Re: network hang

[Thomas Hofer <th@monochrom.at>]

Sourav Sen wrote (Samstag, 11. August 2001 19:59):

> 	But the problem is, I cannot run the experiment for large files
> for long (typically over 30-60 sec) as the client machine network
> subsystem seems to hang. I don't know why. I have to kill the client
> program, but after that I cannot do anything with the network. I
> cannot ping or anything. For making things work I have to bring down
> the interface and bring it up again, then things starts working
> again. But for small files, I can run the experiment for large
> periods without any problem. The server machine is always okay.

> 	The client machine is fitted with NIC with a rtl8139 and the
> server, DEC21140 chips. I think that rtl may be the culprit. I had
> fitted one rtl in the server, then the server also used to hang like
> this. I replaced the client machine with another machine having
> similar configuration, (fitted with rtl), then also similar problem
> occurs. I am talking about 2.2.14.

I had great troubles with the rtl8139 driver. I install everything from 
a linux-nfs with a rtl8139-card (2.2.14 IIRC), and the Redhat-install 
and the SuSE-install stopped everytime without reason and hung (client 
also with rtl8139 and 2.4.0 or 2.2.14). Later I found out that the 
rtl8139-driver was the culprit (SuSE's support database suggested it). 
When I used Jeff Garzik's alternative driver-implementation (8139too) 
which comes with later kernels, everthing worked fine. I'd try to 
upgrade to 2.2.19 and to use this driver.

But recently I discovered that there is still a problem: when I tried 
to record video over nfs, the server shut down two times; and when I 
copied a 1.5GB-directory, the server froze completeley, printing a 
message from an interrupt-handler that died painfully. This was with 
8139too on 2.2.18pre21. I upgraded to 2.2.19 and it _seems_ to work 
better (no shutdown yet), but I still have heaps of abnormal-interrupt 
messages concerning eth0 in my dmesg (status 00000011 and 00000051 - 
can anybody tell me what that means?). It's plusungood. :-[

Thomas.
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