For some complex security related reasons, we have a system where we are broadcasting data packets from one machine to another via a simplex fiber optic link. For the simplex link, we run a single fiber from the Tx of the source to the Rx of the sink. We are using RHEL5.3 on both ends of the connection, with the E1000e driver. The quad-NICs in the source and sink computers use an Intel 82571EB controller with a fiber optic transceiver.
In order to trick the source interface into thinking it had link, we jumpered a short FO cable from the Tx of an unused interface on the source NIC (the donor) to the Rx of the transmitting interface. The sink receiver is perfectly happy with seeing just the Rx signal. This worked fine until we recently upgraded our RHEL5.3 kernel from 2.6.18-128 to 2.6.18-164. Since then, the donor interface continuously bounces its transmitter up and down (autoneg?). Every time the donor bounces, the source interface looses link and bounces with it, and the sink interface follows in turn. We notice that there are a number of E1000e driver updates in the new kernel that have likely changed this behavior. I'm not suggesting that this is a bug, as it is probably the way it is supposed to work, but we are looking for a work-around that will allow us to operate as we did before. We have tried various things like turning off auto negotiation, but have not found a way around this. We would like a method to either force the source interface to be up even in the absence of a Rx signal, or to get the donor interface to stop bouncing its Tx signal (like in the good old days). Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Craig ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev _______________________________________________ E1000-devel mailing list E1000-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/e1000-devel
