NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Symptom
The onboard nForce4 Gigabit port sometimes stop working. In the system log file (/var/log/message), the kernel reports the following error messages:
Jan 1 10:58:28 manet kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out Jan 1 10:58:28 manet kernel: nv_stop_tx: TransmitterStatus remained busy<7>eth0: tx_timeout: dead entries!
To restore the network connection, the system has to be shut down and the power cord has to be disconnected temporary. Powering off the system only does not bring back the network.
Affected Models
Marquis K814, K815, M814,M815, M816, K828
Solution
There is a bug in the older revision of the forcedeth network driver. To avoid loss of network, use at least version 0.47 (embedded in ASL 2.6.12-10 kernel or higher). If the system runs on the older ASL 2.6 kernel, download and install the latest ASL 2.6 kernel packages available here:
http://updates.aslab.com/kernel/binary/
If the system runs under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 or CentOS 4.2, always use the ASL RHEL4 Device Driver CD when installing or reinstalling the operating system. Otherwise, an older forcedeth driver (v 0.30) will be used. The latest RHEL4 Device Driver CD can be downloaded here:
http://updates.aslab.com/isos/RHEL4/
If the system runs under SuSE 10, use the ASL SuSE 10 Forcedeth Driver Disk when installing or reinstalling the operating system. Otherwise, an older forcedeth driver (v 0.35) will be used. The latest SuSe 10 Forcedeth Driver Disk can be downloaded here: