Summary
After applying a recent OTA update (end of November 2025), the Ethernet connection on my NVIDIA DGX Spark became unstable:
-
Ethernet link comes up normally
-
Works for a few minutes
-
Then traffic silently stalls or packets drop
-
NetworkManager retries repeatedly
-
SSH and NVIDIA Sync disconnect
A reboot temporarily restores connectivity, but the issue reliably returns after a short time.
The same hardware and setup worked without issues for weeks before this update.
Setup
-
Device: NVIDIA DGX Spark
-
Connection: Direct PC ↔ Spark via Ethernet (no router, no switch)
-
NIC:
enP7s7 -
Use case: SSH access, NVIDIA Sync, development workloads
Software Versions
cat /etc/dgx-release
uname -r
nmcli --version
DGX Release:
DGX_NAME="DGX Spark"
DGX_PRETTY_NAME="NVIDIA DGX Spark"
DGX_SWBUILD_VERSION="7.2.3"
DGX_SWBUILD_DATE="2025-09-10"
DGX_COMMIT_ID="833b4a7"
OTA Update Applied:
DGX_OTA_VERSION="7.3.1"
DGX_OTA_DATE="Sun Nov 30 16:46:02 CST 2025"
Kernel:
6.14.0-1015-nvidia
NetworkManager:
nmcli tool, version 1.46.0
Symptoms
-
Ethernet reports connected, but traffic freezes after a few minutes
-
Ping starts dropping or stalls completely
-
NetworkManager logs show repeated activation failures
-
NVIDIA Sync cannot reliably discover or maintain a connection to the Spark
Notable observation:
SSH sometimes continued to work via IPv6 link-local (fe80::/64), even when IPv4 connectivity appeared broken. This suggested a lower-layer issue, not a routing or application-level problem.
Root Cause (Very Likely)
Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) was enabled on the Spark Ethernet interface.
After the OTA update (7.3.1), EEE appears to enter low-power states too aggressively, leading to:
-
Link instability
-
Packet loss
-
Silent connection freezes after a short time
This strongly points to a PHY / power-management regression, not a DHCP or NetworkManager misconfiguration.
How to Verify
Check EEE status:
ethtool --show-eee enP7s7
In my case:
EEE status: active
Immediate Fix (Test)
Disable EEE manually:
sudo ethtool --set-eee enP7s7 eee off
Result:
-
Ethernet connection becomes stable
-
No further freezes or packet loss
-
SSH remains reliable
-
NVIDIA Sync works again
Permanent Fix (Survives Reboot)
Disable EEE on every boot using systemd:
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/disable-eee.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Disable EEE on Ethernet
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/sbin/ethtool --set-eee enP7s7 eee off
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable disable-eee.service
After reboot, verify:
ethtool --show-eee enP7s7
EEE should remain disabled and Ethernet stability is restored.
Notes
- Issue occurs regardless of DHCP vs static IP
- Reproducible on direct PC ↔ Spark connections
- IPv6 link-local may continue working and mask the underlying issue
- Disabling EEE fully resolves the problem in this environment
Conclusion
If your DGX Spark Ethernet:
- works initially
- then freezes or drops connections after a few minutes
- especially after OTA update 7.3.1
Check and disable Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) first. This fully resolved the issue in my case.