CentOS - Apr 2009 - tg3 BCM5755 intermittantly stops working after upgrade to 5.3.

Dear All,

             I am having a HP xw4400 with following ethernet controller 
as reported by lspci

Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)

             This machine was running CentOS 5.2 without any problem. After 
updating the machine with yum update on 8 April, after which it is showing 
to be CentOS 5.3, this machine stops communicating intermittantly and I 
see the following message correspondingly in /var/log/messages

Apr 18 10:30:07 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:30:24 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:30:27 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:30:27 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:30:29 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:30:32 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:30:32 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:30:46 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:30:49 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:30:49 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:30:50 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:30:52 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:30:52 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:36:46 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
Apr 18 10:36:49 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
Apr 18 10:36:49 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
Apr 18 10:37:43 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.

        The interval for which it happens is about order of few minutes.The 
kernel it is running now is 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5. Can anybody help.

Regards,
Mangesh

2009/4/21 Mangesh S. Umbarje <mangesh at gmrt.ncra.tifr.res.in>
> Dear All,
>
>             I am having a HP xw4400 with following ethernet controller
> as reported by lspci
>
> Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev
> 02)
>
>             This machine was running CentOS 5.2 without any problem. After
> updating the machine with yum update on 8 April, after which it is showing
> to be CentOS 5.3, this machine stops communicating intermittantly and I
> see the following message correspondingly in /var/log/messages
>
> Apr 18 10:30:07 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
> Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex.
> Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for
> RX.
> Apr 18 10:30:24 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.

etc...

>
>        The interval for which it happens is about order of few minutes.The
> kernel it is running now is 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5. Can anybody help.
>
Have you tried running with the old kernel from before the update to verify
that it doesn't occur with that version?

It is possible that the update is just a coincidence and you are actually
facing link problems due to the card, the cable, the switch or any of the
connections between...

d
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I have checked the physical connectivity which is perfectly 
fine. This machine is very critical which we need to keep running as much 
as possible. So I had gone to older kernel 2.6.18-92.1.17.el5. But along 
with this kernel, I had added one more Dlink ethernet card which shows to 
be

05:09.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc DGE-530T Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
(rev 11) (rev 11)

and it uses the skge driver.

           So I could test the machine with this new card and 
kernel-2.6.18-92.1.17.el5 togather. Still I do get the network breaks but 
the frequency reduced to factor of Ten. The corresponding messages seen in 
the /var/log/messages are as follow.

Apr 21 10:18:32 kernel: skge eth1: Link is down.
Apr 21 10:18:36 kernel: skge eth1: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex, flow
control none
Apr 21 10:18:55 kernel: skge eth1: Link is down.
Apr 21 10:18:57 kernel: skge eth1: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex, flow
control none
Apr 21 10:18:58 kernel: skge eth1: Link is down.
Apr 21 10:19:01 kernel: skge eth1: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex, flow
control none

Regards,
Mangesh


On Tue, 21 Apr 2009, D Tucny wrote:
> 2009/4/21 Mangesh S. Umbarje <mangesh at gmrt.ncra.tifr.res.in>
>       Dear All,
>
>       ? ? ? ? ? ? I am having a HP xw4400 with following ethernet
controller
>       as reported by lspci
>
>       Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5755 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
(rev 02)
>
>       ? ? ? ? ? ? This machine was running CentOS 5.2 without any problem.
After
>       updating the machine with yum update on 8 April, after which it is
showing
>       to be CentOS 5.3, this machine stops communicating intermittantly and
I
>       see the following message correspondingly in /var/log/messages
>
>       Apr 18 10:30:07 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
>       Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full
duplex.
>       Apr 18 10:30:10 kernel: tg3: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off
for RX.
>       Apr 18 10:30:24 kernel: tg3: eth0: Link is down.
> 
> 
> etc...
> ?
>
>       ? ? ? ?The interval for which it happens is about order of few
minutes.The
>       kernel it is running now is 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5. Can anybody help.
> 
> 
> Have you tried running with the old kernel from before the update to verify
that it doesn't occur with that version?
> 
> It is possible that the update is just a coincidence and you are actually
facing link problems due to the card, the
> cable, the switch or any of the connections between...
> 
> d
> 
>