I have recently upgraded my connection to DSL. I have a D-Link DSL-300G+ external ethernet modem. When I plug it into my network card under Windows 98, everything works fine. I can enter 192.168.0.1 to configure the modem, and winipcfg shows I have a fixed IP address and the gateway as supplied on my details from Bulldog DSL.

I have a clean default install of Slackware 9. I have tried using netconfig to configure networking to use DHCP, but when DCHP tries to get an IP address it just times out. The network card is using the tulip driver and works fine. I can bring eth0 up with my fixed IP address and have had some output from tcpdump which I will post when I switch back (I am having to connect through win98 at the moment). I have tried adding various additions to dhclient.conf and dhcpd.conf I have seen on the net but they do not seem to work. I am really at a loss as to what to do next, just going back for one last try and to get the required information for the experts to peruse. I really would like to get this working as I know Linux works with my modem as there are several people whom I have read of having it working. I have phoned D-Link and Bulldog who both, as I predicted :-( , do not support Linux.

dmesg:
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfdb31, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Using IRQ router default [1106/3177] at 00:11.0
PCI: Hardcoded IRQ 14 for device 00:11.1
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
PCI: Hardcoded IRQ 14 for device 00:11.1
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
Linux Tulip driver version 0.9.15-pre12 (Aug 9, 2002)
tulip0: MII transceiver #1 config 1000 status 782d advertising 01e1.
eth0: Davicom DM9102/DM9102A rev 64 at 0xec00, 00:08:A1:2B:6D:71, IRQ 10.

lsmod:
Module Size Used by Not tainted
usbmouse 2008 0 (unused)
keybdev 1952 0 (unused)
mousedev 4212 1
hid 18596 0 (unused)
usbkbd 3416 0 (unused)
input 3200 0 [usbmouse keybdev mousedev hid usbkbd]
printer 7040 0 (unused)
uhci 24560 0 (unused)
ehci-hcd 14632 0 (unused)
usbcore 58144 1 [usbmouse hid usbkbd printer uhci ehci-hcd]
pcmcia_core 38112 0
ide-scsi 8048 0
tulip 41248 0

dhcp failing miserably:
Attempting to configure eth0 by contacting a DHCP server...
dhcpcd: MAC address = 00:08:a1:2b:6d:71

modem doing its best (tcpdump of eth0 brough up manually):
01:22:13.780080 802.1d config 8000.00:05:5d:92:e2:c1.8002 root 8000.00:05:5d:92:e2:c1 pathcost 0 age 0 max 20 hello 2 fdelay 15
01:22:18.801403 192.168.0.1.snmp > 192.168.0.255.snmptrap: [udp sum ok] { SNMPv1 C=community { Trap(30) E:171.10.30.1 192.168.0.1 coldStart 1048} } (ttl 60,
id 430, len 76)

2 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

What did I miss? I know there are some packet forwarding options in the kernel, but I am pretty sure I checked those, but again its a default Slackware 9 install so I can't see Patrick missing something out there.

Hmmm, I don't understand your setup. Is this 'external ethernet modem' a DSL modem that then connects to another ethernet card in your machine?

AFAIK, most cable/DSL modems have built in ethernet cards but these are only used if you have it set up through USB (a lot of ISPs register the MAC address of the ethernet card and then check that to make sure the people who are connecting are on their network. This may only apply to my cable company in the UK).

What commands are you giving dhcpcd?

Alex

By an external ethernet modem I mean a modem which has no USB connection, just a RJ-45 for ethernet. It plugs straight into my ethernet card. dhcpcd is being run from /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1

I'm assuming since you have windows 98 and know how to use winipcfg that you have checked all the settings there and that they are the same? one of the things that has caught me out in the past (and that my ISP did not tell me about) is the use of a hostname for dhcp. In winipcfg it will say what hostname is being used. Then you use this with /sbin/dhcpcd -h hostname. If that command on its own works then alter the script in the boot up scripts to match this.

If it doesn't, tell us the output. As far as I can tell, the only problem must be with the dhcp since th network card seems to be working hunky dory fashion.

Alex

P.S. Did you have to register the ethernet mac address at any point? have you changed ethernet cards?

I tried using the hostname with dhcpcd. No output. I haven't had to register the ethernet mac, and I only got the connection on Tuesday so the network card hasn't changed. I've trawled about all over the net and I can't find anyone else having the same problem. I am trying to grab a copy of the Slackware 9.1 iso, but lousy win98 won't build an iso that will work...

Can I post a link to this in networking Mr. Moderator?

I have made some progress with this, the output may help some guru diagnose whats going on here as I am a bit lost. I tried

dhcpcd -G 212.158.***.***

where the stars represent my gateway address as found from winipcfg. tcpdump then gives this output:-

10:53:57.602678 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: xid:0x5dbbef03 secs:10 file ""[|bootp] (ttl 64, id 46415, len 576)
10:54:05.692656 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: xid:0x5dbbef03 secs:10 file ""[|bootp] (ttl 64, id 46416, len 576)
10:54:18.837420 212.159.100.108 > 212.158.***.***: icmp: echo request (ttl 121, id 55428, len 92)
10:54:21.872660 0.0.0.0.bootpc > 255.255.255.255.bootps: xid:0x5dbbef03 secs:10 file ""[|bootp] (ttl 64, id 46417, len 576)

again, the stars represent my fixed IP address but dhcpcd still fails and who the heck is 212.159.100.108???

JAMD Linux works fine with my modem. Looks like I am going to have to switch distributions for now :-(

Does anyone have DHCPCD working in Slackware in the UK? Or am I talking to myself here?

Yes I do. I have ntl broadband and run slackware on a regular basis and it works fine.

Alex

Hello Alex,

Can you tell me a little more about your connection then? What sort of modem do you use, did you use the default netconfig setup, does NTL use PPPoE or PPPoA, have you got a static or fixed IP address? As you can see I have tried everything and this getting very frustrating. I really love Slackware but unfortunately I am not a Linux guru so if something doesn't work and I can't get any help with it the only alternative is to try another distro. I am using J.A.M.D. at the moment but I don't want to use a Red Hat base distro, so Gentoo seems to have the most helpful community. I think my only option left is to try that this weekend if I can't get Slack to co-operate by then.

Well I shall try to give you a rundown on my system's internet connection and my ISP's connection.

NTL run a cable service and the modem that they supply (we rent one from them, we didn't buy it) can either be used as a USB modem (in windows) or through an ethernet card. I'm using a generic ne2k pci model ethernet card which uses the module supplied by the kernel. I built this driver into the kernel because I perfer to do that than faff around with modules.

Anyway, Slackware does tend to just work 'out of the box' as it were. However, I know that this is due to several reasons.
[list=1][*]NTL use normal ethernet and DHCP so all I need for my connection are the normal ethernet tools and /sbin/dhcpcd.[*]NTL uses dynamic IP addresses though they usually just renew the lease if you leave it connected. I've noticed that a lot of the time I end up with the same IP address after reboots.[*]I don't really think that NTL cares about a host name to be given via the -h switch (though it used to in the past I think)[/list=1]

If there is anything else you would like to know then just ask.

I tend not to rely on the netconfig tool but that's just because I've got a bit used to altering the slackware config files by hand.

What's more important is what your setup? Do you have to use a fixed IP address? Is it ADSL? Use PPPoE? What ethernet card? Is the relevant module being loaded by the kernel? Can you not connect at all or can you ping IP addresses?

All wires in right? Are all the right modem lights on? (I only ask the last two because they have caught me out before. My cable modem also tells me whether it has found the right frequency on the cable to connect to NTL's servers).

Sorry I cannot be too much use to you. I do not know networking as well as I would like to so haven't been able to give you insight into the output of the commands that you have tried.

I shall add anything more about my setup or possible solutions if i think of any more.

Alex

Thanks for the lengthy reply Alex. As you can see from my post the problem is not the wires or modem. I can connect fine in Win98 and J.A.M.D. Linux. I know everything is working with the physical equipment. If I reboot from Win98 to J.A.M.D. Linux, the connection works fine. Its not an "Andromeda Strain" problem (if you've not seen the film that won't make sense).

My hostname is not important. Its titan in Win98 and in J.A.M.D. I left it as localhost@localdomain, just to see if there was a problem with different host names being used. Nope, and I tried setting my host and domain in Slackware to localhost@localdomain, that didn't work.

Bulldog DSL use PPPoA, however as I have a D-Link DSl 300G+, I believe all this is handled by the modem itself as I set it up via 192.168.0.1 in Win98 and then never had to do anything else to it.

As you can see from my post, the network card is not the problem. Its there in lsmod, and dmesg, and I can bring the NIC up on ifconfig, without a problem. I cannot get anything from the NIC when using dhcpcd OR dhclient. Nothing will ping, not even 192.168.0.1 just to set up the modem. I have a fixed IP address, and I know the IP of my gateway (my modem), and even putting all these settings in manually don't work. I've also tried dhcpcd and dhclient manually with every option I can find, nothing at all. Yes I would agree Slackware normally "just works" but I can safely say this is not one of those times!

I would be happy to subscribe to Slackware to get some support, but only if I can get my modem working!

What happens if you run:
ifdown eth0
ifdown eth0
ifup eth0
dhclient eth0

I don't have ifdown, but I tried the following:-

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 up
dhclient eth0

and then got:-

Listening on Socket /eth0
Sending on Socket /eth0
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
No DHCPOFFERS Received
No working leases in persistent databases - sleeping