8139too cannot receive pkts in 2.4.19-rc3

I just upgraded a SpaceWalker SV-50 machine with a builtin Realtek nic. The NIC can no longer receive pkts it seems. It can transmit fine, as witnessed by other machines on the network.

lspci says the realtek is:
RTL-8139/8139C (rev 10)

The NIC is plugged into a 10bt hub.

The messages in /var/log/messages look like:

NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000

I tested in on a 100bt-FD switch, and it failed there too, though it did have a message in the log about negotiating 100bt-FD.

This works in stock RH 7.3 kernel.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben Greear <[email protected]>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear

I'm witnessing this too. I have some information to add.

kernel 2.4.20-pre2. When I plug the RTL-8139 rev 10 soldered onto my Shuttle FS40 motherboard into my cable modem (I'm pretty sure it's only 10baseT), I get this:

Aug 14 22:06:37 emma kernel: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26 
Aug 14 22:06:37 emma kernel: eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at
0xe800, 00:30:1b:11:1b:a5, IRQ 11 
Aug 14 22:06:37 emma /etc/hotplug/net.agent: invoke ifup eth0 
Aug 14 22:06:37 emma kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on

auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.

Nothing works. Well, maybe my machine can successfully send -- I can't easily test that. But it sure doesn't receive. On the machine, the link light turns on but the activity light remains dark.

Now, when I plug it into my 10/100 ethernet hub, these messages appear:

Aug 14 22:21:27 emma kernel: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26 
Aug 14 22:21:27 emma kernel: eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at
0xe800, 00:30:1b:11:1b:a5, IRQ 11 
Aug 14 22:21:27 emma /etc/hotplug/net.agent: invoke ifup eth0 
Aug 14 22:21:27 emma kernel: eth0: Setting 100mbps half-duplex based on

auto-negotiated partner ability 40a1.

Except that now everything works great. The link light is on, the activity light works, and I can send and receive packets beautifully.

It would appear that the 2.4.20-pre2 8139too driver doesn't handle 10baseT -- it only works with 100baseT.

Configuration:

   RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter:   module 
     Use PIO instead of MMIO:            yes 
     Support for uncommon rev. K:        yes 
     Support for older 8129/8130:        yes 
     Use older RX-reset method:          no 

I really, really want this chip to work with my cable modem. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks,

- Scott