The ethtool command is slated to be the replacement for mii-tool in the near future and tends to be supported by newer NIC cards.
The command provides the status of the interface you provide as its argument. Here we see interface eth0 not doing autonegotiation and set to a speed of 100 Mbps, full duplex. A list of supported modes is also provided at the top of the output.
[root@bigboy tmp]# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: No
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: off
Supports Wake-on: g
Wake-on: g
Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
Link detected: yes
[root@bigboy tmp]#
Setting Your NIC's Speed Parameters with ethtool
Unlike mii-tool, ethtool settings can be permanently set as part of the interface's configuration script with the ETHTOOL_OPTS variable. In our next example, the settings will be set to 100 Mbps, full duplex with no chance for auto-negotiation on the next reboot:
#
# File: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
#
DEVICE=eth0
IPADDR=192.168.1.100
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 100 duplex full autoneg off"
You can test the application of these parameters by shutting down the interface and activating it again with the ifup and ifdown commands. These settings can also be changed from the command line using the -s switch followed by the interface name and its desired configuration parameters.
[root@bigboy tmp]# ethtool -s eth1 speed 100 duplex full autoneg off
[root@bigboy tmp]#
The Linux man pages give more details on other ethtool options, but you can get a quick guide by just entering the ethtool command alone, which provides a quicker summary.
[root@bigboy tmp]# ethtool
...
...
ethtool -s DEVNAME \
[ speed 10|100|1000 ] \
[ duplex half|full ] \
[ port tp|aui|bnc|mii|fibre ] \
...
...
[root@bigboy tmp]#
A Note About Duplex Settings
By default, Linux NICs negotiate their speed and duplex settings with the switch. This is done by exchanging electronic signals called Fast Link Pulses (FLP). When the speed and duplex are forced to a particular setting the FLPs are not sent. When a NIC is in auto-negotiation mode and detects a healthy, viable link but receives no FLPs, it errs on the side of caution and sets its duplex to half-duplex and sometimes it will also set its speed to the lowest configurable value. It is therefore possible to force a switch port to 100 Mbps full duplex, but have the auto-negotiating server NIC set itself to 100Mbps half-duplex which will result in errors. The same is true for the switch if the switch port is set to auto-negotiate and server NIC is set to 100 Mbps full duplex. It is best to either force both the switch port and server NIC to either auto-negotiate or the same forced speed and duplex values.
