ETH0 TIMEOUT PROBLEM:
Hi Folks! I'm currently using the e-smith server/gateway and have been enjoying the may features of this great product and the benefits of having a cable modem tied to my home network. I have seen a recurring error which I hope someone can help me resolve.
This error causes e-smith to stop communicating with the other computers tied to the hub although communications to the internet continue via the network interface card (eth1) - i.e. the internet test is always successful. The error message I get displayed on the e-smith is always the same: "ETH0: transmit timeout, status 0d 0000". The transmit timeouts seem to occur randomly. I have recorded e-smith up-times of over 24 hours, others are 10, 8, and 4 hours.
Before I continue, let me provide additional details on e-smith hardware configuration. I have two identical OvisLink Ethernet adapters( RealTek 8139) NICs installed on a Alton 575 MB with a CYRIX M2-300 CPU and 32MB of memory. Admittedly this is "cheap" hardware but I assure you that this configuration has been running linux off and on for over one year without problems. In addition, I have looked at
http://cesdis1.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/rtl8139.html and the author of the RealTek 8139 driver, Donald Becker, does make the statement on the web site that "the RTL8129 series is a low-end design, and thus should be considered a "connectivity solution" rather a performance-oriented product. (That's a nice way of saying that the design sucks, but the price is right.)". Mr. Becker also indicates that "..if you encounter Rx overflow errors and transmit timeouts you likely have the card in a non-bus-master slot".
I have taken the actions of switching slots and even switching the NIC used for ETH0 without solving this problem. The alternate NICs installed as ETH0 included a RealTek 8029 and the Intel PCI EtherExpress PRO and both . The confusion I have with this problem is that the timeout problem only manifests itself on ETH0 and never once on ETH1 (the NIC tied to the cable modem). Has anyone else using e-smith seen a similar problem?
Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks in advanced.
Sal