[BlueOnyx:02957] Re: Suspected Ethernet problem with r8169 driver

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

Greg Kuhnert wrote:
> I have a server with the same chipset. amd I've been dealing with 
> problems ever since. This relates to a known bug in the drivers for this 
> card. A fix has been posted back in October last year....
> 
> http://userweb.kernel.org/~romieu/r8169/2.6.27-rc9/20081007/0009-r8169-fix-RxMissed-register-access.patch
> 
> Its a shame that no-one has integrated this into the official Centos 
> kernel code yet. I also have a server with this problem. Rather than 
> running custom unsupported kernels, I have a small script that runs to 
> detect and recover from the problem. Basically, it pings the default 
> gateway. If the response time is greater than 50 msec on average, it 
> does a ifdown / ifup for that interface. I run this every 15 minutes in 
> /etc/cron.quarter-hourly

Is there a reason that running such a script is preferable to using a 
better-supported NIC?

We've got dozens of spare NIC's in our parts closet we keep around for 
just this sort of occasion.  There are a few boxes in the room that we 
just don't use onboard NIC's on at all.   Just easier to disable them 
and use one you know will "just work."

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
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