Nic

Casket · 07-26-2005, 10:31 AM

After some troubles with getting on the network i have come to realise that i may need to install my NIC driver (some sites say yes, others say that the module comes pre-loaded into the 2.4.x kernel).

I have a couple of questions. For future reference, i am running a RealTek RT8139 (Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC) and Slackware 10.1

realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?series=16&Software=True

This contains all the drivers accross the various platforms. Noticibly there is a Linux Driver for Redhat 7.2/7.3/8.0/9.0 Kernel 2.4.x.

There is also drivers for Slack 8 Kernel 2.2.19 and 2.4.5.

Is it possible to use the Redhat drivers on the Slack box and if so, would it be reccomended because of the fact it states 2.4.x and Slack states 2.4.5.

Now to the next question. The .zip(?) file contains 3 subfiles. They are

Readme.txt
MakeFile
8139too.c (the driver)

Readme.txt states

Code:

This program can be compiled using the attached Makefile.
  Please remember to SPECIFY "NEW_INCLUDE_PATH" in Makefile according to your linux environment.
  The object file named 8139too.o should be moved to the directory 
  /lib/modules/<linux-version>/kernel/drivers/net/
  The driver could be brought up by the following steps:
	'insmod 8139too'
	'ifconfig eth0 up'

Makefile consists of:

Code:

# Makefile for a basic kernel module

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# This flag specifies access type to operation register on PCI ethernet chips.
# If you apply 8139/8139CP ethernet controller via cardbus interface on linux distribution Red Hat 7.3
# please turn on this macro.
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#RTL_MEM_ACCESS = USE_IO_OPS
RTL_MEM_ACCESS = USE_MEM_OPS


# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Please specify the include path according to your kernel.
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW_INCLUDE_PATH = /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# GNU C compiler and its flags
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CC=gcc
MODCFLAGS := -O6 -Wall -DCONFIG_KERNELD -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -DLINUX -D${RTL_MEM_ACCESS}



all: 8139too

8139too:	8139too.c /usr/include/linux/version.h
		$(CC) $(MODCFLAGS) -I$(NEW_INCLUDE_PATH) -c 8139too.c -o $@.o

I am new to linux so my question is, what do i now do with this? All files are accesible in slack, but i have no idea what to do. I tried running ./Makefile but it sais permission denied (i was root).

Thanks

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 10:56 AM

While not a great NIC, the RealTek RTL8139 chipset is supported
well in Slackware. It will be detected when you install Slack, and you
should see it by issuing "lsmod" ... there is no need to compile a new
driver for this NIC.

What problems are you having "getting on the network" that make
you think you need a new driver for that NIC?

Please post the output of "dmesg | grep -i realtek" here for us.

Casket · 07-26-2005, 11:13 AM

Lsmod returns:

pcmcia_core
ntfs
ide-scsi
agpgart

dmesg | grep -i realtek returns:

nothing.

This would be a firm indication would it not that my NIC is not being recognised.

And the problems of "getting on the network" refer to getting on my LAN and WAN (internet), and the reason i may think i may need to install the driver is because under ifconfig i cannot see the NIC... and ive ran out of clues as to why this aint working.

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 11:25 AM

If your NIC is even detected by your board, you'll see it in "/sbin/lspci"

Code:

mingdao@paul:~$ /sbin/lspci
02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

If it's there, uncomment it in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules about line 422 to use it.

Code:

# RealTek 8129/8139 (not 8019/8029!) support:  <-- do nothing to this line 
#/sbin/modprobe 8139too  <-- remove the # in front of this (uncomment)

Then either manually load it by issuing "modprobe 8139too" as root, or
reboot and let Slack load it.

You are right ... it's not there now.

Casket · 07-26-2005, 11:44 AM

Now we are getting somewhere.

After doing what you said...:

lsmod returns:

8139too
mii [8139too]
crc32 [8139too]

dmesg returns RealTek on eth0

So oh wise one, what is our next step?

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 11:48 AM

I'm going to bed since it's almost one in the morning here in China.
Try some of those things in the other thread, since now we got us a NIC. ;)

Casket · 07-26-2005, 11:49 AM

Thanks

Your a pussy though, its 3 am here and im still battling on :P

Ill attempt to do the other steps and see how it goes

Casket · 07-26-2005, 12:24 PM

w00t!

Its finally working!

I set netconfig up via DHCP and was straight away able to ping my router and login through the web interface, but i couldnt get onto the internet. So i removed the search () in /etc/resolv.conf and added in my routers IP, my IP and the subnet and BOOM.

Thanks Chinaman, ill buy you a beer some time.

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 04:01 PM

You're most welcome! Sorry we didn't get here in the other thread.

No beer drinking here, but I could go for a Starbuck's French Roast!

And now ... drum roll ... Welcome to Slackware!

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 04:16 PM

Oh, btw ... the reason your NIC wasn't loading is because you're passing that nohotplug option at boot. The 8139too module has been in Slackware forever, and would load simply by booting with hotplug enabled ...

On an unrelated matter (or is it) ... when you want to work on that sound problem?

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Casket
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

w00t!

Its finally working!

I set netconfig up via DHCP and was straight away able to ping my router and login through the web interface, but i couldnt get onto the internet. So i removed the search () in /etc/resolv.conf and added in my routers IP, my IP and the subnet and BOOM.

Thanks Chinaman, ill buy you a beer some time.

I just can't get away from this thread ... actually, I'm thinking slowly after 4 hours sleep ...

If you issue "dig www.google.com" and then dig some other places (perhaps "dig slackwarebox.homeip.net:88/"), you'll soon find out which "nameserver" in your /etc/resolv.conf is working, and which one's aren't. Then, since you can only have 3 by default, you can replace any that don't dig with one's that do dig.

Dig it?

Where are you located only 2 time zones from me here in Sheep Gut Village?

Casket · 07-26-2005, 07:44 PM

I dig it

And i actually though that may have been the case, but for some reason my system just hangs on that kernel module at boot

And i would love to get that problem fixed asap :P

And im over here in Sydney Austalia

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 07:55 PM

If you can determine which soundchip you have (/sbin/lspci) and then look through your kernel .config file (less /usr/src/linux/.config) for the one for your modem, you can add it to /etc/hotplug/blacklist and then boot with hotplug and you should be good to go ...

Casket · 07-26-2005, 08:02 PM

I dont know what you mean by look through the config for the one for your modem?

Please elaborate

Also, when you mean boot with hotplug do you mean not passing the `nohotplug` to the kernel? If so.. that will hang the system..

Bruce Hill · 07-26-2005, 09:11 PM

About hotplug...

These Linux distributions have gotten friendlier for fellers coming from Windoze who ran boxen they bought at Wal-Mart or BestBuy (oxymoron) that already have Windoze eXperiment pre-installed. So when you install a Linux distribution, they want all your hardware to be detected when you boot the computer. How do they accomplish that? They make some different kernel .config files (bare.i, bareacpi.r, sata.i, raid.i, etc.) for you to select when you install your system. And these pre-compiled kernels have a whole bunch of modules (drivers). But they don't want them all to load when you boot your computer, like Windoze XP, or your kernel will be bloated. So they came up with a system (actually systems) to detect your hardware when you boot your computer. After all, you probably don't have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ - ST380817AS like I do here, so why would you want to load a module (driver) for it? In comes hotplug to detect what you do have in your computer, and to load just those modules.

If you'll look through your kernel's .config file, you see these two sections:

Code:

# Sound
#
CONFIG_SOUND=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ALI5455=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ALI5455_CODECSPDIFOUT_PCMOUTSHARE=y
CONFIG_SOUND_ALI5455_CODECSPDIFOUT_CODECINDEPENDENTDMA=y
CONFIG_SOUND_ALI5455_CONTROLLERSPDIFOUT_PCMOUTSHARE=y
CONFIG_SOUND_ALI5455_CONTROLLERSPDIFOUT_CONTROLLERINDEPENDENTDMA=y
CONFIG_SOUND_BT878=m
CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI=m
# CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_FM is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_MIDI is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_JOYSTICK=y
CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_CM8738=y
# CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_SPDIFINVERSE is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_SPDIFLOOP=y
CONFIG_SOUND_CMPCI_SPEAKERS=2
CONFIG_SOUND_EMU10K1=m
CONFIG_MIDI_EMU10K1=y
CONFIG_SOUND_FUSION=m
CONFIG_SOUND_CS4281=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ES1370=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ES1371=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ESSSOLO1=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MAESTRO=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MAESTRO3=m
CONFIG_SOUND_FORTE=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ICH=m
CONFIG_SOUND_RME96XX=m
CONFIG_SOUND_SONICVIBES=m
CONFIG_SOUND_TRIDENT=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MSNDCLAS=m
# CONFIG_MSNDCLAS_HAVE_BOOT is not set
CONFIG_MSNDCLAS_INIT_FILE="/etc/sound/msndinit.bin"
CONFIG_MSNDCLAS_PERM_FILE="/etc/sound/msndperm.bin"
CONFIG_SOUND_MSNDPIN=m
# CONFIG_MSNDPIN_HAVE_BOOT is not set
CONFIG_MSNDPIN_INIT_FILE="/etc/sound/pndspini.bin"
CONFIG_MSNDPIN_PERM_FILE="/etc/sound/pndsperm.bin"
CONFIG_SOUND_VIA82CXXX=m
# CONFIG_MIDI_VIA82CXXX is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
# CONFIG_SOUND_TRACEINIT is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_DMAP is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_AD1816=m
CONFIG_SOUND_AD1889=m
CONFIG_SOUND_SGALAXY=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ADLIB=m
CONFIG_SOUND_ACI_MIXER=m
CONFIG_SOUND_CS4232=m
CONFIG_SOUND_SSCAPE=m
CONFIG_SOUND_GUS=m
# CONFIG_SOUND_GUS16 is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_GUSMAX is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_VMIDI=m
CONFIG_SOUND_TRIX=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MSS=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MPU401=m
CONFIG_SOUND_NM256=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MAD16=m
# CONFIG_MAD16_OLDCARD is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_PAS=m
# CONFIG_PAS_JOYSTICK is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_PSS=m
# CONFIG_PSS_MIXER is not set
# CONFIG_PSS_HAVE_BOOT is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_SB=m
CONFIG_SOUND_AWE32_SYNTH=m
CONFIG_SOUND_KAHLUA=m
CONFIG_SOUND_WAVEFRONT=m
CONFIG_SOUND_MAUI=m
CONFIG_SOUND_YM3812=m
CONFIG_SOUND_OPL3SA1=m
CONFIG_SOUND_OPL3SA2=m
CONFIG_SOUND_YMFPCI=m
# CONFIG_SOUND_YMFPCI_LEGACY is not set
CONFIG_SOUND_UART6850=m
CONFIG_SOUND_AEDSP16=m
CONFIG_SC6600=y
CONFIG_SC6600_JOY=y
CONFIG_SC6600_CDROM=4
CONFIG_SC6600_CDROMBASE=0x0
CONFIG_AEDSP16_SBPRO=y
CONFIG_AEDSP16_MPU401=y
CONFIG_SOUND_TVMIXER=m
CONFIG_SOUND_AD1980=m
CONFIG_SOUND_WM97XX=m

# AX.25 network device drivers
#
CONFIG_MKISS=m
CONFIG_6PACK=m
CONFIG_BPQETHER=m
CONFIG_DMASCC=m
CONFIG_SCC=m
CONFIG_SCC_DELAY=y
CONFIG_SCC_TRXECHO=y
CONFIG_BAYCOM_SER_FDX=m
CONFIG_BAYCOM_SER_HDX=m
CONFIG_BAYCOM_PAR=m
CONFIG_BAYCOM_EPP=m
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM=m
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_SBC=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_WSS=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_AFSK1200=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_AFSK2400_7=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_AFSK2400_8=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_AFSK2666=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_HAPN4800=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_PSK4800=y
CONFIG_SOUNDMODEM_FSK9600=y
CONFIG_YAM=m

So that almost every soundchip will be detected, the default kernel has a lot of modules loading. I suspect that what's happening with your system is it's loading both the sound card chip, and the modem sound, and they're conflicting. Since you don't use a dialup modem, you certainly don't need to hear it.

I know how this works in the 2.6.x.x kernels, but I'm not sure in 2.4.x. Google is your friend. But I suspect that if you add that soundmodem to /etc/hotplug/blacklist and then don't pass the nohotplug option to the kernel, it might boot without hanging and even detect your soundchip.

Just a wild guess, but searching the forums at LQ will probably unearth some other threads where fellers had the same problem. You might even check for your motherboard and/or soundchip in the Linux HCL link over there >>>>>