# Problem with 8139too [NOT SOLVED BUT I GIVE UP]

## nichocouk

Hello,

I'm experiencing random disconnections from the network, which are quite ennoying of course. If I restart the net.eth0 initscript, then it fails to get an adress at the dhcp stage. The only way I found so far is to reboot, which is ... eeeh... ennoying.

My NIC is 

```
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
```

I have in the kernel 

```
CONFIG_8139TOO=y
```

dmesg says 

```
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xdc810000, 00:a0:d1:29:9f:d3, IRQ 18

eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
```

Anyone has encoutered the same problem?

Any need for more info?

Now a side question if someone can explain this trivial stuff to me: my lsmod output does not show the 8139too module listed. Is this because it's compiled in the kernel?

Thanks a lot!

----------

## jmbsvicetto

Hi.

 *nichocouk wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> 02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
> ```
> ...

 

You can also try to use the 8139cp driver.

Yes, lsmod doesn't show the controller for your nic, because you built it into the kernel and not as a module.

----------

## Cintra

do you have this set?

```
#

# Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)

#

CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y

CONFIG_MII=m

```

my lsmod shows

```

8139too 21760  0

mii         4864   1 8139too

```

mvh

----------

## nichocouk

Thanks guys.

After my first post, I added in my kernel:

```
CONFIG_8139TOO_TUNE_TWISTER=y
```

But it has not done better. So my problem is still there.

I will try the 8139cp driver and keep you posted. I will also check if I can find more error messages when the problem happens. I also think I will try to compile 8139too and 8139cp as modules and play with each of them to see what happens.

I confirm that I have in the kernel:

```

#

# Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)

#

CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y

CONFIG_MII=y

```

Cheers!

----------

## nichocouk

Well, I did not spend too much time to find this in the logs:

```

Apr 28 20:52:34 [kernel] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out

Apr 28 20:52:37 [kernel] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1

```

These two lines are repeated a lot of times. I wonder what is the cause of this.

----------

## jmbsvicetto

Are you sure you don't have network cable problems? Have you tried 8139cp?

I believe those messages are a good indication that you have a hardware or driver problem.

----------

## jmp_

I th¡nk yes, in a new laptop from work with an Ethernet card 8139too (typical realtek chipset).

So try pci=routeirq noapic at boot (kernel parm).

cheers!

----------

## nichocouk

 *jmbsvicetto wrote:*   

> Are you sure you don't have network cable problems? Have you tried 8139cp?
> 
> I believe those messages are a good indication that you have a hardware or driver problem.

 

I recompiled the two drivers as modules.

I've just tried 8139cp and it's not working:

```

8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22, 2004)

8139cp: pci dev 0000:02:07.0 (id 10ec:8139 rev 10) is not an 8139C+ compatible chip

8139cp: Try the "8139too" driver instead.

```

I'll try to change the cable to see if it's improving.

jmp: Could you please expand on the boot options? Where can I find some explanation about those ones? Why do you think it will solve the problem?

Thanks!

----------

## jmp_

Hi, I'm not sure this will help you, but solved some strange problems with ethernet cards to me.

----------

## nichocouk

Well, so far I'm using the 8139too built as a module and it seems to behave a little bit better this way. I will report in a few days and if nothing has happened I will happily mark this thread as solved!   :Smile: 

Fingers crossed!

----------

## nichocouk

 :Crying or Very sad: 

OK, so using the driver as a module does not solve the problem, and changing the cable does not solve the problem, and pulling my hair does not solve the problem...

There is one thing that does: I managed to get my wifi working!   :Very Happy: 

So I think unless someone has further suggestions we can stop this thread there, as I'm hoping that my wifi will work better...

Thanks everyone!

nichoco

----------

## think4urs11

in case you didn't already try...

it is always a good idea to disable both acpi+apm completely (and/or remove it from your kernel); solves some of the problems category 'uhmm strange that is'  :Wink: 

----------

## mh983

My lsmod shows both 8139too and 8139cp and mii, and I haven't had any problems.  My old laptop was just messed up and it would frequently have timeout issues (I would see the light on the nic just shut off for a bit, then come back on), and that was a hardware issue, not drivers or anything.

Most recently I had a lot of dropped connections from any machine, and that was an issue with my new router having the same IP address as my DSL modem.

Do other machines work fine on your network?

Hope your WiFi works good for you.

mike

----------

## nichocouk

Hi!

Yes other machines work well on the same network.

Anyway the wifi works like a charm, so I'm quite happy with that.

Cheers!

----------

## ukl

Does anybody have a fix for that problem yet?

----------

## brfsa

I have the same problem with my ethernet card on my toshiba L30 Laptop...

it's a Realtek 8139 revision 10, the same as nichocouk...

I'm using the 8139too driver as a module....

did you find anything that help?

Intenet works partially, sometime it works for 10 minutes and stops.... I think the driver got some problem. becuase on  windows it works perfectly...

So, I have to use the onboard atheros wifi with madwifi-ng drivers...

----------

## nichocouk

I haven't found any other solution than using wifi. It's all right at home, but is most ennoying when I have to connect my laptop somewhere where there is only wired access to the network. As it happens at other places, I'm sure now that it is definitely a driver problem. We probably should try to inform the developers of this driver, but I don't know who to look for.

----------

## ukl

Use irqpool in kernel command line. It should help partially, but system can work slower, i.e. slow transfers via eth or wifi. The problem is based on irq routing by acpi... but dk how to fix.

----------

## big-birdy

Are you shure that the module is loaded?

I have the problem, that the module is in /etc/modules.autoload/Kernel.2.6 but is not loaded.

Try 

```
modprobe 8139too
```

mfg

Big-birdy

----------

## dhalsiim

```
CONFIG_8139TOO=y

CONFIG_8139TOO_PIO=y

CONFIG_8139TOO_TUNE_TWISTER=y

CONFIG_8139TOO_8129=y
```

Without the _PIO,  _TUNE_TWISTER,  and _8129 options my network card does not function. I do not remember what the problem actually was but someone helped me solve the problem 3 years ago like that.

hth.

----------

## 029ah

Did you tried to install another OS (like FreeBSD or, mb, Windows)?

I guess it's a hardware problem, because I've a lot of fine-working realtek's on different machines and different kernels.

----------

## ukl

 *029ah wrote:*   

> Did you tried to install another OS (like FreeBSD or, mb, Windows)?
> 
> I guess it's a hardware problem, because I've a lot of fine-working realtek's on different machines and different kernels.

 On Windows - no problem, problem apears @ unix based systems... I'm sure that the main problem is IRQs routing but still don't know how to fix..

----------

