Subject: Gigabit cards for linux clusters

From: Reinaldo Pis Diez <pis_diez{at}yahoo.com.ar>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:57:19 -0300

Dear ccl'ers,

		I'm sorry this post doesn't have to do exactly with computational 
chemistry but it's a closely related issue, though.
		I'm trying to set up an 8-node cluster using RedHat 9. The ethernet 
cards have a RTL8169s-32 chipset allowing 1Gb/s. RedHat installs the 
r8169 driver for them. Unfortunately, communication between nodes is 
_very_very_slow_ and in some cases parallel jobs merely freeze. Nodes 
are connected by a 1Gb switch.
		I decided to change the cards by older ones with RTL8139(c) chipset 
at 100Mb and things go fine.
		A Google search shows that problems with the r8169 driver are very 
common and a lot of patches are offered but none seems to work fine.
		Does anyone outthere have RTL8169-based ethernet cards working fine? 
If yes, would you be so kind to send me the driver to compile here in 
my cluster?
		Thanks in advance.
		Regards,

					Reinaldo