPER-I-SHUFFLE, executing SWAPPER initialization code
%SWAPPER-I-SYSDISK, checking status of system disk
%SMP-I-SECMSG, CPU #05 message: P05>>>START
%SMP-I-CPUBOOTED, CPU #05 has joined the PRIMARY CPU in
multiprocessor operation
%SMP-I-CPUBOOTED, CPU #06 has joined the PRIMARY CPU in
multiprocessor operation
%SMP-I-CPUBOOTED, CPU #07 has joined the PRIMARY CPU in
multiprocessor operation
o Rebooting system to regain the twisted pair connection on the
EWDRIVER, if cable removed or twisted pair repeater looses
power.
Use mapping registers as needed.
Problems addressed in the ALPLAN02_062 kit:
o Separate the ALPBOOT01_062 remedial kit into separate kits for
LAN and BOOTDRIVER fixes.
Problems addressed in the AXPLAN01_062 kit:
o This kit provides support for DE203, DE204, and DE205 Digital
Ethernet ISA Bus Adapters.
This information replaces Section 4.11.2.2 in the OpenVMS
Version 6.2 Release Notes.
To enable support for DE203, DE204, and DE205 Digital Ethernet
ISA Bus Adapters, a device must be configured. Then the system
must be shut down and rebooted.
Currently OpenVMS Alpha does not support multiple adapters.
The DE203, DE204, and DE205 ISA LAN devices must be configured
with a port address (iobase0) of 300 (hex), the base of adapter
memory (membase0) should be d0000 (hex), and a memory length
(memlen0) of 10000 (hex). These ISA LAN devices can be
configured in one of the following ways:
Using the console isacfg command
Using the data file, SYS$MANAGER:ISA_CONFIG.DAT
The following examples are specific to DE203, DE204, and DE205
devices. For more information about configuring ISA devices,
refer to the OpenVMS Version 6.2 Release Notes.
To configure an ISA LAN device using the isacfg command at the
console prompt do the following:
>>> isacfg -slot 1 -etype 1 -enadev 1 -irq0 5 -iobase0 300
-membase0 %Xd0000 -memlen0 %x10000 -handle "DE205" -mk
The command ("-mk") makes an isacfg entry for the ISA device at
slot 1. It is a singleport type of device (-typ 1). The
"-handle" parameter tells the operating system what type of
device it is and must be set to "DE205". The iobase should be
set to 300(hex), the base of adapter memory should be set to
D0000(hex) and the length of adapter memory should be set to
10000 (hex).
To configure an ISA LAN device using the
SYS$MANAGER:ISA_CONFIG.DAT file, you must enter the following
information:
[ERA0]
NAME=ER ; Device name
DRIVER=SYS$ERDRIVER ; Driver name
NODE=1 ; Slot #1
IRQ=5 ; IRQ 5
PORT=(300:f) ; 15 bytes starting at 300 (hex)
MEM=(D0000:10000) ; 64 bytes starting at D0000 (hex)
Problems addressed in the ALPBOOT01_062 kit:
o Digital has determined that a condition exists in some
PCI-Ethernet interfaces in which there is an extremely remote
possibility for data corruption during network transmission.
Digital has received no customer complaints to date, but rather
first encountered the problem during internal product testing
and analysis. This specific condition exists when the PCI
interface is set to a DMA burst length of 0 or 32 longwords.
Using a DMA burst length of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 longwords will
eliminate this condition. To address this concern, Digital is
making available a driver patch and considers its installation
mandatory for all affected systems and options to optimize data
integrity. No hardware modification or replacement is
necessary.
This condition only exists under the Digital UNIX operating
system V3.2C and OpenVMS Alpha V6.1 (and variants, i.e.
V6.1-1H1, V6.1-1H2) and V6.2. Higher-level protocols and
layered applications may, in fact, detect the corruption and
retry the data transmission with some negligible affect on data
throughput. Windows NT has a default setting of 16 longwords
for the DMA burst length. This does not pose a risk unless a
customer were to change this setting.
The system and option products from Digital that are impacted
by this condition include:
DE434 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 400 system
DE435 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 1000 system
DE450 PCI-Ethernet option AlphaServer 2000 system
AlphaStation 200 system AlphaServer 2100 system
AlphaStation 250 system AlphaServer 8200 system
AlphaStation 400 system AlphaServer 8400 system
AlphaStation 600 system
For OpenVMS Alpha users, this condition exists in V6.1 (and
variants) and V6.2. Digital plans on providing the corrected
driver in all OpenVMS Alpha factory installed software as of
early December and in the V6.2-1H1 hardware release and the
V7.0 release scheduled for distribution in January 1996, as
well. Because the OpenVMS operating system drivers have this
parameter hard coded, it is not possible to change it without
loading a new driver.
INSTALLATION NOTES:
The images in this kit will not take effect until the system is
rebooted.
If you have other nodes in your VMS cluster, they must also be
rebooted in order to make use of the new image(s). If it is not
possible or convenient to reboot the entire cluster at this time, a
rolling re-boot may be performed.
This patch can be found at any of these sites:
Colorado Site
Georgia Site
Files on this server are as follows:
alplan05_062.README
alplan05_062.CHKSUM
alplan05_062.CVRLET_TXT
alplan05_062.a-dcx_axpexe
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