my ethernet to my laptop/getting the tcp/X11 socket up

[wizlayer]

On Thursday 31 March 2005 12:41 pm, Chuck Robey wrote:
[snip]
> I installed it, it worked with the rl0 driver. 
> Sometimes.
>
> Why sometimes?  Smart guy, that's question 1.  The indication I
> get is, I get an error (tcp error) soemthing like this one
> below (they're not all alike):
>
> Mar 30 21:37:52 september kernel: rl0: discard frame w/o
> leading ethernet header (len 2 pkt len 2)
>
> Well, the result is always the same, which is that the rl0 line
> stops dead in it's tracks.  I can do a ifconfig down/ifconfig
> up and clear it, but every time I do that, I take a 1 in 5
> chance of getting a kernel panic.  It's not something I crave
> to do a lot, so I can't just dismiss it by making a utility to
> down/up the interface.  I need this fixed.
>
> [snip]
>
> I'm quite, *quite* willing to buy another ehternet card.  The
> one I have is a D-Link, the dmesg reports:
>
> miibus0: <MII bus> on rl0
> Mar 30 21:44:23 september kernel: rlphy0: <RealTek internal
> media interface> on miibus0
> Mar 30 21:44:23 september kernel: rlphy0:  10baseT,
> 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
> Mar 30 21:44:23 september kernel: rl0: Ethernet address:
> 00:0d:88:27:c4:38
>
> OK, so I'm looking for advice on the ethernet problem, and
> maybe
[snip]

Are you sure the network card itself isn't hosed?

I had a cheapo network card that did something very similar.  In 
fact, I'm pretty sure it had a realtek chipset too (although I'm 
not lifting a finger in their direction)...  Worked fine, then 
weird errors and *lights out*...  Turned out to be the NIC itself 
(why sometimes?  who knows...  temperature, defunct buffer 
maybe?).

my .02,

WizLayer