Howto change network specific settings using ethtool in combination with NetworkManager

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
openSUSE 11
openSUSE 11.1
openSUSE 11.2

Several problems have been identified in the past (see TID7000478, TID3344651) while using network driver / hardware specific options like:

• checksum offload (rx-checksumming,,tx-checksumming)
• segmentation offload (generic segmentation, tcp segmentation)

In order to identify which options are provided and how they have been currently set for you network interfaces run "ethtool -k  [dev]
Example:  "ethtool -k eth0"


In order to change any options run ethtool -K [options] [dev]
Example: "ethtool -K eth0 rx off tx off tso off gso off

The result of running this would look like:


Any ethtool settings are lost as soon as the OS will be rebooted. With the traditional network configuration you can follow the steps documented in TID3344651. Running NetworkManager (most likely the case with Desktop PCs or Notebooks) you can place a shell script into the "/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d" directory. NetworkManager will provides / pass on several paramaters like "ACTION", "INTERFACE", "STATUS"  which can be used with a script called by NetworkManager. "ACTION" basically defines the event (pre-up, up, down, post-down) whereas "INTERFACE" and "STATUS" is pretty much self explaining. In order to turn off any offload settings as soon as "eth0" will run into the up status a simple script (mode 751 / owner: root / group: root)  like the following can be used: