Gentoo Box Drops Off Network (Long)

[Steven Elling]

Hey all,

My server at home runs Gentoo and for some reason it keeps dropping off the 
network.  I cannot ping it from anywhere on the network and the server 
cannot ping anything.  I've tried everything I can think of but the problem 
eludes me.

Here is what I have tried so far:

* Replaced the patch cable twice.
* Moved the patch cable to different ports on the switch.
* Put in another Linksys network card that I know is good.
* Compiled the kernel using the vanilla-sources version 2.4.20.

Every time the box drops off the network I run 'netstat -i' and every time 
it shows RX-ERR and RX-OVR in the hundreds.  This in itself makes me think 
there is a problem somewhere in the network subsystem, but where?  Are 
there any kernel / module parameters I can use to further trouble-shoot?  I 
can't find any.  I've done everything but try a different brand of network 
card.

I wouldn't think a memory problem would cause it to drop off the network.  
Plus, I don't believe I have a memory problem because I would see other 
problems manifest themselves.  For one, I compile with '-O3' and if there 
were memory problems the compiles would bomb out with 'Seg 11' at least 
once.  Regardless, I think I am going to run memtest overnight to see what 
it comes up with.

What is interesting is the network problem started imediately after I 
replaced the OS on the machine from Debian to Gentoo.  The way I did this 
was I installed a spare drive in my workstation; which uses the same 
processor and motherboard; mounted the drive, unpacked stage1 onto the 
drive, chrooted into the root of the drive, then proceeded to build Gentoo.  
Once the build was complete and I had all the necessary software installed, 
I swapped out the drive in the server that had Debian on it with the Gentoo 
drive and proceeded to complete the install.  I did a readonly badblocks 
scan on the Gentoo drive and it didn't turn up anything.  The server never 
once dropped off the network in the 2+ years that Debian was installed on 
it.

So after reading everything above, can anyone make any suggestions as to 
were I shoud start next on tracking down the server's network problem?

Thanks.