Gentoo Box Drops Off Network (Long)

[Christopher A. Bier]

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  Steven,
Have you tried booting off of the Gentoo CD and setting up networking,
and then leaving it to see if it will drop off or have problems?

Chris

On Thu, 2003-05-01 at 02:28, Steven Elling wrote:
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.
> 
> 
majordomo at kclug.org
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