bge0 watchdog timeout -- resetting

[markjd]

I have FreeNAS on a USB flash drive which I use to boot an old Dell Optiplex 740
(with add-on NIC card)

When trying go boot, FreeNAS just keeps going through a cycle of displaying the following errors:

bge0 watchdog timeout -- resetting
DHCPDISCOVER on bge0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interrupt (various interrupt numbers)

My only real experience is with Windows, so I'm new to FreeNAS/Unix/Linux
Some other help forums online suggest adding either of the following lines to the config file:
hw.bge.allow_asf="0"
or
hw.pci.enable_msi="0"

but I don't know how to do this? (I don't have a Linux or Unix system). Is there a way to do it in Windows?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[markjd]

I should also mention that while it's cycling through this constant 'loop', the Router lists freenas as having been assigned an IP address....

 

[cyberjock]

Sounds to me like you have a bad NIC or an incompatible card.

 

[markjd]

I have tried 2 cards. The on-board NIC, and the additional card in the pc. I might try another one instead and see if the problem is that simple ;-)

 

[cyberjock]

Do you have an Intel NIC lying around? Those are the most supported and best performing of all.

Also, if you have an onboard NIC that is bad it can cause problems without being disabled in the BIOS(assuming you can disable it).

 

[markjd]

Problem solved!! Thank a million!!

Put in a Realtek RTL8139D and it worked straight away.

The original NIC which didn't work is a Broadcom NIC and woyuldn't you know it, so is the add-on card!

Anyway, it works now. Thanks for your help.

 

[cyberjock]

Realteks can do funny things in FreeNAS. I'd recommend you get an Intel NIC for $20 from ebay/newegg/whatever. The CTs work very well.

 

[markjd]

Yeah, I will do that. Just experimental at the moment but I'm thinking of using it full-time in our small office. Just got it running and now I will get more RAM and a large SATA drive for storage.

Just using it as a file-server for PC images and backups. Maybe shared documents.

Thanks again.