eth0 appears ok, but cannot ping anything other than itself

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

kernel: 2.6.12-gentoo-r6
ethernet: tulip based (driver compiled into the kernel, not as a module)

I've been trying to use my PowerBook 3400 as a router/bridge to get internet access to computers that do not have wireless NICs and cannot reach my Belkin router with an ethernet cable. This worked before when I was running a different distro with a 2.4 kernel, so I know it's possible. I also know that ethernet once worked on this machine, because I used it when I emerged the HostAP drivers right after installing Gentoo.

I did read that people were having issue with kernels 2.6.10 and newer if they had tulip based ethernet. While I did have problems with ethernet and the kernel modules on the 2005.1 disk, the problem seemed to be fixed when I was booted from my new install (same kernel version). My guess is that compiling the tulip driver into the kernel fixed whatever the problem was.

For some reason, when I try to ping another computer on my network, I get the "host unreachable" message. I can use my ethernet interface to ping itself, but for some reason I cannot ping any other machine on my network with it. Wireless is working fine, I'm even using the computer with the ethernet issue to post.

shuuhen · n00b Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 49

Man, I feel like a newbie now. I completely forgot to test components like my ethernet hub. :oops:

For some reason it wasn't working. Sorry if I wasted anyone's time.

EDIT - kernel issue. I've been able to switch back to the components that didn't seem to work. dmesg sometimes tells me that there was a DMA timeout issue. Other times I get kernel panics for connecting (or disconnecting) an ethernet cable.