Documentation: networking: update PHY error counter diagnostics in twisted pair guide

Replace generic instructions for monitoring error counters with a
procedure using the unified PHY statistics interface (`--all-groups`).

Signed-off-by: Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@pengutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
Oleksij Rempel 2025-01-10 07:05:14 +01:00 committed by Paolo Abeni
parent 6167c0b6e8
commit 7d66c74a17
1 changed files with 27 additions and 10 deletions

View File

@ -713,17 +713,23 @@ driver supports reporting such events.
- **Monitor Error Counters**:
- While some NIC drivers and PHYs provide error counters, there is no unified
set of PHY-specific counters across all hardware. Additionally, not all
PHYs provide useful information related to errors like CRC errors, frame
drops, or link flaps. Therefore, this step is dependent on the specific
hardware and driver support.
- Use `ethtool -S <interface> --all-groups` to retrieve standardized interface
statistics if the driver supports the unified interface:
- **Next Steps**: Use `ethtool -S <interface>` to check if your driver
provides useful error counters. In some cases, counters may provide
information about errors like link flaps or physical layer problems (e.g.,
excessive CRC errors), but results can vary significantly depending on the
PHY.
- **Command:** `ethtool -S <interface> --all-groups`
- **Example Output (if supported)**:
.. code-block:: bash
phydev-RxFrames: 100391
phydev-RxErrors: 0
phydev-TxFrames: 9
phydev-TxErrors: 0
- If the unified interface is not supported, use `ethtool -S <interface>` to
retrieve MAC and PHY counters. Note that non-standardized PHY counter names
vary by driver and must be interpreted accordingly:
- **Command:** `ethtool -S <interface>`
@ -740,6 +746,17 @@ driver supports reporting such events.
condition) or kernel log messages (e.g., link up/down events) to further
diagnose the issue.
- **Compare Counters**:
- Compare the egress and ingress frame counts reported by the PHY and MAC.
- A small difference may occur due to sampling rate differences between the
MAC and PHY drivers, or if the PHY and MAC are not always fully
synchronized in their UP or DOWN states.
- Significant discrepancies indicate potential issues in the data path
between the MAC and PHY.
When All Else Fails...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~