Very strange ifconfig statistics for eth0 with 2.6.37.2-1-desktop kernel

Hi,

The computer and system in question is the laptop from my description and openSUSE 11.3 with a different kernel from this repository :
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/openSUSE-11.4/openSUSE_Factory/
Please feel free to move this thread if it should reside in the beta/prerelease forums section.

The IMHO relevant information about my hardware and system is shown below.

The kernel I’m using :

grzes@opensuse:~> Linux opensuse.local 2.6.37.2-1-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-02-25 19:59:41 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

The hardware and drivers I’m using :

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Device [1a3b:1089]
        Kernel driver in use: ath9k
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1063] (rev c0)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:1820]
        Kernel driver in use: atl1c

To cut the story short I observe tons of errors and dropped packets on my ethernet device with the ethernet cable not plugged inn. As show in the example below :

grzes@opensuse:~> ifconfig 
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr E0:CB:4E:36:E2:EC  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4294962868 errors:4294940728 dropped:4294958440 overruns:4294962868 frame:17179847044
          TX packets:4294962868 errors:4294949584 dropped:0 overruns:4294962868 carrier:8589925736
          collisions:4294945156 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4294962868 (4095.9 Mb)  TX bytes:4294962868 (4095.9 Mb)
          Interrupt:46 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:233 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:233 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:18468 (18.0 Kb)  TX bytes:18468 (18.0 Kb)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:D3:CC:FE:BF  
          inet addr:199.1.1.37  Bcast:199.1.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2452044 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2180655 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:3145108668 (2999.4 Mb)  TX bytes:234161942 (223.3 Mb)

I use NetworkManager almost all the time here and when I plug in the wire and disable the wireless the network works flawlessly.

My ifcfg files look at the moment like this :

grzes@opensuse:/etc/sysconfig/network> ls -la
razem 120
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 02-28 23:38 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  4096 02-26 07:09 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11863 02-26 22:57 config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11862 02-26 22:56 config.ifup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10795 2009-11-03  config.orig
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  6528 02-26 22:57 dhcp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   172 02-22 23:02 ifcfg-eth0.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   174 01-12 19:53 ifcfg-lo
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 28132 01-12 19:53 ifcfg.template
-rw------- 1 root root   807 02-26 22:55 ifcfg-wlan0
-rw------- 1 root root   876 02-26 17:40 ifcfg-wlan0.ifup1
-rw------- 1 root root   807 02-26 11:54 ifcfg-wlan0.works
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 01-13 20:04 if-down.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   239 01-12 19:53 ifroute-lo
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 01-13 20:04 if-up.d
drwx------ 2 root root  4096 2010-07-01  providers
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     0 02-26 14:45 routes
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 02-10 21:28 scripts
grzes@opensuse:/etc/sysconfig/network> cat ifcfg-eth0.bak 
BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
MTU=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='ifplugd'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IFPLUGD_PRIORITY='20'
IPADDR=''
NAME=''
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
USERCONTROL='no'

IP forwarding is disabled as well as ipv6 :

grzes@opensuse:/etc/sysconfig/network> cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward 
0
grzes@opensuse:/etc> cat sysctl.conf
# Disable response to broadcasts.
# You don't want yourself becoming a Smurf amplifier.
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts = 1
# enable route verification on all interfaces
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 1
# disable IPv6 completely
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
# enable IPv6 forwarding
#net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding = 1
# increase the number of possible inotify(7) watches
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 65536
# avoid deleting secondary IPs on deleting the primary IP
net.ipv4.conf.default.promote_secondaries = 1
net.ipv4.conf.all.promote_secondaries = 1

Is this a bug of the driver ? If so I would gladly submit it but where should I do it ? In openSUSE bugzilla or to the kernel developers ? And if it’s a configuration error what am I doing wrong here ?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help and sorry for the long post.

Best regards,
Greg

If you think it is a bug with kernel 2.6.37.2 why not load 2.6.38-rc6 and see if it is still there or drop back to 2.6.34 and see what it does. If it stays with 2.6.37.2, then you might know it is a kernel bug for that release and your hardware. I have a computer that has two hardwired network interfaces and I don’t see this error with the one disconnected in openSUSE 11.3 and kernel 2.6.38-rc6, but I can’t check it with 2.6.27.2 at this time.

Thank You,

I am doubting that is a real problem. The counts are all very near 2^32. Most likely, some counters were initialized to all ‘1’ bits, and there is a minor incompatibility between the kernel and the way ifconfig is reporting it. (Just guessing).

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try the 2.6.38-rc2 kernel. And post back.

Best regards,
Greg

I’m not getting this statistics with the 2.6.38-rc6 kernel (at least I didn’t get it after leaving the computer downloading something for 1 day). I’m now trying out the 2.6.37.1 kernel to see if the problem exists here.

Anyway were would it be suitable to submit this bug ?

Best regards,
Greg

I get the same results with the kernel 2.6.37.1-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-02-22 14:06:34 +0100.

grzes@opensuse:~> ifconfig 
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr E0:CB:4E:36:E2:EC  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4294954225 errors:4294888870 dropped:4294941154 overruns:4294954225 frame:17179803829
          TX packets:4294954225 errors:4294915012 dropped:0 overruns:4294954225 carrier:8589908450
          collisions:4294901941 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4294954225 (4095.9 Mb)  TX bytes:4294954225 (4095.9 Mb)
          Interrupt:46

Best regards,
Greg

This bug doesn’t exist in the default 11.4 kernel :

2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-02-21 10:34:10 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Best regards,
Greg

Yes, this problem does exist with the default 11.4 kernel

> uname -a
Linux ecthgow.dnadave.homelinux.org 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-02-21 10:34:10 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

> /sbin/ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 88:AE:1D:14:85:57
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:192917048205119 errors:1157502275937090 dropped:385834091979030 overruns:192917045989515 frame:964585229947575
TX packets:192917047011139 errors:771685363827240 dropped:0 overruns:192921340956810 carrier:385842681913621
collisions:964606704784050 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:192920179218553 (183983020.0 Mb) TX bytes:192917116827524 (183980099.5 Mb)
Interrupt:43

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:6729 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6729 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:223811 (218.5 Kb) TX bytes:223811 (218.5 Kb)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 5C:AC:4C:77:B5:33
inet addr:192.168.2.194 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::5eac:4cff:fe77:b533/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:477518 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:289708 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:386183272 (368.2 Mb) TX bytes:55390826 (52.8 Mb)

Atheros wlan and lan network nics.

I can connect using eth0 on first boot, but once I disconnect from the network, I get a disconnected network error and this message from syslogd:

Message from syslogd@ecthgow at Apr 20 12:58:31 …
kernel:[64825.273772] Disabling IRQ #16

Would be nice to be able to use my ethernet connection when my laptop is docked.

Dave H