Install was a blast! It all works except... my NIC! :(

Googolplex · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 38

Well the install was lots of fun, though lengthy. The cd had no trouble identifying and using my NIC. Once I got it booting of the hard drive though, eth0 was just not there!

Now, when I got to the kernal configuration, I pretty much went with what was selected by default. I only changed what was suggested in the installation documentation for specific things, like my cdr drive. Im thinking I must have needed to add support for my NIC there somewhere. Is this correct? Is it still possible to add this support without recompiling? How SHOULD I go about recompiling the kernel?

I have never used a distro before that didn't automatically detect hardware successfully, so Im afraid I have a huge gapping hole in my Linux knowledge there. Id appreciate all the info that can be spared.

Thanks!

Some info that might be of use:
----------------
- Used the x86 installation guide on gentoo.org
- Have a home built Athalon 700mhz with 128MB ram, 40GB HD, mostly a personal use server.
- The NIC in question is a Netgear FA310TX REV-D2

Esben · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 8:25 am Post subject:

Yes, you need to compile support for your NIC card; either as a moduel or as compiled-in.

There's at least three approaches to finding the right bit to compile:

1) search google for your card,
2) compile every card as a module and see what works
3) Do lsmod from the install cd. Note the modules and search for the options to compile these modules.
_________________
regards, Esben
True trade is honest, but not merciful. Politics is dishonest, no matter how merciful... and war is neither honest nor merciful.... therefore, choose trade above politics, but politics above war.

StuBear

Supermule · Guru Joined: 05 Mar 2003 Posts: 510 Location: /denmark/fyn

GurliGebis · Retired Dev Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 509

You might have forgotten to do this while installing:

rc-update add net.eth0 default

That's what happend to me the first time I installed gentoo :oops:

_________________
Queen Rocks.

StuBear · Last edited by StuBear on Thu May 29, 2003 10:36 am; edited 1 time in total

edited: removed badly formatted quote

StuBear

Supermule · Guru Joined: 05 Mar 2003 Posts: 510 Location: /denmark/fyn

schroder · n00b Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 15

I am having the same issue. I have tried loading it as a module and also compiling it into the kernel and still no go. Here is what I did just last night.

cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig

In menuconfig I set 3c509 network device as a module "M"
exited and saved

I then to check did

ls /lib/modules/'uname -r'/kernel/drivers/net
it listed
3c509.o

I then did
make dep
make modules
make modules_install

then

nano /etc/modules.autoload
added 3c509 to the modules.autoload file
exited and saved

I then did
modprobe -l 3c*
it listed 3c509.o
I then did modprobe 3c509.o

I got an error that said invalid module or module not found!!!

So then I try this:

cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
select 3c509 as "*"
exit and save

make dep && make clean bzImage modules modules_install

cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot

then rebooted

still comes up saying it couldn't start eth0
and netmount couldn't start..

HRMMM I Know I'm doing something wrong... could someone please help

system stats *** Athalon t-bird 1.4, 512 mb ddr 2100, 60 gb hd
boots to gentoo just fine just eth0 won't load
eth0 is a 3com 3c509 etherlink III PCI
there is no on-board nic

cggiriraj · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 May 2003 Posts: 83

Hi all,
I join this group! I also have same problems.... Network card fails beautifully....Eth0 not getting up! reinstalled with all cnofiguration ...Hmm lady luck seems very annoyed... perhaps a beer makes all in way...

Back tommmorow!
Giri

Esben · Posted: Fri May 30, 2003 2:27 pm Post subject:

If the install CD detects your ethernet card, try to do "lsmod" from the install CD. That should list the modules the install CD uses to make it work.
_________________
regards, Esben
True trade is honest, but not merciful. Politics is dishonest, no matter how merciful... and war is neither honest nor merciful.... therefore, choose trade above politics, but politics above war.

schroder · n00b Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 15

Esben,
Thanks! This should help. In the installation instructions they should include a step before the make menuconfig that has them lsmod so that we know what we need to chose.
That probably could have saved a lot of people grief with incorrect processor selections, NIC probs, etc...

Googolplex · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 38

Wow! Thanks everyone. I managed to discover I use the tulip driver. compile it as a module and get it loading on boot. Now eth0 works! But not perfectly yet.

I seem to be stuck in my subnet! I can ping my router, but I cannot ping out to any IP or domain past my router. My other computers all can fine. I even setup the DMZ to point to my gentoo machine, but it still cannot get past the router. This is what I get:

PING 216.109.125.68 (216.109.125.6

: 56 octets data
sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: sent 64 octets to 216.109.125.68, ret=-1
sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: sent 64 octets to 216.109.125.68, ret=-1

...etc.

Any ideas? Thanks again!

dannym · n00b Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Posts: 13 Location: Austria

schroder: modprobe 3c509 , remove the ".o"

Googolplex: route add default gw your_router_ip

Googolplex · n00b Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 38

OMG! Gateway! I feel dumb. Thanks so much! I finally have a sufficiently working system that I can get things working the way I want.

At0mic · n00b Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 43

schroder, your problem is that modprobe doesn't take the whole driver file name (ex. driver.o), it takes it without the file extension (ex. driver)

That would fix your problems for compiling it as a module.

schroder · n00b Joined: 30 May 2003 Posts: 15

Thanks guys for all your help...
Actually i removed the .o and didn't work. Upon doing an lsmod when booted to the cd i found that i was wrong and I use the 3c59x module. So I commented out the 3c509, loaded teh 3c59x as a module and boom i'm up. Now if I could just get the nivida drivers to work. when I try to emerge it it says the MTRR support is not enabled. I know it is. and I know i recompiled, and I know I copied the new bzImage to the boot. I guess just another challenge ont the road to glory