Network Card not loading ? - eth0 does not exist

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

I'm getting the following errors at boot time:

* eth0 does not exist
* ERROR: problem starting needed services
* "netmount" was not started

After much forum and google browsing I concluded that I didn't have support for my NIC in my kernel. So I went and reconfigured my kernel and added support for my specific card: Intel(R) Pro/100 VE Network Connection. After recompiling and reboot I am still getting the same errors.

Any thoughts as to what could cause this? Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks

frenkel · Veteran Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 1034 Location: .nl

Did you compile it as a module? If so you need to add it's name to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

I'm new to this whole thing, so I'm not sure what you mean by module. All I did was go through the kernel setup again and under device drivers select the Intel one that I thought would work for my card and then recompile. Is there some kind of add-on module I need to add? Why did the install pick up the card and now the system wont? Thanks again.

GNUtoo · Veteran Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 1919

tip:
all the reconised card are in :
/proc/net/dev
so:

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

Have you installed coldplug and added it to your runlevels with
rc-update add coldplug boot

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Still having problems....

Checked for interface in /proc/net/dev - only lo exists, so driver must be the problem

I also installed coldplug and added it to the boot runlevel and that didn't work either.

Any other suggestions at this point? Thanks for your help.

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

As I mentioned earlier - my network card is detected fine when I use the install cd to boot. Why would this work and it's not being detected at boot? Is there anyway I can grab the driver used by the install cd and copy it to my boot somewhere? Thanks.

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm really at a loss for what to try next.

There was a net.eth0 file in init.d that wasn't in the boot runlevel, so I added it, but that didn't help.

I'm new at this, so I'm not understanding why the install cd picked up my NIC fine, but the system won't now.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

What are the results of ?
lsmod
ifconfig
cat /etc/resolv.conf

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

lsmod

Module Size Used by (blank)

ifconfig

lo only, no eth0

cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.66.1

i'm sitting behind 2 routers with 192.168.1.1 being the one I'm directly connected to, and 192.168.66.1 being the one above that.

Thank you kindly.

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

Did you compile support for your ethernet directly into the kernel or as a module?
What is your ethernet hardware?
From lsmod it seems that either everything is compiled into the kernel or no support for
your card exists.

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Card is Intel(R) Pro/100 VE -

I 'thought' I compiled it directly into the kernel...

Initially when this didn't work i went back into the kernel config and selected support for intel cards and recompiled the whole thing.

Remember, I'm as my forum profile indicates - I'm still a noob at this. Do I need to add a module for this???

Thanks.

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

Does
/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start
do anything?

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start
*starting eth0
* bringing up eth0
*192.168.1.105
*eth0 does not exist !!

Thanks for all your help davidgurvich! You seem to be the only one that wants to help in this thread :cry:

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

Just found the solution for this:
Went back into kernel config and compiled with module support for my Intel NIC
added e100(module) to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
reboot and eth0 came right up!

Thanks for everyones help.

dsd · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:25 pm Post subject:

sounds like you made a mistake when recompiling your kernel.

when you do this, you need to recompile it, mount /boot, copy over the new kernel image, and upload your bootloader config (unless you overwrote an existing kernel referenced by the bootloader)

you can check that date and time that the currently running kernel was compiled with the "uname -v" command. you can use this as a mental check to see if you are running the kernel you think you are.... it should match the date and time that you added e100 support
_________________
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd

joshight1 · n00b Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 26

That was exactly the case - my being the newbie that I am compiled the kernel with the correct NIC support, but forgot to copy it over to /boot afterwards... thats pretty sad.

Thanks for the help.

Is it in anyway better/worse to use modules or compile directly into the kernel? Thanks.

dsd · Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2005 9:40 pm Post subject:

better to use in-built, then you dont have to worry about loading the module yourself, and you dont have to rely on external tools (i.e. the module loading program) to not be broken
_________________
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd