rx2600 LAN connections

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Hi guys,

A question for those that can play with an rx2600 and VMS.
Our rx2600 is connected to the network via the LAN 10/100 jacket at the back.
When VMS boots, the device is seen as EIA0, and VMS tries to "auto-negotiate" with the other side, first at "100BaseTX Full Duplex". Although the port on the switch is set to 100Mb full duplex, the auto-negotation fails somehow, and VMS then forces the ethernet device to "Half Duplex 100BaseTX".
(VMS even tells me that "Link partner not auto-negotation capable".)

Is there a possibility to tell either VMS, or EFI, or MP, to set the ethernet device to 100Mb full duplex? Something like the console variable "eia0_mode" on Alpha?

Note that trying to change the settings with LANCP after VMS has booted, has the same effect as described above.

Any suggestions highly appreciated.

Kris

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Kris,

I don't know of any EIA0_MODE console environment variables on Itanium. The LANCP database should be the equivalent instrument on OpenVMS to set LAN interface attributes.

Did you disable autonegotiation with LANCP ?

I would expecte something like this to work across reboots:

LANCP> DEF DEV EIA0/NOAUTO/SPEED=100/FULL

Volker.

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Volker,

Thanx for the suggestion.
However, if I do
LANCP> def dev eia0/speed=100/full
I get the following with a
LANCP> list dev eia0/char

Device characteristics, Permanent Database, for EIA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
Enabled Full duplex enable
100 Line speed

which seems to be OK.
But if I do
LANCP> def dev eia0/speed=100/full/noauto
I get the following with a
LANCP> list dev eia0/char

Device characteristics, Permanent Database, for EIA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
Enabled Full duplex enable
131172 Line speed

I also have seen the value 131072.

Any ideas ??

Since I cannot reboot the Itanium right now, I cannot verify if the autonegotiation is really turned off (so I'm gonna postpone assigning points).

Thanx anyhow,

Kris

[Volker Halle]

Kris,

the LANCP DEFINE commands seem to work fine with E8.2:

LANCP> def dev eia0/speed=100/full
LANCP> lis dev/char eia0

Device Characteristics, permanent database, for EIA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
Enabled Full duplex enable
100 Line speed
LANCP> def dev/noauto eia0
LANCP> lis dev/char eia0

Device Characteristics, permanent database, for EIA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
Enabled Full duplex enable
100 Line speed
Disabled Auto-negotiation
LANCP> def dev eia0/speed=100/full/noauto
LANCP> lis dev/char eia0

Device Characteristics, permanent database, for EIA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
Enabled Full duplex enable
100 Line speed
Disabled Auto-negotiation

I have not tested, whether disabling auto-negotiation would help. What version of OpenVMS I64 are you using ? If you're lucky, it's only a display problem.

Volker.

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Volker,

We're using VMS 8.1.
So you could be right that it's a display problem.
I will let you know when I got the chance of rebooting the Itanium.

Greetz,

Kris

[Martin Vorlaender]

>>>
When VMS boots, the device is seen as EIA0, and VMS tries to "auto-negotiate" with the other side, first at "100BaseTX Full Duplex". Although the port on the switch is set to 100Mb full duplex, the auto-negotation fails somehow, and VMS then forces the ethernet device to "Half Duplex 100BaseTX".
(VMS even tells me that "Link partner not auto-negotation capable".)
<<<

For Auto-Negotiation to work, *both* sides must be set to auto-negotiate!

So I'd suggest to set the port on the switch to "auto-negotiate" too.

HTH,
Martin

[Art Wiens]

I see subtle differences between Kris's and Volker's command syntax. Could the /noauto switch be positional, or need to be set apart from also specifying the speed at the same time?

Just a guess,
Art

[Kris Clippeleyr]

Martin,

I know that for auto-negotation to work, both sides have to support this feature. But that was not the question, we definitely want to turn auot-negotation off.

Art,

I don't think that the /AUTONEGOTIATE qualifier is positional or conflicts with the /SPEED or the /FULL (although the help on SET DEVICE in LANCP is not clear on this).

Volker,

Although I see this strange value for line speed after issuing the DEF DEV EIA0 /SPEED=100/NOAUTO/FULL, it seems to do the trick.
53 seconds into the boot, VMS reports that
"%EIA0, Auto-negotiation mode assumed set by console"
"%EIA0, Auto-negotation started, advertising 100BaseTX Full Duplex"
56 seconds into the boot, VMS reports:
"%EIA0, Link partner not auto-negotiation capable, using parallel detection"
"EIA0, Half Duplex 100BaseTX connection selected"
But then, 10 seconds later, the message
"%EIA0, Full Duplex 100BaseTX connection selected"
appears.
Somehow, then the LANCP parameters kick in (???)

According to LANCP, the device EIA0 is then at 100 Mbit full duplex, and that is what we want.

So thanx again for the suggestion.
I'm gonna assign points now.

Greetz,

Kris

[Volker Halle]

Kris,

during boot, the LAN driver first is 'on its own'. The definitions from the LANCP database will only be used once LANACP has been started. You may be able to match the time stamps from SYS$MANAGER:LAN$ACP.LOG against the EIA0 events reported on the console.

Volker.