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From: forys@sigi.Colorado.EDU (Jeff Forys)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: de0: buffer unavailable
Message-ID: <1891@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Thu, 13-Aug-87 21:14:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: sigi.1891
Posted: Thu Aug 13 21:14:56 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Aug-87 10:55:32 EDT
References: <8776@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: forys@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Jeff Forys)
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 38
Summary: probably not serious

In article <8776@brl-adm.ARPA> mullen@nrl-css.arpa (Preston Mullen) writes:
> A Vax 750 running Ultrix 1.1 (groan) started to give off zillions of
>	de0: buffer unavailable

When a packet arrives, and your DEUNA is out of receive buffers, the
packet is dropped, and a flag is set in one of the CSRs.  The DEUNA
driver checks the bit in this CSR and displays the above error if
it's set.

> what can cause this?  This is a machine that worked OK for a very
> long time.  No known software changes were made around the time
> these messages started appearing.

If you bombard the DEUNA with packets (with, for example, a Sun), it'll
start dropping them 'cause the 11/750 doesnt grab them in time.  If you
just got connected to a busy network, that would be a reason why they
suddenly started to show up.  Also, it may have been happening all along,
but a change in what priority messages you are logging brought them into
the limelight.  They are only considered WARNINGs, *not* ERRORs.  In fact,
under 4.3 (I dont have the 4.2 driver handy), you have to explicitly turn
on deuna debugging (in the driver) before you even get to see them!

>Replacing the DEUNA made no difference.

They are all the same.  :-)

>The machine usually still seems to communicate OK on the network
>(telnet, ftp, rcp, rsh, rlogin, lpd).

Right, and you shouldnt notice much.  It may be a little slower, and
a few broadcast packets (e.g. rwho) will be dropped, but if it's
important, it'll be re-transmitted by the higher level protocols.

In summary, since it's working, I dont think it's anything to worry
about.  It only *sounds* bad, in reality, it isnt (zillions?? :-).
---
Jeff Forys @ UC/Boulder Engineering Research Comp Cntr (303-492-4991)
forys@Boulder.Colorado.EDU  -or-  ..!{hao|nbires}!boulder!forys