eth0: Device not found!!!!
 

Hi Guys,

I just got a nice rack server to play with (Compaq TaskSmart W2200), I did a fresh install of Debian 3.0 r2 (Debian was already running on it before I wiped it) but to my horror it is not finding the network card!

ifconfig eth0

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

I had to use the boot option of bf24 would that have had an influence? Any help would be much appreciated.

PDD

It just means the correct kernel module hasn't been loaded..

In a terminal do dmesg and look for a line which describes an ethernet module loading..eg
"8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xd0000f00, 00:90:0b:04:47:9d, IRQ 11
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D' "..

If there's nothing..
Do lspci and look for the name of the ethernet card(s)..
Junp up on Google and do a search for the card name and the word module to see what module name is required..
Have a look in /lib/modules/2.4.18-bf2.4/kernel/drivers/net/ for the available modules..
Then do modprobe modulename..
If there isn't a module available, try loading the module ne which is a generic NE2000 card module.
and dmesg again to see if it found the card..

If dmesg shows a module has loaded and either the card has been recognised or not,
do lsmod to see if there is a matching name..
remove the module with rmmod modulename and try the Google search results to see if there is a better one..

Once you have a better one, edit /etc/modutils/aliases and make sure there is an alias line with a correct module for eth0, eg
alias eth0 8139too or whatever module works..
then do update-modules to rewrite /etc/modules.conf

If you have more than 1 ethernet card, look at dmesg to see what eth~ number they are being given and make the alias for all cards correct..

eth0: Device not found
 

Hi Peter,

Thank you so much for replying and in such an authoritive manner, it can be hard to come across on the forums. I did everything you told me:

dmesg found no mention of the card

What does this command do? Does it show what comes up during boot up?

I identified the cards and Intel Corporation 82257 Ethernet Pro100 (rev 8) cards, which is quite strange as according to reviews on this site it is one of the most compaitable cards out there.

Anywho I found out that the module name is eepro100 and when I did a modprobe eepro100 it came back all passing.

I did dmesg again and it found the card (both of them)

lsmod showed a matching module name eepro100 but showed it unused.

I put the following entry into /etc/modutils/aliases:

alias eth0 eepro100

Saved it and did update-modules.

Then ran /etc/init.d/networking restart

I also did a reboot just in case.

I now have a lingering problem of not having the ability to use apt-get as during installation it couldnt get a list of sources as it couldnt use FTP or HTTP. How can I re-initialise apt-get so that it tries to get sources?

Once again thanks a million Peter.

PDD

Choose from these for the /etc/apt/sources.list file..

look at man sources.list..
or at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/ap...basico.en.html

ENJOY

eth0: Device not found
 

Hi Peter,

Once again thanks a million but alas another glitch, It seems that my network card had not been configured:

/etc/network/interface

only has loopback information in it. I will be connecting via DHCP, is there a little utility to configure it like there is usually during the installation process. It didnt pick up the NIC during installation and hence didnt run it.

PDD

eth0: Device not found
 

Hi Peter,

I got DHCP working! WWWWWWWWWWoooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooo

dhclient eth0 did the trick. The problem is with the apt-get source listings now. I used the ones from the site that you sent me and just errors are coming up. I put the following into /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Still working on it, I will keep you up to date and let you know if i find a resolution. i will post i here so that others may benefit from it. Ive noticed that in these forums lots of n00bs dont post what got the problem resolved. Very frustrating!

PDD

What kind of errors? Need to know that to know where to go next.. ;)