Re: ethX problems

[Peter Corbett <peter@corbettdigital.net>]

Pawel Krzywicki wrote:
> Hi,
> I am having a problem with my network interfaces.
> I have installed Debian on SUN sunfire V100. Whole installation process went 
> pretty well and nearly without any problems. However straight after 
> installation I have noticed that none of my network interfaces is working 
> properly. Only what I can actually see in my logs is :
> 
> eth0: Tx timeout - resetting
> SABRE0: PCI SERR signal asserted.
> SABRE0: PCI bus error, PCI_STATUS[caa0]
> 
> eth1: Tx timeout - resetting
> SABRE0: PCI SERR signal asserted.
> SABRE0: PCI bus error, PCI_STATUS[caa0]
> 
> System is working normally and every time when I will make my eth0 and 
> eth1interfaces down I do not see any of errors. However only access which I 
> have to this machine is trough minicom from other Linux box - which is 
> totally pointless if you want to run this server as a webserver :)
> 
> I have found something on google however it is not much there. 
> Does anyone of you have any idea how to make my network interfaces to work?


I've seen this happen on Netra X1's as well.
There are 2 drivers which can run the onboard NICS - the proper tulip,
and the related dmfe. The udev (I think?) loads the dmfe driver, which
can read the config eeprom, but makes the ports flap when it starts
sending data. Add tulip to /etc/modules (and maybe move the dmfe.ko file
out of the way) and life should be good.

I discovered this issue while trying to do a net install. That was all
kinds of fun...

-- 
Peter Corbett
peter@corbettdigital.net