[AG-TECH] Problems with Duplex Network settings for Dell server

[Brad Knowles]

Ben Green wrote:

> To run a VenueServer/BridgeServer requires a full duplex/autonegotiation
> 'off' network configuration on the ethernet device.

I'm confused.  Why is this necessary?

> However, when I do this on a Dell PowerEdge 1750 (RHEL3) the network
> device doesn't initialise on bootup. Having searched the boot.log files,
> it seems that kudzu stalls on bootup, and fails to initialise device
> eth0. As soon as I remove the above line from the ifcfg-eth0 file, kudzu
> is OK and the eth0 device initialises fine.
> 
> I don't have any spare RHEL machines to test this on, but can't imagine
> this would be an OS dependant configuration.

I checked the Dell PowerEdge 1750 configuration specs at 
<http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/1750_specs.pdf>, and 
it says that the network interfaces are embedded Broadcom Gigabit devices.

Note that for GigE, you *can't* turn off auto-negotiation -- it's required 
by the spec.  Some GigE devices may not work well or at all if you try to 
turn off auto-negotiation for other speeds, too.

For GigE devices, my experience is that auto-negotiation finally "just 
works", even for other speeds.  You don't have to turn anything on or off, 
it just works.


So, remind me again why you're trying to forcibly turn it off?

-- 
Brad Knowles <bknowles at mail.utexas.edu>
The University of Texas at Austin, Information Technology Services, ITS-Unix