Panther and duplex settings
 

I work in a Win2000 environment using an iBook. The network switch, which runs on full duplex, is autosensed by OS X as half duplex. Under Jaguar, I was able to fix this and achieve full 100 base T speeds by typing the following:

sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt half-duplex; sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt full-duplex; ifconfig

This always worked, and prevented my iBook from crashing during large file uploads to the network.

Under 10.3, however, this series of network commands does not work. In fact, it drops my network connection entirely until I restart. Cocktail, which also would change my card settings under 10.2, also no longer keeps me on the network. It does convert me to 100 base T and full duplex, as does the Unix command line as above, but drops me from the network. Renewing the DHCP lease also does not work.

Any suggestons? Right now, the OS's autosense feature has me at half duplex (since it is sensing the switch incorrectly).

Thanks!

You are supposed to be able to set the duplexity via the Network Preferences pane - I saw this in one of the intro-to-Panther reviews.

network settings
 

I should have mentioned that this was the very first thing I looked at. By default, the network pref panel indicated 100 Base T and full duplex, but if I look at it with ifconfig in Terminal.app, it shows half-duplex, which will lead to a system crash and forced restart if I transfer files across my network. I had hoped the autosense would be more accurate under 10.3, or that at least I could configure my network card on the fly as I could under 10.2.x.

Re: network settings
 

If having an incorrect Ethernet configuration is causing a system crash, you must have more serious problems with your system than just Ethernet config. The worst that should happen is very slow transfer rates.
You should probably go through the steps outlined in the "Generic OS X Troubleshooting" thread on these forums - look at the list near the end of the thread.

Re: Re: network settings
 

Comments appreciated, but it is not something that is wrong with the system. This had been going on with earlier versions of X until I discovered Cocktail, which allowed me to adjust the network card. Same thing happens to the only other Mac user on our network, so it is NOT my system.

Crashing of the OS is always a sure sign that something is wrong with the system. Nothing that comes in over the network should be able to crash your computer. It may well be that there is a bug in the system - if so, you should report it to Apple. All system crashes or hangs should be reported to Apple.

And I was under the impression that Cocktail merely supplied a user interface to things which you could do via the command-line. E.g. with ifconfig

The system crashes (and the same goes for my colleague's computer) only after a file transfer aborts spontaneously. The bug has to do with how the system is autoconfiguring its network settings in response to a switch on our network. If I use a port on the other side of our building, there is no problem, but it's a different switch and it interacts differently from what I'm told.

Yes, Cocktail is just a GUI. I figured that out long ago and found it much faster to type in sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt half-duplex; sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt full-duplex; ifconfig
to terminal.app (I aliased this all to the letters 'fd').

Back to the problem---the above commands are not functioning correctly in 10.3. All was well in 10.2 through 10.2.6. Several similar posts on Apple's support boards complain of similar issues with 10.2.8 and now 10.3 so it would seem this is somewhat significant.

In any event, it would seem that adjusting network duplex and speed settings no longer works in 10.3, Network preference panel aside. If anyone has any constructive suggestions or similar experiences, I'd appreciate hearing them.

I wonder if the switch that you are connected to has something to do with it.

I'm connected to a Nortel switch and show...

media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>) status: active

Well, it may be a bit beyond what you are willing or able to do, but the Darwin source code for Panther is now available, so you could have a look at how ifconfig is implemented - maybe that would suggest something.

And of course you should look in the error logs (e.g. /var/log/system.log) and crash logs (e.g. /Library/Logs/panic.log) for clues too.

It's definitely the switch. The Mac OS autoselect functionality may not always interact properly with such switches. My network admin is not likely to be of much help here, unfortunately. In 10.2, it was easy to use "sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt full-duplex" to change to full duplex, which produced the same "media" result under ifconfig that you have above. Under 10.3 this no longer works, so I'm just trying to find out what has changed in X to account for this and how to work around it.

ifconfig output
 

here is what I get right now if I type 'ifconfig' in terminal.app on my work network:

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::203:93ff:fed8:a664 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 192.168.10.103 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.10.255
ether 00:03:93:d8:a6:64
media: autoselect (100baseTX <half-duplex>) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback>


If I then type:
'sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt half-duplex; sudo ifconfig en0 media 100basetX mediaopt full-duplex; ifconfig'

the media will change under ifconfig to full-duplex, but in reality it is staying at half-duplex, and the network switch is set at full-duplex. Again, this was not the case under 10.2, in which changing the duplex settings under ifconfig really did something.

typo ?
 

I don't know if it makes a difference, but shouldn't that be "100baseTX"(instead of "100basetX")?
Or maybe that was just a typo.

I have SAME PROBLEM!!!!!
 

Ok, so I now join the ranks of someone who is having system crashes as well based on network transfers which die or get interupted. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is as yet but I'm glad to see this is happening with two macs as well (I only have pc's and 1 mac at present). Apple has refused to help as soon as I say I've experiencing a problem with something other than a mac. (which is sad as this is obviously some type of major bug). Let's work together on this problem.

Here is what I've noticed thusfar:

Environment:

PowerMac G5 dual 2Ghz with Panther 10.3.2
Cisco 2900 series switch.
I've tried switch set to 100 full duplex and mac set to 100 full and it won't come up (interface)
If I set to auto on mac side it comes up and if I check interface status with ifconfig it seems to be detecting the correct speed/duplex but......

I have intermittent total machine lock ups, failure to reach machines on local subnets (to include ping). (intermittent) Seems to get worse longer machine is talking on the network. Switch ports report no errors when this is happening. So it doesn't "seem" from the switch side to be duplex mismatch.

Ping works against some hosts, not others, but if I ping the broadcast address (192.168.1.255) for example and then try to ping the host again, sometimes it works, but it eventually dies again.

Lock ups could be caused by sshing into either of 2 linux boxes on my network, one on same local layer2 subnet, the other on other side of a pix firewall. Intermittently I will get no prompt for password and it just sits there, if I control-C out and exit terminal, terminal locks as does finder and no way out but to power down the box. (I don't care that it doesn't connect, Apple, I do care that when it doesn't, my box becomes stable.

I'm going to try and setup a sniffer and trigger tomorrow to see if I can capture this crazyness. Currently I'm configured at 100/half duplex at the switch. It is currently working but not sure for how long.

By the way, I've reproduced on two separate 2900 series switches and swapped physical cables to no avail. I also have problems with Windows connectivity so that is 2 operating systems (linux and windows) 3 separate machines, separate physical cables, and separate switches. (And yes they all happily talk amoungst themselves and have for quite some time).

Interesting topic. I was playing around with jumbo frames today in conjunction with ADmitMac and had the Xserve/G4 crash on me while attempting to move a 540MB file from the Win2003 server to the Xserve. I do enjoy what a pleasant screen it pops up, very multilingual...'you must reboot your server, hold down the power button..etc etc.'

Granted I have so many variables that I have too many things to point fingers at, but perhaps this is some sort of useful datapoint.

Config:

Xserve-G4 with 10.3.2 using PCI NIC with mtu=9000
Dell 2650 with Win2003Server with mtu=9000

both are connected to a Foundry FI800 with mtu=9000 configured on their ports.

gsg

Nail down what the variables are and give apple feedback.

It may not be a software issue: you may be experiencing a limitation in the built-in Ethernet's chipset. I don't believe it can adequately handle jumbo frames at present. If you need jumbo frame support, you may need to invest in one of these:
http://www.small-tree.com/mp_cards.html

Re: I have SAME PROBLEM!!!!!
 

I also have this problem and just posted a question about it. have a 450 Mhz G4 I recently installed Panther and I am having trouble getting my ethernet settings to full-duplex. When I do activate the full-duplex my ethernet connection crash and have no access to the internet or anything else HELP!!!!

Same issue..... 100 MB full duplex vs. half duplex
 

I'm having the same issue on my 15" G4 PowerBook - if I force my network settings to 100 MB / half-duplex, everything is fine, but if I set them to 100 MB / full-duplex, I get an autoconfigured IP address (169.254.x.y) rather than my DHCP reserved one (10.x.y.z), and after that I can't get back on the network until I set it back to half duplex or autoconfig and unplug my NIC & plug it back in. I am plugged into a Cisco Catalyst 2900XL switch (all the ports on the switch are forced to 100/full), and I have duplicated the same issue plugged into a 3Com SuperStack II 3300 (don't know the port switch settings on the 3Com, I have to assume they are at auto). A network capture on my DHCP server shows that it never sees any traffic @ all from my laptop when it's in this state.

When I force my NIC to 100/full, although I can't get my DHCP assigned address, I can run 'tcpdump -i en0' and see traffic on the wire, so to me that *implies* layer 2 connectivity.... I'm not sure what's happening here - anyone have any thoughts to add to this, please share. I'm going to try using Appletalk & see how it behaves....

thx :)
monte

xyzzy288 XY have you tried this?
 

on the cisco switch, spanning-tree portfast (assuming your mac is directly connected to the switch).

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/...e.html#1028653

Will explain, but at a high level, the port skips the listening, learning stage and immediately starts to forward packets (to include your DHCP-REQUEST which may be getting hampered.

Only use this option for host ports!!!

Portfast
 

Yes, I have 'spanning-tree portfast' enabled on all switch ports connected to hosts.... I also saw the issue on the 3com switch which does portfast by default - so I don't think it's a switch issue, I think it's related to the NIC driver on the Mac.

slow uploads in panther
 

here's a possibly related experience: we have a bunch of DP 1G gigabit quicksilver macs (all jaguar), and some G5s, and had an export off our linux server configured in netinfo manager so:

name servername:/anexport
type nfs
opts -b
dir /servermount

(i did try some other documented methods of automount, but they either didnt work or hung the machine)

all was good, no lockups, fast up- and downloads etc.
THEN on panther, same setup, downloads are ok, but now uploads about 1/25th the speed of downloads. Brutally slow! Same problem on G5, G4, different switches, different NIC (adaptec, built-in, didn't matter), gigabit and 100Base lines....

as a test, apple-k on the client side, then smb://servername/anexport and uploads are fine and fast again! but this doesn't seem to be possible as an automount in netinfo manager, contrary to documentation. And the smb is strict windows filename conventions, so mac people are not thrilled with not being able to @#$%^/.

haven't tried the full/half-duplex settings, but the smb test tells me it is NOT a NIC setting....

shrugs and @#$%^/
m