Local source Intel gigE NIC? / RTL8169 woes... was Myth / network question

Bruce Labitt bruce.labitt at myfairpoint.net
Sat Nov 14 14:29:47 EST 2009


Still shagging down a NIC (RTL8169) problem on MythTV. 
(Reference: 10/16/2009 post, author: Bruce Labitt, Subject: Myth / 
network question )

My eth1 network connection just stops.  No errors are logged save for 
link down in message log. 

Problem has persisted through a OS upgrade to Karmic.  I have found 
reference to 8169 problems at 
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=538448 but still have no good 
leads. 

Here is the eth1 message log:

$ dmesg |grep eth1
[    1.432495] 0000:00:19.0: eth1: (PCI Express:2.5GB/s:Width x1) 
00:19:d1:55:47:1a
[    1.432498] 0000:00:19.0: eth1: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
[    1.432520] 0000:00:19.0: eth1: MAC: 6, PHY: 6, PBA No: ffffff-0ff
[   13.567380] udev: renamed network interface eth0 to eth1
[   13.604608] udev: renamed network interface eth1_rename to eth0
[   15.068741] r8169: eth1: link up
[   26.023832] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[35650.244002] r8169: eth1: link down
[48370.150267] r8169: eth1: link down
[48370.150883] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[48382.410469] r8169: eth1: link up
[48382.411026] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[48393.090009] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[61492.984175] r8169: eth1: link down
[89164.241504] r8169: eth1: link down
[89164.241934] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[89176.330847] r8169: eth1: link up
[89176.331396] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[89186.630009] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[100142.738728] r8169: eth1: link down
[126610.257311] r8169: eth1: link down
[126610.257737] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[126622.743870] r8169: eth1: link up
[126622.744424] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[126633.190010] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[138946.838170] r8169: eth1: link down
[186290.465991] r8169: eth1: link up
[187966.299180] r8169: eth1: link up
[187976.931257] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[190045.857011] r8169: eth1: link down
[190048.613883] r8169: eth1: link up

For those wondering, yes there is a rename of the eth0, eth1 ports.  It 
is lousy, I know.  Is there a cleaner way to do this, perhaps by MAC so 
they are assigned properly at boot?

The Realtek 8169 is connected to a gbit switch which in turn is 
connected to two HDHomerun digital tuners.  I have a DHCP server running 
on eth1 to give the tuners IPs.

ethtool reports:
$ sudo ethtool eth1
[sudo] password for bruce:
Settings for eth1:
    Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
    Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                            1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
    Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
    Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                            100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                            1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
    Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
    Speed: 1000Mb/s
    Duplex: Full
    Port: MII
    PHYAD: 0
    Transceiver: internal
    Auto-negotiation: on
    Supports Wake-on: pumbg
    Wake-on: pumbg
    Current message level: 0x00000033 (51)
    Link detected: yes

ifconfig reports:
$ ifconfig eth1
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0e:2e:f0:39:2f 
          inet addr:192.168.3.1  Bcast:192.168.3.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:2eff:fef0:392f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:25609063 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1513 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:35082899041 (35.0 GB)  TX bytes:98189 (98.1 KB)
          Interrupt:22 Base address:0xe800

ifconfig has not reported any errors when the link (switch link light or 
ethtool link detect) is down.

I can restart the network, with no problem by sudo 
/etc/init.d/networking restart  Link light goes on, all is good, for a 
while.

There are no problems with the eth0 interface, which is an Intel NIC 
built in to the mobo.  Reliable as all get out.

Needless to say, having the NIC do down at random times ( 1 week, 3.4 
hours, 34 minutes ) does not make for a reliable media PC.

So, unless anyone has some other things to try, pause, ... any one have 
a local source for an Intel gigE PCI NIC?
Can I borrow someones?  Any other ideas?

-Bruce




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