crashing eth0

[ali]

Hello,
I've used tinycore in the past and i want to use it again. I love it. I love the speed of it, i love the extension concept, I love it.
That being said, few times (i'd say 1/3 times) when i boot into it, the eth0 connection is down. Not only that, but there are no namespaces, and well, the interface is dead. Even if i reboot and boot into debian the eth0 interface doesn't work for a while.
There is no  guaranteed way to fix it.
Sometimes i unplug it for several minutes, when i boot back to ubuntu it either works or it doesn't.
Sometimes after the unplugging thing i have to reset the bios to manufacturer defaults, that either works or it doesn't.
The eth0 connection problem only happens when i boot into *core.
I usually try to use the wireless connection as much as possible but there are some places where there is only wired connectivity and i have to gamble, either i boot into debian and get the internet or i boot into tinycore and there's a chance it might work or crash the interface.
i just wanted to let you know about this problem, i really hope it gets fixed.

Code: [Select]

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
squashfs               14724  0
scsi_wait_scan           276  0
ramzswap               10240  1
asus_laptop             9180  0
video                  12712  0
loop                    8068  0
serio_raw               2380  0
r8169                  22516  0
output                   724  1 video
ac                      1696  0
battery                 6028  0
backlight               1632  2 asus_laptop,video


Code: [Select]

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge [1022:9600]
00:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (ext gfx port 0) [1022:9603]
00:05.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) [1022:9605]
00:06.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2) [1022:9606]
00:11.0 SATA controller [0106]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [IDE mode] [1002:4390]
00:12.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]
00:12.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller [1002:4398]
00:12.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]
00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]
00:13.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller [1002:4398]
00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller [1002:4385] (rev 3a)
00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) [1002:4383]
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller [1002:439d]
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge [1002:4384]
00:14.5 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller [1002:4399]
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration [1022:1200]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map [1022:1201]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller [1022:1202]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control [1022:1203]
00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control [1022:1204]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series] [1002:9553]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 03)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)


[larrys4227]

No idea if this will help you or not, but I had a similar problem when I installed a new PMCIA nic card a few days ago.  It worked the very first time I booted, but then nothing. TC saw the card, but it was down.  I noticed that DHCP in services was not enabled .... strangely, it had always been green in the past.  I enabled it, and the card worked immediately.

 Havent had a problem since .......

[beerstein]

Hi:
What kind of a card do you have: EISA, PCI,  built on MOBO, PC-card in notebook,
What brand is it - which manufacturer  chip?
How old is it?
Which motherboard?

To me it loooks like a hardware problem. I had defektive NICs and replaced them.
Can you replace the card?

[ali]

i'm using a laptop
a asus k50af http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K50AF/#specifications
and it's not possible to replace the card
i bought the laptop less than 1 year ago brand new

and as i've said before this never happens in any other distribution

[bmarkus]

Which TC version is it?

[ali]

well, 3.8.3, 3.7 and 3.6
when the pc boots into tinycore, it either works instantly or it doesn't
and if it doesn't it won't work in any other os'es either
in the past it went so far that it wasn't even displayed in ifconfig, i just had wlan0. that's why i have to reset manufacturer defaults
that's the main reason i stopped using tinycore few months ago, i was scared not to damage my eth0 card

[curaga]

Likely a bug in the driver in our kernel version. Do try whether it's better with 4.x.

[ali]

i was tempted to try it but isn't it buggy?
for a definitive result i'd have to use it some times
and since it doesn't 'just drop' i can't know unless i'm actually using it all the time (which includes shuttind down, and opening it)

[maro]

Using google I saw a few reports about issues with this NIC. One problem might be that the wrong driver gets installed. But to obtain a better picture I'd like to suggest to run sudo lspci -knnvs 02:00 (of course after installing 'pci-utils.tcz').

As I saw several reports (e.g. from Gentoo, or XBMC) where users are blacklisting kernel module 'r8169' and compiling an out-of-tree driver from Realtek sources (downloaded from here).

I've also read that with later kernels (e.g. 2.6.38 onwards) the in-tree kernel drivers seem to be working better. So either you know how to compile said Realtek driver, or you trial TC 4.x alpha (currently using kernel 3.0.3).

The compilation itself should be rather straight forward. It will require at least to run tce-load -wi compiletc linux-headers-$(uname -r), followed by the extraction of the source files and a simple 'make' in the extracted directory. What is in my most recent experience not working "out of the box" is the 'sudo make install' part of it. I say this as I've just compiled some other Realtek WLAN driver from their sources. I ended up just taking the resulting "*.ko" file and putting it myself in the appropriate directory (I also had to take care of a firmware file, but I don't believe that this is an issue for 'RTL8168'). I then had to force the loading of the module with 'modprobe', but this might be something that can be improved somehow.