ramani@jhunix (Ramani Duraiswami) (10/01/90)
Lance has lost TXON 63
Looking through the archives of comp.sys.mips I found the following
two messages posted a while back (the messages are appended to the end
of this article). Since we are having the same problem
i.e.
"Lance has lost TXON 63"
I wanted to know how to fix it. This message is repeated about 50
times a day. Is this a hardware problem. My local unix guru thinks
that some thing is wrong with the Lance chip.
We have a small Mips network (2 machines an RC3240 with 32 MB and an
RS2030 with RISC windows), with ethernet just installed. The 3240 is
an upgraded M120/5, purchased in 1988, and was run as a standalone
machine.
----------TEXT from COMP.SYS.MIPS archives--------------------
1)
Our console has on a couple of occasions reported the following error:
"Lance has lost TXON 63"
What does this mean? Everything still seems to be working fine afterwards,
but we're that this might be leading up to something major. Any ideas?
--
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!cs.dal.ca!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter@AcadiaU.CA
2------------------------------
In article <1990May25.113156.15375@aucs.uucp> peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) writes:
>Our console has on a couple of occasions reported the following error:
>
> "Lance has lost TXON 63"
>
>What does this mean? Everything still seems to be working fine afterwards,
>but we're that this might be leading up to something major. Any ideas?
It means that, due to driver bugs, traffic, weird network conditions, etc.,
your LANCE ethernet chip found its TRANSMIT off. Its response is to reset
itself, re-enable itself, and tell you it did it. I'd worry about hundreds
of these a day; "a couple of occasions" is no problem at all.
--
rogerk@mips.COM {ames,decwrl,pyramid}!mips!rogerk "I'm the NLA"
----------------------------------------
ramani@polaris.me.jhu.edu ramani@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Ramani Duraiswami) (10/22/90)
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). Desperate, Ramani Duraiswami ramani@polaris.me.jhu.edu
rogerk@mips.COM (Roger B.A. Klorese) (10/23/90)
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