# eepro100 NIC is going crazy

## meyerm

Hi,

I've got an IBM Thinkpad A30 with an intel NIC in it. I'm using the eepro100 driver from the 2.6.3-mm4 kernel. But sometimes the connection just drops - the computer is not pingable any more. I have to "ifconfig eth0 down && ifconfig eth0 up" to get the network working again. But only for a short time... When I try to ping _from_ the laptop during such a failover it says "no buffer space available".

A reboot don't help. It fails from the very beginning on.

BTW: Who is capable enough to understand what's that eepro100 stuff in the changelog for the 2.6.4 kernel? Is it coherent?

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## logon

Did you try the e100 driver? I am not remembering the right name, but i did use the one without the two ee for my Laptop. It works fine. Different nic and different laptop though.

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## meyerm

I just tried the 2.6.4-rc1-mm1 kernel - same problem. My next try was your suggestion using the e100 driver. I used the eepro100 since it worked very well from the live cd - even transferring 5 GB over netcat...

Using the e100 driver didn't help. It stops too. Ifconfig brings it back to live again.

Hmpf, that's really uncool...

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## Mnemia

 *meyerm wrote:*   

> I just tried the 2.6.4-rc1-mm1 kernel - same problem. My next try was your suggestion using the e100 driver. I used the eepro100 since it worked very well from the live cd - even transferring 5 GB over netcat...
> 
> Using the e100 driver didn't help. It stops too. Ifconfig brings it back to live again.
> 
> Hmpf, that's really uncool...

 

I have the exact same laptop you do, and I'm having a similar problem that doesn't seem to be quite the same. I don't get the message about buffer space that you mention, but I do have the problem where the NIC just dies and has to be restarted to bring it back up.

I've had constant similar problems for years with the Intel e100/eepro100 type NICs. Sometimes it'll get fixed for like one kernel version, and then it gets broken again....I'm frankly getting really tired of it.

Anyway, I had been using the e100 driver since switching to 2.6.x and it had worked, sorta, up until now. When I upgraded to 2.6.4, it seemed they had introduced some major new bugs into it. My NIC is WAY more unstable in 2.6.4 than in any of the previous 2.6.x kernel versions. It was somewhat managable before (only happened every couple hours), but now it's happening every couple minutes.

I think they made some big big changes in the driver in this new kernel version. All the syslog messages have changed all of a sudden, and the kernel module/boottime options for e100 have completely changed as well. It seems they fixed one of the problems I've been having for >1 year: my NIC used to incorrectly autonegotiate its speed when connected to some (but not all) switches. But they've made the other problems worse. Ugh.

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## Mnemia

Actually, it seems they completely rewrote the e100 driver in 2.6.4! That explains a lot...

Hopefully that means we'll eventually get a fully functional driver out of this mess.

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## meyerm

Oh well. For now I was using a 2.4 kernel again. It makes no problems with the sound as well (unlike the 2.6). Perhaps I will give the 2.6.4 a try...

thanks

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## blscreen

I was able to solve this problem with the tool eepro100-diag. I used it on a debian system (package ethtool) and I don't know if there is a gentoo package containing this tool. After disabling sleep mode, everything went smoothly with the eepro100 driver.

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## meyerm

Yup - that worked for me too. For anybody searching the forums:

you can get the tool at

ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/diag/eepro100-diag.c

Thx@blscreen for "bumping" the thread  :Smile: 

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## Mnemia

 *meyerm wrote:*   

> Yup - that worked for me too. For anybody searching the forums:
> 
> you can get the tool at
> 
> ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/diag/eepro100-diag.c
> ...

 

Actually, I tried that and it didn't work. Mine did display the warning about "sleep mode" and I did what is said and disabled it, but it didn't fix the behavior I was seeing. My NIC still craps out every few minutes...  :Sad:  Any other ideas/things to try?

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## chobitz

i'm using motherboard intel D865GBF with LAN card onboard. 

when i try to ping, sometimes i get message "no buffer space available" 

I'm using driver e100. using driver eepro100 didn't help to.

is anyone know why ???

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## meyerm

Have you tried to disable the sleep mode like mentioned above?

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## chobitz

oh.. i see...

but, how to disable the sleep mode ?? or have any idea ??

my comp using 2 eth, intel onboard LAN and Realtek RTL-8139.

if 2 eth is running, when i try to ping, 

sometimes i get message "no buffer space available" 

but if only 1 eth is running ( eth0 or eth1 ), i'm never find mesage "no buffer space available"

driver e100, eepro100, and realtek 8139 is not modules, but build on kernel.

thank's for meyerm.

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## meyerm

Huh - no idea. But to disable the sleep mode, please download the C-program above and read the intructions in it. After that, your eeproo should work at least....

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