network interrupted

[Danny <dnavarro@jhmi.edu>]

Hi all,

When I'm ~ 1 min idle my monitor goes out of sync and I get disconnected
from the network. When I move the mouse or press a key the network
connection is recovered and the screen comes back.

This is what I see in the syslog:

====================================================================
May 21 13:53:58 localhost kernel: eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex
based on auto-negotiated partner ability 45e1.
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed
out
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0: Tx queue start entry 43  dirty
entry 39.
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0:  Tx descriptor 0 is 00002000.
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0:  Tx descriptor 1 is 00002000.
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0:  Tx descriptor 2 is 00002000.
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0:  Tx descriptor 3 is 00002000.
(queue head)
May 21 13:54:22 localhost kernel: eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex
based on auto-negotiated partner ability 45e1.
====================================================================


I'm using the Realtek 8139 network adaptor:

====================================================================
Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
====================================================================

I'm using Debian sid and the kernel 2.4.18-bf2.4

Notes: 

* Even if I don't run XFree86 the same problem occurs.

* When I'm running kernel 2.4.20-1-k7 and the proprietary nvidia drivers
compiled for such kernel, the system crashes after the idle.

* I've also tried to suppress the apic feature of the kernel with a boot
parameter, which seemed to be found some relation to this problem by
other people, but nothing changes for me.

Any idea of what I could do to fix this?


--
Danny Navarro