# Weird dhcpcd problems with 2.6.11 kernel

## Omniscientist

Hello fellow gentooers, I have recently been subjected to a rather odd internet problem, I shall begin by providing some background.

I was first running 2004.3 Gentoo amd64 2.6.9-r14 kernel Linux. To connect to the internet I had to do a simple "dhcpcd eth0". Now I am behind a university network, therefore once I did the dhcpcd I had to open up my web browser which would prompt me for a scan for "common vulnerabilities" (all which are windows related...kind of ticks me I have to do it still), so once I am scanned I click the finish button and I am able to surf the internet. BTW, I am using nforce3 integrated nvidia nforce NIC with forcedeth drivers.

Now after some time passes, the scan will come up again (doesn't happen on windows), and I have to rescan. However when I click scan again it says "fail_dhcp3"....basically to remedy this I have to do "dhcpcd eth0" again and rescan. I figured out that my lease time was expiring too soon, so from then on I did "dhcpcd -l 1800 eth0" and I only had to scan my computer once per reboot. So problem solved!

I recently upgraded to Gentoo 2005.0 amd64 2.6.11-r3 kernel Linux. When I have to scan I still do "dhcpcd -l 1800 eth0" and I am only scanned once per boot. However, just recently some weird problems have happened. Every few days, I lose my connection completely. When I type "dhcpcd eth0" again, it says "dhcpcd already running..." so I kill the dhcpcd process and try it again, and it just idles.

Here's the weird part, if I reboot into windows, it too cannot find a connection. To get back on the internet I have to do a lot of random things like unplugging the ethernet from the wall and the computer, and shutting off the computer. I have concluded that if I shut off my computer with the ethernet cord out, and then turn it back on with the ethernet cord in, I can get back into the computer. This is not happening to anyone else in the building (they all run just windows), and this just started when I started using 2.6.11-r3.

It is hard to say the culprit is the eth0 settings or whatever in Linux, because when it happens it affects both Windows and Gentoo. However this only started happening in 2.6.11-r3, and the problem only starts when I'm in Gentoo (i never run windows anymore anyway...except to look at this problem now), so I'm wondering if the new 2.6.11-r3 is setting some hardware-level option that is eventually causing this weird problem to happen, I think it is hardware-level because when it happens it occurs in both Windows and Gentoo.

Again, this usually happens when I leave my computer to go to class or something and randomly the problem will start (where I'm not connected, but dhcpcd is still running...killing it and using it again won't get me online until I shut off the computer without the ethernet cord in, rebooting without the ethernet cord in does nothing.)

Is the forcedeth driver in 2.6.11-r3 new and doing something weird? Or perhaps is it some other network setting (i have all the same network settings selected in 2.6.11-r3 as I did 2.6.9...where this didn't happen)? Or is it that the lease time of 1800 (dhcpcd -l 1800 eth0)   is causing the problem and I should avoid using -l number altogether or try a lower/higher number? Any kind of insight into this would be very welcome.

Thank you!

-omni

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## Deathwing00

I did not experience any problems so far with forcedeth. You could check again your /etc/conf.d/net. I recall there is a 'lease on stop' option somewhere there, that will lease the IP address when you restart/halt the system.

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## Omniscientist

Lease time on bootup/restart isn't the problem, its while the machine is on that this problem occurs. Unless I'm not understanding what you're saying?

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## Deathwing00

Are you sure it couldn't be a problem of the network you are in?

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## jazzfrizzle

Hi,

I'm having the same problem since upgrading to 2.6.11. The NIC stops at random and I can't restart it. I tried to rmmod the forcedeth module and insmod it back but that doesn't even work. When I reboot, the startup of eth0 fails. I have to shutdown the system and ALSO put the power supply of. When powercycle has been done the NIC works again.

This is what I'm getting in dmesg:

```
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out

nv_stop_tx: TransmitterStatus remained busy<7>eth0: tx_timeout: dead entries!

NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out

nv_stop_tx: TransmitterStatus remained busy<7>eth0: tx_timeout: dead entries!
```

And on this current boot:

```
eth0: link down.

eth0: link up.

eth0: link down.

eth0: link up.

eth0: link down.

eth0: link up.
```

Could this be a bug in the new forcedeth driver ?

Regards

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## Deathwing00

I use the same driver (forcedeth) with kernels 2.6.11 r4/r5/r6 and it works perfectly here, dhcp and all that. No problems at all.

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## HS

Same problem here after upgrading from gentoo-sources-2.6.9-gentoo-r14 to gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r6.

My mobo is MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. I'm using amd64 arch.

I've also found these posts with same problem:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-318214.html

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-310223.html

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## Deathwing00

 *HS wrote:*   

> Same problem here after upgrading from gentoo-sources-2.6.9-gentoo-r14 to gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r6.
> 
> My mobo is MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. I'm using amd64 arch.
> 
> I've also found these posts with same problem:
> ...

 

 *elektrohirn wrote:*   

> Ok, "solved" it. A Google searche helped Smile Seems to be a little HW problem on nForce4, somehow the NIC does not get resetted correctly even if you reboot, so you have to completeley power off to make it work again. I hope a BIOS update will fix this!
> 
> Tom
> 
> 

 

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## HS

I'll try to switch back to 2.6.9-gentoo-r14 to be sure that it does not occured with this kernel.

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## HS

 *HS wrote:*   

> I'll try to switch back to 2.6.9-gentoo-r14 to be sure that it does not occured with this kernel.

 

No problems with 2.6.9.

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## HS

I fill bugreport about this (https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90069).

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## gerpc

I've the mobo GA-K8NXP-SLI. Same problem. I will probe this.

But, anyway, anyone knows if there is a bios update or something like that to make a real solution of the problem???

I'll post an issue in Gigabyte tonight, but I can't post one in nvidia. 

Thanks guys!

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## ZiffyWombat

I believe this is a bug in the forcedeth module.

Have you tried nvidias nic driver yet?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Normally it wont build but apply this patch and it will:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-340879-highlight-nvstoptx.html

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