ethtool won't work on RedHat Enterprise 2.1

I'm running RedHat enterprise server 2.1 and have been having trouble
with this server dropping off of the network. One of our Linux
admins. said that on their other servers they had to use ethtool to
set the card to full duplex and autoneg off. Here's what I get:

# /sbin/ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
No data available

# /sbin/ethtool -s eth0 duplex half autoneg off
Cannot get current device settings: Operation not supported
not setting duplex
not setting autoneg


I've done this with three NICs (3C905Cx, 3C595, and a new LinkSys) all
with the same results.

I've also tried three versions of ethtool (1.2, 1.6, and 1.8) all with
the same results.

My hardware is an IBM ThinkCentre.

Anyone have any idea why ethtool doesn't work or why this machine
keeps dropping off of the network?

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Dean Schulze <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I'm running RedHat enterprise server 2.1 and have been having trouble
> with this server dropping off of the network. One of our Linux
> admins. said that on their other servers they had to use ethtool to
> set the card to full duplex and autoneg off. Here's what I get:

Better tell the network guys to set the switch to autoneg for
that port.

> # /sbin/ethtool eth0
> Settings for eth0:
> No data available

[..]

> I've done this with three NICs (3C905Cx, 3C595, and a new LinkSys) all
> with the same results.

It depends on the nic module, if mii-tool/ethtool (or however
it's named) works or not. Try 'lsmod' and 'modinfo -p
<module_name>' for more info, perhaps there is another module for
your nic, supporting those tools. If not, you can set those params
from /etc/modules.conf, albeit you need to reload the module to
make changes working.

Likely you have a bunch of "errors/dropped/etc" in 'ifconfig' output,
due to duplex mismatch.

Good luck

- --
Michael Heiming - RHCE (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)

Remove +SIGNS and www. if you expect an answer, sorry for
inconvenience, but I get tons of spam.
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