PHY reset until link up excesive log on dmesg

[Emilio]

The sis190 driver generates a "PHY reset until link up" message on the system logs every 5 or 10 seconds. That means that when you type 'dmesg' there is A LOT of useless logs.

Cause: the network cable is not connected.

Fix:
Unload the current drivers:
sudo modprobe -v -r sis190

Download the kernel source code (2.6.24-19-generic)
 edit this file on the kernel source: drivers/net/sis190.c
and change this:
#define SIS190_MSG_DEFAULT (NETIF_MSG_DRV | NETIF_MSG_PROBE | \
NETIF_MSG_LINK | NETIF_MSG_IFUP | \
NETIF_MSG_IFDOWN)

for this:
/*dc740 FIX:
Disable a really annoying driver log.
"PHY reset until link up."
*/
#define SIS190_MSG_DEFAULT (NETIF_MSG_DRV | NETIF_MSG_PROBE | \
NETIF_MSG_IFUP | NETIF_MSG_IFDOWN)

after changing the driver source code then we compile and install the new modified and fixed driver, like this:
sudo make drivers/net/sis190.ko
sudo cp drivers/net/sis190.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/
sudo modprobe -v sis190
sudo ifconfig eth0 up

And the problem is gone.

This happens because the driver logs that the cable link y down by default, thanks to this: "NETIF_MSG_LINK"
Of course this log is useless and it souldn't be there. The easy fix is to change the default logging parameters.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
Release: 8.04

I hope to see this change on the next kernel release, but I don't know where to report it.

Thanks for your time

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄 (popey)]

Assigning to the kernel.

[Emilio (emilio-moretti)]

Seems that there is also a workaround for this problem, using ethtool to tell the driver no to log so many things. So the only question is : Is a message telling you every 10 seconds that the cable is not plugged in really needed?¿ should it be enabled by default?

I mean: it's a useful message when you have really serious problems on a connection and you can't get it working. BUT, on a normal system, (for example a desktop with a wireless card that almost doesn't use the ethernet port) is this message needed? or it just makes the log file bigger and bigger every 10 seconds?

My opinion, and the opinion of some users that reported this as a problem on other forums, is that this message is really useless on a system. And anyway it would be used only in special occasions, so why is it enabled by default?

[kernel-janitor (kernel-janitor)]

Hi Emilio,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 270184

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Emilio (emilio-moretti)]

This is the workaround to stop that really annoying logs that fill the system log with useless information

add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf

    options sis190 debug=0

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Emilio,

So can you confirm you still need to use this workaround with the latest 2.6.31 based kernel in the latest 9.10 Karmic Alpha release? http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]