> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2019 at 10:29 AM > From: "Ken Moffat via blfs-support" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: "Ken Moffat" <[email protected]> > Subject: [blfs-support] Network problems with recent kernels (r8169) > > Anybody else seeing periodic "stalls" in networking with 5.4 kernels > and the r8169 driver ? My current feeling is that a lot of network > and other changes got into 5.4 because it is the next LTS kernel, > and on r8169 (which apparently has a bad reputation for some people) > some variants might be be very iffy (although fine in 5.2 and > earlier 5.3.stable). > > I can't say that I initially noticed any problems on some machines, > but I make heavy use of nfs (v3) for my sources, my git tree with my > build scripts, my notes, and for writing the first stage of my > backups (rsync to an nfs mount). > > On a machine running 5.4.1 I eventually noticed that the backups > were timing out because the mountpoint was already mounted (my > script uses a loop for up to an hour in that case, no point in > thrashing disks, and then gives up). That can happen if a very > large new system needs to be backed up. So I looked and found > rsync was not active and umounted. Seemed ok for a while, but > recurred. > > Meanwhile I started a first desktop build on my skylake I've > repurposed it, it used to be my home server but will now sometimes > be used for desktop tests and other times for server tests). I > figured that I should use a current kernel (the host was LFS-9.0, so > I updated to 5.4.1). > > But during the build I got a lot of network "stalls", and when that > happened my sessions were unusable. After getting part way through > BLFS I decided to stop and build a 5.3.11 kernel. That appeared to > be ok, built a whole chunk more but then crapped out in falkon (that > turns out to be a qt-5.14 issue, a header is no longer pulled in). > > At that point I tried s2ram and left it until I had more time. > > Today I woke it from suspend, and got more network stalls, now with > the 5.3.11 kernel - so, it is possible that waking from suspend is > unreliable (I never had reason to suspend or hibernate when it was a > server!). > > In the meantime I had updated the machine running 5.4.1 to 5.4.5 > yesterday evening, ran it for a while (all seemed well), suspended, > woken it again, and all seemed good. So I upgraded the skylake to > 5.4.5 and resumed my BLFS build - that has now all completed. But > in the meantime I've seen that backups on the other machine have > timed out again. And while writing this email (over nfs) I've had > three stalls. > > I'm fairly sure that some of the network changes in 5.4 (and > backported to later 5.3) are responsible, but finding a reliable > test for good or bad seems to be hard, so I'm reluctant to bisect. > I suppose I'll try 5.4.6 now. > > ĸen > -- > We've all got both light and dark inside of us. > What matters is the part we choose to act on. > -- Sirius Black > -- > http://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/listinfo/blfs-support > FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html > Unsubscribe: See the above information page >
Hello Ken, I am using the exact same driver with a 5.4.2 kernel and I have not experienced what you are describing. I am on my computer for many hours a day, and am surfing the web etc without any issue. I have a: realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c) It is an onboard network card. Regards, Christopher. -- http://lists.linuxfromscratch.org/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
