Re: Ethernet Troubles

[Adam <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I am running linux 2.0.30 with a 3Com 3c509 NIC.
> Recently I have been getting this error:
>        eth0:transmit timed out, Tx_status 00 status 2000 Tx FIFO room
3068
> This appears to shut down the NIC so you can't access the machine from
> the network. I was wondering if anyone knew of a solution.
> I am also having a problem where the machine seems to lock up. I will
> turn on the monitor and I get no text. I have to reset the machine to
> get my console back. Could this be a swapfile problem? Could someone
> point me to some good FAQ's so I don't waste everyone's time. I can't
> seem to find any related.

Have you tried a new cable or hub/switch port?  "transmit timed out" can
be caused on my machine if I unplug the wire.

Tip 1.) Don't be afraid to suspect hardware!  I found an almost identical
problem for months with my box from ALR,  before calling them and having
them replace the motherboard,  and it's been up since.  Is the box under a
warranty or service plan.  Locking up DEAD with no messages in
/var/log/messages seems to be indicative of hardware.  Linux can take some
serious faults and keep on ticking,  to crash something BAD has to happen.

Try recompiling the kernel (cd /usr/src/linux, make dep, make clean, make
zImage).  If you get a "Signal 11" and the compile crashes then you
definitely have a hardware problem. GCC is the best RAM/Motherboard tester
around.

Do you have another ethenet card you could try?  Also it coundn't hurt to
rerun lilo to re-write the boot record and reset the system.

And as a long term note,  I'd upgrade to >=2.0.33,  as it includes a
couple of fixes in the network stack that can potentially crash a machine.