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Failure to ping, packet loss, or system hangs with Intel Gigabit Ethernet adapter under SUSE LINUX v8.0 - IBM Servers

Troubleshooting


Problem

Some Intel Gigabit adapters may be problematic in SUSE LINUX 8.0. This may manifest in failure to ping, packet loss, or system hang.

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H087362

Symptom

Some Intel Gigabit adapters may be problematic in SUSE LINUX 8.0. This may manifest in failure to ping, packet loss, or system hang.

Affected configurations
Solution

Upgrade to the latest SUSE LINUX Kernel update, if one is available.

Workaround

Update to the latest stable e1000 driver from Intel.

To update to the latest version of the e1000 driver while installing the system:

  1. Download the update diskette from the SUSE FTP server: ftp://ftp.suse.com/

    go to the pub/ directory
    go to the suse/ directory
    go to the i386/ directory
    go to the update directory
    go to the 8.0/ directory
    go to the disks directory
    download e1000-4.3.2_SuSE80.img

  1. Create the update diskette.
For a Unix/Linux system
  1. Insert a blank floppy into the diskette drive.
  2. Go into the directory where the e1000-4.3.2_SuSE80.img file is.
  3. Enter the following command (for some UNIX you may need to use a floppy device other than dev/fd0):  
    dd if=e1000-4.3.2_SuSE80.img of=/dev/fd0
For a Microsoft Windows system
  1. Use the program, Rawrite, to generate the floppy.
  2. Insert the first SUSE CD into the drive.
  3. Insert a blank floppy diskette into the diskette drive.
  4. Go to a command prompt and enter the following directory on the CD-ROM: dosutils\rawrite\
  5. Run the following command to create the floppy: rawrite <dir> \e1000-4.3.2_SuSE80.img
    Where <dir> is the directory where the file is.
  1. Boot from the first SUSE CD on the system that you will be installing.
  2. At the boot screen, press the Alt key on your keyboard.
  3. When prompted, insert the update diskette and press Enter.
  4. Proceed with the installation as normal, configuring the card at the end with "Configure Hardware".
Procedure to update already installed and running systems

Install the driver manually:

  1. Successfully boot into the system.
  2. Follow the directions in steps 1 and 2 above to obtain the e1000-4.3.2 update disk.
  3. Insert the diskette into the drive and mount it: mount /floppy
  4. Run the following commands:
     
    cp /floppy/linux/suse/i386-8.0/install/update.tar.gz /tmp
    cd /tmp
    tar xvzf update.tar.gz
    cp lib/modules/ uname -r /kernel/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.o /lib/modules/ uname -r /kernel/drivers/net/e1000/
  1. Now when you load the e1000 driver, it will be the updated version.

Additional information

The behavior is caused by downlevel software.

 

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

System x:All operating systems listed

Older System x:SUSE Linux

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Document Information

Modified date:
28 January 2019

UID

ibm1MIGR-45164