How to: kernel NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out

Sometimes network connection on Linux goes down with short message in syslog saying: "[localhost kernel] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out" (or similar).

Some network-heavy programs or the buggy driver/kernel handling of traffic could cause this error. Azureus (torrents downloading software), for example, is often guilty for this.

Solution is to offload the network card - run the following command in the console:
ethtool -K eth0 tso off

If you need to turn on the offloading for another ethernet device, just change eth0 to eth1 or so...

It works like a charm and Azureus can download lot of torrents at once without stopping the network connection.

:: 31.03.2008 :: section English :: submitted by Daniel :: [*] ::

Discussion:

ethtool -s eth4 speed 100 autoneg off

wrote anonymous on 05.12.2009 at 19:20:01