Strange Problem with v.0.99G and 3c905B-TX

[Donald Becker]

On Mon, 12 Oct 1998, Greg Whalin wrote:

> Now, I have had two systems in the past coupld of days (after running fine
> for at least 24 hours) lose all network connectivity and log this message.
> 
> Oct 11 09:13:42 ops kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on MII #24
> link partner capability of 0020.

You link partner advertised 10baseT half duplex only.
The driver changed to half duplex mode, and transceiver switch to 10baseT
only.

> I am running these systems on a Cisco Cat2924XL.  Each system is directly
> conected to a 10/100 full/half duplex autosensing port on the Cisco.

Cisco is known to have bad autonegotiation implementations.  This specific
only hasn't been reported before, but there is a chance that the bug is in
the switch.

> When it first boots, everything is fine and the system comes up with the
> card in 100MB/s and Full Duplex.  Then, after what seems like some random
> period of time, it logs the above message and the system loses network
> connectivity.

Does physically disconnecting and reconnecting the cable reset the link?
(I'm not suggesting that as a fix, just as a way to confirm the problem is
with autonegotiation.)

Donald Becker					  becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882	     http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html