Bug#556433: linux-image-2.6.30-2-486: 3c59x: NETDEV WATCHDOG: transmit timed out

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi again,

Steve Karg wrote:

> I installed linux-image-2.6.32-rc8-486 from unstable, and put the
> server under network load (watching movie file served via sshfs from
> another server via sshfs - in and out load).  The sshfs dropped after
> a minute or two and dmesg reported "NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (3c59x):
> transmit queue 0 timed out", but the network interface didn't
> completely die (which means I could still access the machine remotely
> via the network interface).  See dmesg text below.
[...]
> [30247.000229] WARNING: at [...]net/sched/sch_generic.c:261 dev_watchdog+0xdb/0x170()
> [30247.000288] Hardware name: Latitude CP M233ST
> [30247.000317] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (3c59x): transmit queue 0 timed out

Well, drat.  This should have been passed upstream when you wrote this
two years ago, but we didn't do it.  So let's try again.

Do you get the timeouts with a 3.x kernel from sid or experimental?
If so, please report this to the netdev@vger.kernel.org list,
attaching dmesg output from bootup and cc-ing Steffen Klassert
<klassert@mathematik.tu-chemnitz.de> in case he has driver-specific
insights plus this bug log so we can track it.

If not, can you reproduce it with the latest 2.6.32.y kernel from
squeeze?  If you can, we can try to find the fix and get it in a later
stable kernel, and if you cannot, we can declare victory.

Ah, one more question.  Was this a regression?  In other words, has it
always been this way when trying to use this card, or did some
previous kernel version work better?

Thanks for reporting, and sorry we dropped the ball.
Jonathan