Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!servitude!rogerk
From: rogerk@mips.COM (Roger B.A. Klorese)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: Re: LANCE has lost TXON 63
Message-ID: <42297@mips.mips.COM>
Date: 22 Oct 90 19:49:22 GMT
References: <6681@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Sender: news@mips.COM
Reply-To: rogerk@mips.COM (Roger B.A. Klorese)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.
Lines: 31

In article <6681@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ramani@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Ramani Duraiswami) writes:
>Can someone please explain what the console message
>
>LANCE has lost TXON63
>
>means? This is being repeated approx. 100 times a day at our site.
>Is it a hardware problem with the Lance chip, or is it a software
>problem, or because of mistakes in installing ethernet?.
>
>We have a RISC 3240 (upgraded M120/5), thin wire ethernet and a 3COM
> transceiver  box, and are running an earlier version of the RISC/OS 
>(4.30 or 4.10 -- I forget which).

This response from one of our Ethernet/TCP-IP engineer-types:

# Sometimes the ethernet DMA path to system memory will be unavailable for
# a few microseconds due to contention from the disks and CPU.  If the
# Lance ethenet controller is unable to obtain data fast enough to
# transmit at the required bit rate, it will report an error by "losing TXON".
# The packet being transmitted is not completed.
# 
# The message does not indicate a configuration problem or a mistake
# in installing the ethernet.  In normal operation, higher level network
# software detects the dropped packet, and will retransmit it a few
# milliseconds later.  The message can generally be ignored.  Consider
# it an indication that the machine is getting good exercise.
-- 
ROGER B.A. KLORESE                                  MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.
MS 6-05    930 DeGuigne Dr.   Sunnyvale, CA  94086              +1 408 524-7421
rogerk@mips.COM         {ames,decwrl,pyramid}!mips!rogerk         "I'm the NLA"
"Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself."      --Rita Mae Brown