ale0: could not disable Tx/Rx MAC(0x00000004)!

[Julien Cigar]

Hello,

I got the following problem today:

<<6>6>nneewwnnffss  sseerrvveerr 
119922..116688..00..225544:://hhoommee//mmaaggee::  nnoto t 
rreespsopnonddiinngg

newnfs server 192.168.0.254:/home/mage: not responding
ale0: could not disable Tx/Rx MAC(0x00000004)!
ale0: link state changed to DOWN
ale0: could not disable Tx/Rx MAC(0x00000004)!
ale0: link state changed to UP
in6_purgeaddr: err=65, destination address delete failed
Nov 15 22:08:02 rivendell dhclient[1186]: short write: wanted 20 got 0 bytes
Nov 15 22:08:02 rivendell dhclient[1186]: exiting.

Only a hard reboot fixed the issue (the network was completely frozen)

This is with:

ale0 at pci0:2:0:0:    class=0x020000 card=0x83041043 chip=0x10261969 
rev=0xb0 hdr=0x00
     vendor     = 'Atheros Communications'
     device     = 'AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet'
     class      = network
     subclass   = ethernet

on:

FreeBSD rivendell 9.1-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 9.1-PRERELEASE #0: Thu Nov 1 
18:35:54 CET 2012     root at rivendell:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/CUSTOM amd64

Any idea what could be the cause of this ?

Thank you,
Julien