[SOLVED] Debian - Networking doesn't work after upgrading RAM to more than 2GB?

evo2 · 04-08-2014, 06:49 PM

Hi,

checking the bug report linked to above it looks like you may need a kernel newer than 3.11.3 or (.4). So as per johnsfire suggestion you could look for a live cd/dvd/usb of a newer distro (probably with a 3.12 kernel) to do a quick check.

Assuming this gets the nic working you'll then need to consider how to upgrade your kernel. I think it would be a serious PITA to try to get a 3.12 kernel running on squeeze (which is supposed to be EOL very soon). IMHO you should upgrade to wheezy (3.2.41 kernel default) and then install a 3.12 or 3.13 backported kernel.

Evo2.

johnsfine · 04-08-2014, 07:19 PM

My best guess from the bug report was that the bug was introduced after squeeze and then fixed later, so I would have guessed squeeze would not have the bug (not by being new enough for the correction, but by being old enough to be before the change that caused the bug).

That guess conflicts with the fact that the code change in the bug is such a perfect fit for the 2GB symptom described in this thread.

So trying to change kernels within squeeze seems like a lot of effort for a real, but far from certain, possibility.

I would think it is less effort to test a very new kernel by live CD/DVD/USB and answer the more general question of whether any driver bug that has since been fixed is responsible for the symptom.

As a software developer, I know that bugs often crop up multiple times. When a piece of code tends toward a kind of error (such as this DMA addressing error), that bug might get fixed then accidentally reintroduced and need to be fixed again. So even if I fully understood that bug report, that doesn't really narrow down which old versions had the symptom.

Once you have done the easier test of whether a newer kernel would solve it, then (assuming it would) I expect evo2 is giving you better advise on how to switch the installed system to a newer kernel.

Mavman · 04-08-2014, 11:58 PM

Thanks for your input guys. I'm not up for a bunch of hard work just to not change my OS. I'll back up my stuff & reinstall when I get the chance.

evo2 · 04-09-2014, 12:43 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mavman

Thanks for your input guys. I'm not up for a bunch of hard work just to not change my OS. I'll back up my stuff & reinstall when I get the chance.

Reinstall? Why do you want to reinstall? What will that achieve?

Evo2.

johnsfine · 04-09-2014, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mavman

I'm not up for a bunch of hard work just to not change my OS. I'll back up my stuff & reinstall when I get the chance.

Remember, the whole idea that this is a driver bug is just my best estimate, not a proven conclusion.

I don't understand why booting a liveCD would be hard work, even if you need to download and burn a .iso first.

Once you know for sure whether the problem would be fixed by a newer kernel, you can think more clearly about the next step.

If you find out that a new kernel would fix the problem, I have no opinion on upgrade vs. reinstall for the next step. But evo2 sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

Mavman · 04-10-2014, 10:54 PM

EDIT: Never mind, I figured out the repositories I'm supposed to be using. I appear to be good. Thanks again for all your help guys!

Posting my working repository for completion & any other n00b like me that needs a hand in the future:

Code:

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main

##############################################################################
Pre-edit:

Hey guys, thanks for the help so far. I've gone and reinstalled. I'm running 8GB RAM, and the networking works now!

...So, it's time for me to come and really humble myself here. It's been quite some time since I've had to mess around with the repositories and I appear to have a hard time downloading/updating packages. Which repositories should I be using?

Here's my sources file:

Code:

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib

I can't find some programs altogether (htop), and other programs have unmet dependencies, but won't install them?

Code:

root@server:/var# apt-get install openjdk-7-jre
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 openjdk-7-jre : Depends: openjdk-7-jre-headless (= 7u25-2.3.10-1~deb7u1) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libasound2 (>= 1.0.16) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libgif4 (>= 4.1.4) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.8.0) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1) but it is not installable
                 Depends: libxtst6 but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: libatk-wrapper-java-jni (>= 0.30.4-0ubuntu2) but it is not installable
                 Recommends: libgnome2-0 but it is not installable
                 Recommends: libgnomevfs2-0 but it is not installable
                 Recommends: libgconf2-4 but it is not installable
                 Recommends: ttf-dejavu-extra but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
root@Maverux:/var# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

With the googling I've done so far, I've tried the following commands in order and then installing packages to no avail:

Code:

apt-get clean
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
dpkg --configure -a