[solved] same old dhcp failure?

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

Ok, I have been reading for the past few days that dhcp and netowrking in general is being screwed up by apic and acpi, at least with newer kernels. Let me start by saying that no combination of appending things to my kernel startup is making a difference. So I'm going to explain my saga from the beginning now, in hopes that I don't get asked too many questions that I will have already answered.

The Concept: Update a working gentoo-sources (2.4.22-gentoo-r5) system to a dev-source (2.6.4-rc2) system.

Some History: I have, on this very system with this same hardware, mobo, nics, etc upgraded from Slackware using 2.4 and 2.5 kernels to 2.6.0 and 2.6.1, and maybe 2.6.2 kernels with success. I have already had Slackware running dhcp and networking just fine using kernel.org's 2.6.1 kernel, at least.

WhaHappened: the gist of the story is, after emerging dev-sources, and upgrading kernel, and getting a few little issues out of the way (new framebuffer options), I have no ethernet (dhcp on RTL8139C nic to cable modem) and apparrently no local net (static ip on Tulip NIC, using dnsmasq package to supply masquerading service to a win2k laptop). All of this is currently still working with 2.4.22 kernel, which I had the good sense to keep around.

What has been done: Here's a long list of how my last week or so has been spent. Note, most of the time was spent reading how to append noapic and acpi=off to kernel initialization lines in grub.

now, after that failed, with both options appended, and each option appended separately, I tried something a little more radical. I thought... why not slim down this kernel so all I am testing for is ethernet ability? So, I took the basic approach to kernel builds, chopped out sound, usb, graphics support beyond the basic framebuffer stuff to support vga=792 on the kernel line!, and everything I could that didn't directly concern networking. I took out kernel support for the tulip nic, leaving just the rtl8139 compiled in the kernel. I took out all scsi support. I left in the basics to support devfs, shmfs, and so forth. I axed all the iptables/ipchains stuff. I have no apm support or acpi support compiled in the kernel. I unmarked the support for local apics and so forth. I even took out support for the cdroms and windoze filesystems! Further, I took out support for modules, and left the basics all compiled in, so no module loading to worry about. So, on this hacked down kernel config, which I would be happy to list in its entirety, I tried again to get something going. Nothing. Kernel boots fine, still hangs and then gives up gracefully (failed to bring up eth0) on bringing up eth0, which it does detect and properly assign drivers to, and which I can bring up with ifconfig manually, although the connection does not work that way either, even with using last known good ip numbers from the cable modem. dhcpcd command hangs and finally quits.

So, I then thought, well, I'd had a working slack installation with dhcp working fine in kernel 2.6.x. So, I went over to kernel.org and downloaded some old kernels. I used similiarly bare-bones kernel profiles to compile a 2.6.0, 2.6.1, 2.6.2, and 2.6.3 original kernel. No luck there either. I figured going back to 2.6.0 might get behind some of the problems with broken apic and acpi, as it was not reported much until around kernel 2.6.2 or 3, I think. So, I am now trying unsuccessfully to get a 2.6.0 bare bones kernel to simply bring up an ethernet connection on a system that works fine with 2.4.22. any suggestions as to where I went wrong? is there something I might need to remerge to get things sorted right? Is there a way I can remerge it without destroying functionality on the working 2.4.22 kernel? I did the obvious and tried remerging dhcpcd (currently version 1.3.22_p4-r3)

UPDATE: scrapping work on 2.6.0 kernel in favor of actually getting 2.6.4-rc2 gentoo dev kernel to work, as you all are likely more familiar with this kernel, and to escape problems from not having any unknown gentoo patchwork to the 2.6.4-rc2 kernel.

Here's some relevant? system hardware info:
- Soyo KT333 Dragon Lite Mobo, VIA VT83xx/VT82Cxx chipset
- AMD Athlon 1800+ processor
- eth0: Realtek RTL-8139
- eth1: Linksys NC100 using standard Tulip driver

and using all current gentoo software, gcc, libs, etc.

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

lspci -v entry for card:

buser · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:19 am Post subject:

If i read your post correctly (which i only scanned briefly) you are using the Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
ethernet card. If I am correct you dont have the module for that card compiled into your kernel. I would recommend using the gentoo-dev-sources from portage. I tried development-sources and had a lot of problems. Then you need to enable the natsemi module. Yours says "# CONFIG_NATSEMI is not set." Also make sure that it is also in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 like so

buser · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:22 am Post subject:

oh btw, my machine uses apic and acpi with no problem on a uniprocessor athlon t-bird[/code]

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

My nic loads under 8139too module, and that code is compiled into the kernel. I tried the 8139cp module (for 8139 C+) and it failed to work, so I must assume without actually ripping things apart that the chip is either 8139 or 8139C.

off to find that nat option.
National Semiconductor DP8381x series PCI Ethernet support?

ok, whatever you say.

>>esp

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

enambling NATSEMI had no effect. I'm going to get the gentoo-dev-sources as suggested and try going at it that way.

>>esp

buser · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:37 pm Post subject:

sorry natsemi didnt work :cry:

Best of luck with gentoo-dev-sources. Keep us updated

edit: you make also want to try loading the livecd if you have it and use the lsmod command to see what modules it is loading for your net cards. I also found this link: http://64.4.48.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=e8adf6bb06e6e964f4a9ac3e2ffe92c8&lat=1078943776&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fforums%2egentoo%2eorg%2fviewtopic%2ephp%3fp%3d942493%23942493

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

you linked me to a hotmail email message! hah! oh well.

>>esp

buser · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:58 pm Post subject:

Haha oh no! Sorry about that! The link that I meant to send is http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=482

I obviously had the wrong module earlier. Sorry

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

ok, trying with gentoo dev sources, and no luck. same issue. no real change.

but, i think i'm on to something....

I might have played a little switcheroo with eth0/eth1

back to the kernel---

>>esp

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

Well, I have figured out why it wasn't working. the new kernel recognizes my nics in the opposite order as the old kernel. So....

under kernel 2.4.22-gentoo-r5:

esp · n00b Joined: 09 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: WA, USA

I've got 2.6.3-gentoo-r2 up and running with full networking. I took the brutal route and just rewrote the networking scripts to reflect the swap of eth0 and eth1. A little tweaking with the firewall scripts and kernel modules, and everything's up. I might fight back and try to get the 2.4.22-gentoo-r5 kernel to reverse the way it sees network devices, so that it will still be a usable kernel, but for now, 2.6.3-gentoo-r2 is good enough that I can run with it.

It seems odd that there isn't much of a separate area for kernel questions here at the discussion forums. I'd practically live there, likely.

>>esp