NIC periodically stops working until reboot
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Hello all,
I have been using pfsense for a while but I'm still a newbie.
My setup consists of 3 NICs: 1 integrated in the motherboard and 2 connected to the PCIe and PCI buses. Normally, everything works fine. However, from time to time, the integrated NIC stops working and I cannot re-enable it unless I reboot the system. This is not an ideal solution, as it requires interrupting the operation of the other 2 NICs, which otherwise are working fine.
Usually, when the NIC stops working, the following messages appear in the logs (latest message first):
May 15 00:26:55 kernel em0: Unable to initialize the hardware May 15 00:26:55 kernel em0: Hardware Initialization Failed May 15 00:26:55 kernel em0: Watchdog timeout -- resetting
The NIC appears as active:
ifconfig em0 em0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500 options=209b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC> ether 68:05:ca:87:e7:38 hwaddr 68:05:ca:87:e7:38 inet6 fe80::6a05:caff:fe87:e738%em0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0x1 inet 192.168.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255 nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL> media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>) status: active
But it doesn't work:
ping 192.168.2.2 PING 192.168.2.2 (192.168.2.2): 56 data bytes ping: sendto: Host is down ping: sendto: Host is down ping: sendto: Host is down ping: sendto: Host is down
Nothing changes if I turn it down and back up with ifconfig and/or netif.
I have been searching for a solution for a while but I haven't found anything that works.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Regards
CZa -
Could be many things, like a physical disconnection in the plug.
Don't loose your time with it.
If possible, disable this NIC in the BIOS and add another single or double NIC card. -
Agree with @Gertjan . This is almost certainly a hardware issue, so you will either need to disable the on-board NIC and replace it with another of some type in an empty card slot, or else replace the motherboard where the on-board NIC resides.
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Yup Watchdog timeout on em is not something known that can be worked around easily.
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Thank you all for your replies.
It is really disappointing that there is no way to reset the NIC without having to reboot. I suppose I will have to follow your suggestions and replace it.
Regards,
CZa -
There is the ifconfig command to shut and open an interface, which might help. However, i also suspect it's a hardware issue.