[vortex-bug] eth1: transmit timed out, tx_status 00 status e000

[Andrew Morton]

It would appear that something has gone wrong at the physical
or link layer.

There is some useful info on reconfiguring Cisco switches
in Documentation/networking/vortex.txt and also at
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/12.html - could you
please review that material, see if any of it helps.

If it's still failing, please force the machine into 
its failing mode and then run the tests which are described
in the final section of vortex.txt.



> Aaron Baird wrote:
> 
> I have a firewall that is running RedHat 7.1, 2.4.2 kernel, iptables,
> and two 3com 3c905b network cards.  We have a 4 workstation LAN that
> uses this firewall as the main gateway (and a Cisco router as the
> actual gateway).  About every 24 hours or whenever I do a large, high-speed, network
> transfer, I get an error message (shown below) that renders the firewall useless until I do a reboot
> (ctl+alt+delete).  And the strange thing is, it always occurs on eth1, never on eth0 (eth1 is connected
> to a public switch that the router is also connected to).
> 
> Error Message (from log):
> 
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed
> out
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel: eth1: transmit timed out, tx_status 00
> status e000.
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   diagnostics: net 0cda media 8880 dma
> 000000a0.
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   Flags; bus-master 1, dirty 61401(9)
> current 61417(9)
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   Transmit list 07343440 vs. c7343440.
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   0: @c7343200  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   1: @c7343240  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   2: @c7343280  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   3: @c73432c0  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   4: @c7343300  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   5: @c7343340  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   6: @c7343380  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   7: @c73433c0  length 8000002a status
> 8000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   8: @c7343400  length 8000002a status
> 8000002a
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   9: @c7343440  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   10: @c7343480  length 80000227 status
> 00000227
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   11: @c73434c0  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   12: @c7343500  length 80000227 status
> 00000227
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   13: @c7343540  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   14: @c7343580  length 8000003e status
> 0000003e
> Jul 24 13:42:38 castor kernel:   15: @c73435c0  length 8000002a status
> 0000002a
> 
> 
> My attempts at a solution:
> 
> 1. Booted with the "noapic" option. Didn't work.
> 
> 2. Turned off many of the devices (in the BIOS) that I am not using to free up IRQs and remove conflicts. Didn't work.
> 
> 3. I am using the 3c59x driver and I thought I should find the 3c90x driver, but I could not find a recent driver on 3com's site and I found this post: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...d46c0a541d11,2.  Obviously, I need to use the 3c59x driver.
> 
> 4. Increased the number of "buckets" in ip_conntrack. Didn't work.
> 
> 5. Turned of tcp_syncookies. Didn't work.
> 
> 6. Upgraded from 2.4.2 kernel to 2.4.7 kernel. Didn't work.
> 
> 7. Upgraded from 2.4.7 kernel to 2.4.9 kernel. Didn't work.
> 
> 8. Flased the BIOS on the EPOX-8kta3 motherboard with the most recent BIOS and loaded fail-safe defaults.  Didn't work.
> 
> 9. Moved the network cards apart (left about 3 slots in between), but did not put either of the cards in the AGP/PCI slot.  Didn't help.
> 
> 10.  Rotated the network cards (put eth1 into eth0, and eth0 into eth1) and the same problem occurred on eth1.  Didn't help.
> 
> 11. Used another machine that is exactly the same (we needed two firewalls), and the same problem occurred after only 60 seconds of up-time.  Didn't work.
> 
> 
> As you can see from the dates in the log, I have been working on this issue for a long time.  I have posted to groups.google.com and LinuxQuestions.org and received very little help.  In fact, the only good suggestion I received was to upgrade from the 2.4.2 kernel to a version higher than 2.4.5.  It is getting to the point where I either need to find an answer, use different network cards, or go with a completely different setup.  If anyone could suggest a solution
> to this problem or different
> network cards, I would really appreciate the help.
> 
> Thanks,
> Aaron
>