Strange Problem with v.0.99G and 3c905B-TX

Greg Whalin gwhalin@numerix.com
Mon Oct 12 14:20:50 1998


On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Donald Becker wrote:

> On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Greg Whalin wrote:
> 
> > Now, I have had two systems in the past coupld of days (after running fine
> > for at least 24 hours) lose all network connectivity and log this message.
> > 
> > Oct 11 09:13:42 ops kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on MII #24
> > link partner capability of 0020.
> 
> You link partner advertised 10baseT half duplex only.
> The driver changed to half duplex mode, and transceiver switch to 10baseT
> only.
>

Strange?
 
> > I am running these systems on a Cisco Cat2924XL.  Each system is directly
> > conected to a 10/100 full/half duplex autosensing port on the Cisco.
> 
> Cisco is known to have bad autonegotiation implementations.  This specific
> only hasn't been reported before, but there is a chance that the bug is in
> the switch.
> 

If this is the case, then i can't reliably trust autonegotiation.  Another
problem I have had is that when using options=12 to force 100 full duplex,
the connection still is only coming up 10 half duplex.  This is cured when
I allow autonegotiation.  Am I using the incorrect option?  

> > When it first boots, everything is fine and the system comes up with the
> > card in 100MB/s and Full Duplex.  Then, after what seems like some random
> > period of time, it logs the above message and the system loses network
> > connectivity.
> 
> Does physically disconnecting and reconnecting the cable reset the link?
> (I'm not suggesting that as a fix, just as a way to confirm the problem is
> with autonegotiation.)

I will try this if/when it occurs again to see.  I have only unloaded and
reloaded the module to cure it so far.

On an unrelated note, I still seem to be getting ...

eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.
eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82.

over and over and over agina on my high traffic servers.  Is this a
problem?  

Thanks,
Greg