Hi,
I have a problem similar to this one on openSUSE 12.1. My internet connection drops at 5-10 minute intervals and comes back after 1-2 minutes. I tried intalling r8168 drivers from Realtek with no discernible change. After that changed to Tumbleweed and got kernel 3.2 , still no change. Connection dropped at least five times since last boot, at the time this ifconfig info was taken. Network manager never showed disconnection, and eth0 was always available. ifconfig:
108.255307] r8169 0000:04:00.0: eth0: link down
113.911608] r8169 0000:04:00.0: eth0: link up
113.912365] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
Other than those, I have no idea where to look. I would be grateful for any pointers and help.
On 01/11/2012 04:26 PM, EmreD wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I have a problem similar to ‘this one’ (http://tinyurl.com/77bxmba). My
> internet connection drops at 5-10 minute intervals and comes back after
> 1-2 minutes. I tried intalling r8168 drivers from Realtek with no
> discernible change. After that changed to Tumbleweed and got kernel 3.2
> , still no change. Connection dropped at least five times since last
> boot, at the time this ifconfig info was taken. Network manager never
> showed disconnection, and eth0 was always available. ifconfig:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:DB:CC:65:34
> inet addr:192.168.1.65 Bcast:192.168.1.65 Mask:255.255.255.255
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:42699 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:31731 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:55433291 (52.8 Mb) TX bytes:3397812 (3.2 Mb)
> Interrupt:45 Base address:0x8000
> --------------------
>
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> 28: PCI 400.0: 0200 Ethernet controller
> [Created at pci.319]
> Unique ID: rBUF.wpQF8A1ktME
> Parent ID: HnsE.Nz_7iH8j634
> SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.5/0000:04:00.0
> SysFS BusID: 0000:04:00.0
> Hardware Class: network
> Model: “Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller”
> Vendor: pci 0x10ec “Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.”
> Device: pci 0x8168 “RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller”
> SubVendor: pci 0x1462 “Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.”
> SubDevice: pci 0x345c
> Revision: 0x01
> Driver: “r8169”
> Driver Modules: “r8169”
> Device File: eth0
> I/O Ports: 0xe800-0xe8ff (rw)
> Memory Range: 0xfebff000-0xfebfffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
> Memory Range: 0xfebc0000-0xfebdffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
> IRQ: 45 (107041 events)
> HW Address: 00:19:db:cc:65:34
> Link detected: yes
> Module Alias: “pci:v000010ECd00008168sv00001462sd0000345Cbc02sc00i00”
> Driver Info #0:
> Driver Status: r8169 is active
> Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe r8169”
> Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
> Attached to: #16 (PCI bridge)
> --------------------
>
>
> dmesg sometimes tells me:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> 108.255307] r8169 0000:04:00.0: eth0: link down
> 113.911608] r8169 0000:04:00.0: eth0: link up
> 113.912365] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
> --------------------
>
>
> Other than those, I have no idea where to look. I would be grateful for
> any pointers and help.
In the one instance that you show, the time between link down and up was only 5
seconds.
The most common cause for dropping the link is bad hardware. It could be the
interface, the cable, or the port on the switch/router. You should change as
much as possible.
For the kernel driver, it could be that turning on driver debugging might help.
In that driver, you must place a line that says
#define RTL8169_DEBUG
near the start of drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169.c. I would expect that the
vendor driver has similar structure.
Thanks for the answer. I tried a other slots in my router/modem and then another router with another cable, situation didn’t change. I don’t have another ethernet card at the moment but there are a lot of people having similar issues with RTL8111 NIC’s. There are a lot of threads in Ubuntu forums and most cited solution is to install manufacturer supplied drivers.
I am currently running default kernel driver, because of updating to Tumbleweed kernel (3.2) Should I find the kernel module sources and add debug line to it?
On a somewhat related problem, install of Realtek drivers fails with make error right now. I think I messed up my system by switching to Tumbleweed.
On 01/11/2012 05:26 PM, EmreD wrote:
>
> Thanks for the answer. I tried a other slots in my router/modem and then
> another router with another cable, situation didn’t change. I don’t have
> another ethernet card at the moment but there are a lot of people having
> similar issues with RTL8111 NIC’s. There are a lot of threads in Ubuntu
> forums and most cited solution is to install manufacturer supplied
> drivers.
>
> I am currently running default kernel driver, because of updating to
> Tumbleweed kernel (3.2) Should I find the kernel module sources and add
> debug line to it?
>
> On a somewhat related problem, install of Realtek drivers fails with
> make error right now. I think I messed up my system by switching to
> Tumbleweed.
The difference is likely some changed API in the 3.2 kernel. If you post the
build errors, I should be able to help you with the fix.
Thanks for the offer. I followed some ridiculous advice from Ubuntu Forums and seem to be working for now. I shutdown the computer, unplugged the power, waited for a few minutes and rebooted. I haven’t had time to test it more but aMule has been working for an hour with no apparent disconnection. I need to turn back to 12.1 stable and test it more tomorrow. I hope it works out.
Apparently, Windows leaves the NIC in an unusable state for Linux. Who would have thought?
On 01/11/2012 07:16 PM, EmreD wrote:
>
> Thanks for the offer. I followed some ridiculous advice from Ubuntu
> Forums and seem to be working for now. I shutdown the computer,
> unplugged the power, waited for a few minutes and rebooted. I haven’t
> had time to test it more but aMule has been working for an hour with no
> apparent disconnection. I need to turn back to 12.1 stable and test it
> more tomorrow. I hope it works out.
>
> Apparently, Windows leaves the NIC in an unusable state for Linux. Who
> would have thought?
>
> I will keep you posted. Thanks again…
I for one am glad that that sort of problem can never affect my box. My only
copy of Windows runs in a VM and never gets a chance to disturb real hardware.
In any case, the patch for the Realtek driver under kernel 3.2 is posted, and
can be found in Google searches.
Unfortunately, I talked too soon. As soon as I started to doing things, the same things started occurring. It has been half an hour since I started a repo refresh to revert back to 12.1 and not even half of the repos have finished refreshing. To be honest, I am fed up. I am still up at 4 AM trying to find why this happens. As it stands, I won’t be able to revert back to 12.1 either. I am gonna do a clean install tomorrow.
For what it is worth, I am using Windows only for Steam and a single game I play. That particular game has a linux version, but requires me to pay $10 to buy it again.
> Apparently, Windows leaves the NIC in an unusable state for Linux. Who
> would have thought?
I’ve had this issue with some hardware for years. It has affected both
video and NIC cards. The full power off route becomes pretty much second
nature after a while but more recent Win versions and newer hardware present
a lot less problems so maybe there is hope.
Update: Did a clean install. Neither the default kernel driver, nor the Realtek one works. I followed some advice from Ubuntu forums and changed “Wake on LAN” of the NIC settings under Windows, then under BIOS. NO dice. After hours of research and a few “gallons” of coffee, I tried to temporarily turn off “TCP Windows Scaling” ( net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 0 ) It has been ten minutes and seems OK, but I don’t have the time to thoroughly test. I will report after I come back.
To be honest, the simplest thing causing such a fuss makes me keep Windows. This was the first time I tried to go Linux exclusively and it cost me a big headache. But, I am determined.
@DenverD: I pirate Windows. So I am not bothered by Bill or Steve. But you are totally right. It would be $10 well spent to buy back my soul.
@WillHonea: Why don’t FSF or someone make class action lawsuit out of that. AFAI can tell, there are a lot of people with those kinds of problems.
Update: Did a clean install. Neither the default kernel driver, nor the Realtek one works. I followed some advice from Ubuntu forums and changed “Wake on LAN” of the NIC settings under Windows, then under BIOS. NO dice. After hours of research and a few “gallons” of coffee, I tried to temporarily turn off “TCP Windows Scaling” ( net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 0 ) It has been ten minutes and seems OK, but I don’t have the time to thoroughly test. I will report after I come back.
To be honest, the simplest thing causing such a fuss makes me keep Windows. This was the first time I tried to go Linux exclusively and it cost me a big headache. But, I am determined.
@DenverD: I pirate Windows. So I am not bothered by Bill or Steve. But you are totally right. It would be $10 well spent to buy back my soul.
@WillHonea: Why don’t FSF or someone make class action lawsuit out of that. AFAI can tell, there are a lot of people with those kinds of problems.
On 01/14/2012 12:26 AM, EmreD wrote:
> I am fed up right now and gonna try Mint tomorrow.
>
hope it works ok for you…there are enough differences between the
distros to be able to find one that works, one that doesn’t work so
good, etc etc etc…therefore, it is always best to use what works for you…
otoh, if you see the same problem on Mint you know it is either your
hardware or some problem in the networking bits outside of your machine.
–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!
On 01/13/2012 06:18 PM, DenverD wrote:
> On 01/14/2012 12:26 AM, EmreD wrote:
>> I am fed up right now and gonna try Mint tomorrow.
>>
>
> hope it works ok for you…there are enough differences between the distros to
> be able to find one that works, one that doesn’t work so good, etc etc
> etc…therefore, it is always best to use what works for you…
>
> otoh, if you see the same problem on Mint you know it is either your hardware or
> some problem in the networking bits outside of your machine.
If you find one that works, please not the kernel version.
BTW, I need to use Mint on a PowerBook G4. Like all Debian-based distros, I hate
it. Updating the kernel takes at least twice as long as it would on openSUSE.
Mind 12 KDE RC didn’t work either. (Kernel 3.0) As I was almost already sure, the problem is the NIC. I should just buy a PCI NIC and get it over with.
I thought about it. But it seems I am the only one to have this problem this, severely. Most people has soled it one way or another. Maybe it is because of my NIC’s firmware.
