watchdog and network connection problems

"i was getting the red light when i powered on the board with debian 12"

This really does not make any sense as there is nothing the Ethernet/host connection
can do to illuminate a red LED on the 7I96S other than by running LinuxCNC.
(exiting a LinuxCNC run _will_ result in a red /INIT LED being illuminated)

Can you run this command:

sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10
 hit control C
then run it again
sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10
wait about a minute and hit control C again
 and copy paste the results here
 

i will run sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10, when i am in front of it again tomorrow. i have run that command before and let it run for several minutes. the ping times don't seem too bad with ping 10.10.10.10 and ping 10.10.10.1. > ~ .100 and ~.037 respectively. i'll get an accurate measurement in the morning.

what would be the drawbacks of reflashing the mesa 7i96s? a clean slate if you know what i mean. but i don't want to do something for no reason. if you think a re-flash would do anything or not.............

the reason i am questioning the mesa hardware is, i have an intel and an amd machine and i get very similar errors with both machines. im currently running on the dell vostro 270 i5. an extra ethernet card in both machines conflict and it is unable to start. but not right away. on either machine. if i install the OS with the card in, it conflicts. i have to install debian without the additional card in to get linuxcnc installed, run pncconf, setup linuxcnc, and then install additional ethernet card and it will run for a little while, but after i shut it off, it won't start back up inless i reinstall the OS.

at this point, even with that extra card out, i can go through pncconf and test each axis, but when in qtdragon, i get a watchdog error in the gui and the red light on the mesa 7i96s comes on and it makes me exit.
i

I don't think re-flashing the card will do anything useful

You should never have to re-install the OS to fix a networking issue

Try the ping test and I will have a list of other tests to try and lock
down what is happening.

10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
572314 packets transmitted, 572232 received, +33 errors, 0.0143278% packet loss, time 582100ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.051/0.059/7.494/0.045 ms, pipe 12
mill@4axis:~$ sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10
PING 10.10.10.10 (10.10.10.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
104114 packets transmitted, 104114 received, 0% packet loss, time 104127ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.052/0.060/7.454/0.033 ms

actually, this works in axis. its just qtdragon im having trouble with. thank you for all the help. as long as i have a working system, i can figure it out from here. thanks again.

i would like to install another ethernet card but i want to see how this is going to be for reliability over the next few days and if i don't have any issues, i will see about getting another port in there. it seems those realtek devices are in everything. only time will tell.

to recap; i was having network issues with debian 12 and network connection issues with Kernel up to 6.3. when i installed debian "13" trixie, the system seems to be working for now. .....