CentOS - Oct 2010 - Network card not working after update to 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5

Hello,

the network card of my workstation stopped working after I updated the
kernel to 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5 .
I don't see any specific error messages when booting, and the related
interface is shown as up by ifconfig with its (static) IP address
properly set.
But I cannot reach any other computer or router on the LAN (whereas
other boxes work fine).
Where the network cable is plugged, an orange light stays on and does not blink.

Booting with 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5 instead solves the issue.

The network card is:
Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC
Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

I just wanted to share this, and see if anybody else experienced such issues.
It makes me feel uncomfortable with updating some remote servers,
because it would really be a pain to fix if their network cards
stopped working after rebooting (they are not the same as the one of
my workstation, but I would feel safer if I could find out that this
is a problem with my computer and not with the kernel)

Cheers,

Mathieu

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 09:02:32AM +0200, Mathieu Baudier
wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> the network card of my workstation stopped working after I updated the
> kernel to 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5 .
might be related to http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=4317

Tru
-- 
Tru Huynh (mirrors, CentOS-3 i386/x86_64 Package Maintenance)
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xBEFA581B
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> the network card of my workstation stopped working after I updated the
> kernel to 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5 .
Just to follow up on this:

I actually dual boot with Ubuntu on this workstation (mostly for
digital processing, where recent FLOSS software are needed), and
Ubuntu network access also broke at the same time.
But I did not care as much as for CentOS since I don't absolutely need
the network when I process pictures.

At some point though, I tried to fix the problem on Ubuntu as well and
used the same approach as on CentOS, that is starting the previous
kernel version from GRUB.
I must say that most of them were completely broken, not even starting
the OS properly, and I had to come back to three kernel versions
before in order to reach the OS (which I find really disturbing with
regard to Ubuntu stability, especially when you consider that this is
a completely pure untweaked installation that I barely use...)

Anyhow, I finally could reach the network on Ubuntu, did an update (no
new kernel was included inthis update), restarted Ubuntu and the
network was working again on the latest kernel (where it was
previously broken).

Then I booted CentOS with 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5 (where the network was
broken, see my OP), and the network was now working.

So, it seems that Ubuntu and CentOS somehow conflicted in their
management of the network card.
I don't understand how it is possible though, since the machine is
rebooted (I also did some tests, where I was cuttin all power supply,
in order to be sure that the motherboard was completely shut off).

Anyhow, my CentOS workstation is back to normal and I will now update
to the kernel which has just been released.