LinuxQuestions.org - Disabled ethernet controller

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Disabled ethernet controller

As I start my computer and boot into debian sid linux, the lights on the lan device connector turn on and the internet connectivity is there right from beginning. But today, I found that it was turned off (the lights on the connecter was off) and ping command gave output: "destination net unreachable". I tried rebooting to the arch linux installed on the same computer but there also it remained off. I rebooted into windows and it reported that the realtek ethernet controller was disabled. I enabled it and subsequently the network got connected and worked properly in linux also.

What would have happened and how could I have corrected the problem in linux itself? Thanks for your help.

Quote:

What would have happened and how could I have corrected the problem in linux itself?

Since the adapter seems to have failed in both OS's, I would bet the problem was hardware related, and not some configuration problem. Things to look at, the ethernet cable is a good place to start. Then the ports on the switch ( router ) or modem it plugs into. Possibly the system itself, although since you didn't mention going into the BIOS to see if the hardware was still there; this is a long shot. Power outages can do some strange things also.

The command to activate an adapter is 'ifconfig'. To activated a deactivated adapter, as root, 'ifconfig eth0 up' would activate the interface called 'eth0'. ifconfig by itself will list all configred interfaces, and display their names.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your comments. I know about ifconfig command, have used it earlier and should have tried it at that time. If I remember correctly, the ifconfig eth0 down command does not lead to LED lights being switched off at the lan connector. I will try it again tomorrow and let you know.

Quote:

the ifconfig eth0 down command does not lead to LED lights being switched off at the lan connector.

Agreed. The light on the lan card is hardware. If that light is out, cables, connectors etc...

When I disable from network in windows, the lights on the connector go out. This would be a sure sign that the network is fully disconnected. Can I accompalish this on linux?

Is this a laptop? If the light goes out, I believe the adapter is powered down. Can you do it in linux? Don't see why not. It would have to be done with ACPI ( Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). I have little experience with it. Some of it is the BIOS on the system, the rest is software in the OS to interface with the BIOS to control the hardware.

It is a regular desktop and not a laptop. What would be commands to disable it thru ACPI or thru BIOS?

As I stated above, I have little experience with ACPI.

BIOS, there are no commands, the BIOS has to support ACPI, look in the doc for the system.

This link may get you started.

-->http://oreilly.com/linux/command-dir...sp?path=a/acpi

The network was working all right all these days. Today, suddenly it stopped working and the LED lights at connector went off. Now the network is not working in any linux install (including live-usb) but works perfectly in windows. I have tried it repeatedly. As soon as linux boots, before the login prompt, the network connector lights go off.

How can I solve this problem? Thanks for your help.

Moderator Response

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <Linux-Hardware> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Open a command prompt, run the command 'ifconfig eth0' and post the results.

Run the command 'lsmod' and post the results.

Run the command 'lspci' and post the results.

These commands will give us some idea of the state of the adapter, the modules loaded, and the hardware itself. We'll go from there.

Here is the output:

Code:

$ lspci 

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ/P/PL Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)

00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)

00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)

00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)

00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 01)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01)

01:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)





$ lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

nls_utf8               12416  1 

udf                    66732  1 

crc_itu_t              12331  1 udf

ppdev                  12651  0 

lp                     12797  0 

binfmt_misc            12813  1 

oss_usb                82459  0 

oss_hdaudio           118224  0 

osscore               459536  2 oss_hdaudio,oss_usb

snd_hda_codec_realtek   142274  1 

snd_hda_intel          21786  2 

snd_hda_codec          63477  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek

snd_hwdep              12943  1 snd_hda_codec

i915                  317379  2 

snd_pcm_oss            36181  0 

snd_mixer_oss          17668  1 snd_pcm_oss

video                  17459  1 i915

drm_kms_helper         22738  1 i915

snd_pcm                53461  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel

iTCO_wdt               16945  0 

drm                   146387  3 drm_kms_helper,i915

snd_page_alloc         12867  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel

i2c_algo_bit           12713  1 i915

snd_timer              22356  1 snd_pcm

iTCO_vendor_support    12632  1 iTCO_wdt

processor              27565  0 

pcspkr                 12515  0 

snd                    42722  12 snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm_oss,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek

parport_pc             22036  1 

parport                31254  3 parport_pc,lp,ppdev

i2c_i801               12670  0 

i2c_core               19116  5 i2c_i801,i2c_algo_bit,drm,drm_kms_helper,i915

evdev                  17225  8 

soundcore              12921  1 snd

thermal_sys            17752  2 processor,video

button                 12817  1 i915

loop                   17810  0 

fuse                   52184  1 

autofs4                22784  2 

ext4                  306912  1 

crc16                  12327  1 ext4

jbd2                   52288  1 ext4

mbcache                12938  1 ext4

microcode              17558  0 

usbhid                 31554  0 

hid                    60152  1 usbhid

sg                     21476  0 

sd_mod                 35425  3 

crc_t10dif             12332  1 sd_mod

sr_mod                 17468  1 

cdrom                  34813  1 sr_mod

floppy                 48087  0 

ata_generic            12439  0 

uhci_hcd               22337  0 

ata_piix               21175  3 

r8169                  41802  0 

mii                    12595  1 r8169

ehci_hcd               35509  0 

libata                125014  2 ata_piix,ata_generic

scsi_mod              135037  4 libata,sr_mod,sd_mod,sg

usbcore               104555  5 ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usbhid,oss_usb

usb_common             12338  1 usbcore

abcde@debian:~$ 





$ ifconfig

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  

          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

          Interrupt:23 Base address:0x8000 



lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)



abcde@debian:~$ 





$ dmesg | grep -i eth

[    1.150668] r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded

[    1.151583] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth0: RTL8110s at 0xe0090000, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, XID 04000000 IRQ 23

[    1.151589] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth0: jumbo features [frames: 7152 bytes, tx checksumming: ok]

[    5.692730] udevd[248]: renamed network interface eth0 to eth1

[    9.761638] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth1: link down

[    9.761655] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth1: link down

[    9.761784] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready

abcde@debian:~$ 





abcde@debian:~$ dmesg | grep -i r8169

[    1.150668] r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.3LK-NAPI loaded

[    1.150730] r8169 0000:01:07.0: (unregistered net_device): not PCI Express

[    1.151583] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth0: RTL8110s at 0xe0090000, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, XID 04000000 IRQ 23

[    1.151589] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth0: jumbo features [frames: 7152 bytes, tx checksumming: ok]

[    9.761638] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth1: link down

[    9.761655] r8169 0000:01:07.0: eth1: link down

abcde@debian:~$

You have the driver r8169.ko loaded. Run the command 'ifconfig eth1 up' and then 'ifconfig eth1' and post the results for both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camorri (Post 4911548)

You have the driver r8169.ko loaded. Run the command 'ifconfig eth1 up' and then 'ifconfig eth1' and post the results for both.

I had tried 'ifconfig eth1 up' but it did not work. I do not remember the exact output but it was as if eth1 was not there or not ready or not setup or not found. I will post the exact output tomorrow.

How did you configure the adapter before?

You might have a look at that, you may have a situation where the adapter was originally named eth0, now its eth1. What ever config you had for eth0 isn't being used for eth1. Try and config eth1, then give it a try.