x86 livecd network issue ----- solved

auto6485 · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 28

I'm trying to setup my third x86 gentoo box... For some reason I can't get the livecd to connect to my network which is making the install process a pain. I tried both kernels build into the livecd and neither will work. If I try to ping google.com I get unknown host, if I try to ping by ip I get Destination Host Unreachable (which shows up 3 rows per ping attempt). The first kernel "gentoo" doesn't show anything when I do ifconfig (as in no eth0) the second kernel "gentoo -nofb" shows eth0 up. I can do 'ifconfig eth0 up' to have them eth0 in ifconfig off either kernel but neither will connect to the network. they can't get anything using dhcpcd or net-setup. I can manually give eth0 all the valid fields that it would normally need to function but in this case it has no effect on the network. This box previously had windows installed and windows got it's info from the dhcp and worked fine with nothing changed from default factory settings. So I know the server is handing out correctly and that there is no physical media issues.

upon bootup in verbose mode everything seems to load fine (2 green !!) except alsa, which I believe only affects sound. Could be mistaken though...

lspci | grep eth :
00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)

lsmod :
forcedeth (used by 0) --- only thing that even began to look like it dealt with the ethernet

I'm open to any suggestions on what to try. Let me know if there is any other info that might be useful for this.

Thanks in advance

Monkeh · Veteran Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 1656 Location: England

Have you tried a cold boot? (shut the system down, unplug the power, leave it for a few minutes, plug 'er in and boot)

auto6485 · n00b Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 28

I have no clue what the cold boot reset, because I thought it was a software issue, but I did it and it worked. Loaded livecd, got the same message as it was booting as it did before, but right away I can ping outside the network.

strike one up for missing the basics....

thanks Monkeh

Monkeh · Veteran Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 1656 Location: England

The problem was that you had Windows on it

Windows shuts down some NICs in a way forcedeth doesn't like. A cold boot fixes that (the NIC is still powered when you shut down your system, pull the plug for a minute, the caps drain, and it's reset).

Please mark the topic solved