Bug#591523: bnx2 unresponsive when there is no network activity

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

mbo wrote:

> On one server I fixed the problem by installing the latest bnx driver.
>
> NIC:  Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 20) 
>
> driver: bnx2
> version: 2.0.23b
> firmware-version: 5.0.13 bc 5.0.11 NCSI 2.0.5

That's good to hear.  Did you upgrade only the bnx driver, or the entire
kernel?  What kernel version are you using on that machine?  ("cat
/proc/version" should say, in parentheses.)

> However I have an other Server where the problem still persists,
> even with the latest debian updates.

Which one is the machine you originally used to make this report?
Please file a new report from the other machine, so we can compare the
two setups.

> I have Nagios monitoring the server pinging the server every minute.
> Then the problem never appears.

Interesting.

> Do you have the same hardware and the same problem?

No, alas.  My kernel bugs are entirely separate from this one.  I'm
just nosy.

Thanks for the update.
Jonathan