Topic: REPOST: NIC Duplex Settings

[Serge Dutremble]

REPOST
PROBLEM: My ADSL connection seems to die from time to time. The only way to get it back is to cycle the power on the DSL modem.

On a separate thread, it was mentioned that the Sympatico HSE DSL modems did not like the NIC to be in 10Mbps Full duplex and that I should get them to be half duplex.

How can I verify in what duplexing mode I run at on a NIC and how can I set its duplexing if necessary?

I use the eepro100 module for my external NIC.

[Jochen Hoegerl]

Just boot your pc with a dos disk, then insert your nic-driver disk.
There should be some diagnostic tools on it which let you also set the
duplex-mode to half-duplex.

hope this helps

jochen

[Tom Keiser]

Most NIC's are auto-setting for duplex. If they are connected to a switch, they will automatically be full duplex. If to a hub, they will be half-duplex. Don't know of any that can be set to run only full duplex, even if plugged into a hub.

Regards,

Tom

[Serge Dutremble]

My request is based on another post on this forum saying that, in some cases, the DSL modem of Sympatico HSE (one ISP for Ottawa) has to be power cycled to wake itself up.  It would drom the link intermitently and would not respond to the PPPoE module to reconnect until its power was turned off and then back on.  This was kind of annoying when I was not home at the time and could not get access to my LAN from work.

I had noticed that I had a lot of collisions on my external interface.

I have added the line options eepro100 full_duplex=0 in my modules.conf and the collisions have been reduced significantly (yes I still have some).

I'll see if the modem works properly over the next week or so and report to this thread.

Serge

[Serge Dutremble]

Since I have inserted this line in the /etc/modules.conf, I have had no connection problem.

I'll keep this thread up for another week and report in a final post.

I think the template for this would be at
/etc/e-smith/templates/etc/modules.conf/10EthernetDrivers

and add the "options eth1 full_duplex=0" as an other line of output in the code.

Naturally, this would be done under the custom-templates branch (copy the modules.conf folder over...).

I have not investigated how to ensure the code does this for the external interface.  

Although I believe that most (if not all) DSL and Cable modems require 10Mb Half-duplex and probably autonegotiate correctly, I'm pretty sure the full-duplex=0 verbose is not a common option for all ethernet modules.  It would be pretty hard to make it intelligent to the point of having it by default in the distribution.

I suspect that this could be treated as a fix only if the problem occurs.

Anyone knows for sure if this is the proper way to do it in this case?

Opinions?

Serge.

[Serge Dutremble]

I am happy to report that the insertion of options eth1 full-duplex=0 in my modules.conf seems to ahve done the trick.

My DSL line has not dropped once since I did this.

Serge.

[Jehu]

Please forgive me but I am a newbie, I looked at the file but I don't know where to add this line.  Can you show me a screen shot of your file so I can do the same.
My Sympatico connection keeps dropping.

Thanks,
Jehu.

[Serge Dutremble]

Post the bottom part of the file:

/etc/modules.conf and I will be able to see what modules you currently use.

I will also need to know which interface is connected to your DSL modem.  if you do the command ifconfig, you should see one ethx interface with an IP and one without.

The one without is your external interface which uses the virtual ppp0 interface.

Depending on the module you use, it may require a different options command.

THe fact that it worked for me does not mean it will work in your case with the same syntax.

Serge.

[Jehu]

Hope this is enough to help me? My external interface is a d-link not sure what model can't see it at the moment. Also there is a copy of 10EthernetDrivers file.  Where would I add that line that you added.  
eth1 full-duplex=0
Thanks for your help.
Jehu.

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          230 Apr  7  2001 00readfile
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          197 Aug  8  2001 10appletalk
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          317 Apr  7  2001 10EthernetDrivers
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          579 Dec 11 03:38 10hisax
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          211 Apr  7  2001 10net-fp-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          154 Apr  7  2001 10parport-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          212 Aug  8  2001 10ppp
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          274 Apr  7  2001 10ppp-compress-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          192 Apr  7  2001 10ScsiHostAdapter
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          145 Aug  8  2001 10tap-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          243 Apr  7  2001 90StripBlankLines
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          327 Apr  7  2001 95ModulePaths
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           82 Apr  7  2001 99writefile
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            0 Dec 11 03:38 template-begin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            0 Dec 11 03:38 template-end

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:C0:xx:xx:xx:xx
          inet addr:192.168.xxx.x  Bcast:192.xxx.xxx.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          EtherTalk Phase 2 addr:65280/133
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:9510 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:63 txqueuelen:100
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xec80

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:xx:xx:xx:xx
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2227 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3043 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0xec00

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          EtherTalk Phase 2 addr:0/0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:3924  Metric:1
          RX packets:101 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:101 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          inet addr:64.229.xx.xx  P-t-P:64.229.xx.x  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:2225 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3041 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:10


[root@miscv88 modules.conf]# less 10EthernetDrivers
{
    @lines = grep { !/^\s*alias\s*eth[01]/ } @lines;
    if (defined $EthernetDriver1 && $EthernetDriver1 ne "unknown")
    {
        push @lines, "alias eth0 ${EthernetDriver1}";
    }
    if (defined $EthernetDriver2 && $EthernetDriver2 ne "unknown")
    {
        push @lines, "alias eth1 ${EthernetDriver2}";
    }
    "";
}

[JEHU]

This is what the my file looks like and also my 10EthernetDrivers file.
Please help. Also ifconfig results.

total 52
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          230 Apr  7  2001 00readfile
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          197 Aug  8  2001 10appletalk
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          317 Apr  7  2001 10EthernetDrivers
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          579 Dec 11 03:38 10hisax
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          211 Apr  7  2001 10net-fp-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          154 Apr  7  2001 10parport-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          212 Aug  8  2001 10ppp
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          274 Apr  7  2001 10ppp-compress-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          192 Apr  7  2001 10ScsiHostAdapter
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          145 Aug  8  2001 10tap-aliases
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          243 Apr  7  2001 90StripBlankLines
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          327 Apr  7  2001 95ModulePaths
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           82 Apr  7  2001 99writefile
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            0 Dec 11 03:38 template-begin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            0 Dec 11 03:38 template-end


[root@miscv88 modules.conf]# less 10EthernetDrivers
{
    @lines = grep { !/^\s*alias\s*eth[01]/ } @lines;
    if (defined $EthernetDriver1 && $EthernetDriver1 ne "unknown")
    {
        push @lines, "alias eth0 ${EthernetDriver1}";
    }
    if (defined $EthernetDriver2 && $EthernetDriver2 ne "unknown")
    {
        push @lines, "alias eth1 ${EthernetDriver2}";
    }
    "";
}

[root@miscv88 modules.conf]# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:4F:85:xx:xx
          inet addr:192.xx.xx.xx  Bcast:192.xx.xx.xx  Mask:255.255.255.0
          EtherTalk Phase 2 addr:65280/133
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:55728 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:74364 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:67 txqueuelen:100
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xec80

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:xx:BA:xx:xx:xx
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:71304 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:50447 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:36 txqueuelen:100
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0xec00

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          EtherTalk Phase 2 addr:0/0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:3924  Metric:1
          RX packets:355 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:355 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
          inet addr:64.229.xx.xx  P-t-P:64.229.xx.xx  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
          RX packets:71302 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:50445 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:10

[Serge Dutremble]

Can you post the content of the following file:

/etc/modules.conf

Thi will give us some answers and possibly a solution.

Serge

[HO]

Is there anyone out there that can tell me where to ad the line eth1 full-duplex=0 to the /etc/modules.conf  file.  Can someone who has done this tell me how to do this or show me a screen shot.

Please help
HO.

[Serge Dutremble]

The line can be added at the bottom of the file.

HOWEVER,  it may not work for you as is.  THe information above worked in my case but there is nothing that says that the same options line will work for your network card module.

In any case, the complete line to add is as follows.

If your external interface is eth0:

     options eth1 full-duplex=00

If your external interface is eth1:

     options eth1 full-duplex=0

Use your favorite text editor (both vi or pico work on SME) to add the line anywhere below the module definition for your network cards.  Usually the last thing on the file.

Serge.

[Serge Dutremble]

Correction:
The options line must refer to the module name not the interface name.  I use the eepro module for my external NIC so the options line in my case is:

options eepro100 full_duplex=0

Place this line at the end of the /etc/modules.conf file.

Serge.