Packet Size

Packet Size

A bad Ethernet controller somewhere on the network can cause problems by sending packets that are too large or too small, causing errors like this:

unix: <ethernet_device>: packet too small (length = <packet size>)
unix: <ethernet_device>: packet too large (length = <packet size>)

The Ethernet controller received a packet that was smaller than the minimum packet size or larger than the maximum packet size allowed by Ethernet. This problem is caused by another machine with a bad Ethernet controller or transceiver. Some recommendations are

Check other machines on the network for bad Ethernet controllers.
Check other machines on the network for bad transceivers. I f you suspect a bad transceiver, you can try swapping in a different one that works on another system.
Check to see if removing a certain machine from the network makes the problem change or disappear.

For more information on this error, see the reference page for ethernet(7).