Problem with 2 NIC's
 

I am running slackware 8, I have a 3com NIC and a realtek 8129 installed, I have set up the 3com without a problem. The problem I run into is getting the second NIC working, or even showing up.
I have in the past *couple of days* installed, RH roswell, FreeBSD 4.2 and 4.3, SuSe 7.2 pro, Mandrake 8. All of them have found both without an issue. I know slackware is not just a simple interface for all that, but I seem to have an issue here, I do not know where to go for help i have gone to the install pages at slackware.com. Using netconfig etc. but none show how to set up two NIC's with slackware, I do not know if its just a case of 3com being eth0 and not eth1 so it probes and finds it first and thats it.

any help would be great thanks.

this is really not enough information.

Have you done ANYTHING to try to figure out the problem besides post here and look at the install pages?

How about 'man ifconfig', or 'cat /proc/interrupts', or something like that? What about telling us what happened during the installation on the networking screen?

You have to help us help you.

PS - why so many distros in two days? I suspect a bigger problem is present here, and you're trying all of these distros unnecessarily as a way to try and fix what you might just be able to fix in any distro with a single simple command or something.

Setting up a second card on all linux systems is essentially the same. Have you checked that you have the correct module available or have you recompiled the kernel yet to make it available. I think you can use the 8139 module for RTL-8129 based cards if you are using 2.2.19 (its probably the same module name on 2.4 too but I can't really remember) in which case you would try from the command prompt, then if this doesn't return any errors run ifconfig to configure your network card (you'll want to look at the man page, and probably edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 to make the changes permanant).

The reason that Slackware didn't find the second network card is that it only appears to look for one! Just enough to you your main interface up and running. The rest is left to you - hence why you'll often read about Slackware being one of the hardest to get to grips with but teaches you the most, as you have to do it all yourself.

If you need guides on compiling the kernel then have a look at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Kernel-HOWTO.html - I installed Slack 8 earlier today with 2.2.19 then recompiled the kernel - for some reason the default Slack 2.2.19 config has everything enabled - I ended doing a make mrproper to clean it up before doing a make menuconfig as its a damn site easier to turn on a few options instead of turning hundreds off.

Post back if you have problems with the kernel rebuild or modules/net config.

HTH

Jamie...

first off to answer a simple question "why so many distros in two days? "
I am looking for the most the best, most streamline. for me. Not that what i like will be the best Linux on the planet, I like to install get it properly working and see how smooth it is. Lots of Linux versions are easier, mandrake for example finds both my nics at install and has a an easy app to set up connection sharing.

Break down on what i want to do,
I have 6 computers. workstation running win2k pro,
Server currently 2k server. *hoping once i get linux a bit more down for multi web/e-mail/ftp to switch to linux or bsd.
Then linux machines which i want to set up the start of a cluster, so i am looking through the versions finding the one i want to stick with for that.

As far as what i have done. To fix the NIC problem. besides reading and searching for pages was run the ifconfig. Sorry but i am use to the easier versions of linux. I do not know alot of the editing of files and which ones. The ones you named i had not seen in doc pages. or where things are placed other than what i have found in docs on the net.

Other than the one nic problem i had none, the install was smooth *i think*, and after the install, getting the soundcard working was a breeze a simple edit to the rc.modules and reboot and it was done.

Another note on this, Some versions of linux pick it up as the brand of the NIC not chipset IE kingston, while others pick up the chipset.

I am going to reinstall again, I want to watch the install maybe get a better picture. and I will try probing that NIC, thanks for the info, Practice cant hurt either.

I do try to figure this stuff out on my own. But what is simple for some, will escape others. I really have not had to post subjects on Linux before, one i was not trying this really, two the other version always picked up the two NICS, even FreeBSD picked them up. I just was not use to that, and trying to figure it out. I needed help on it.

Thanks again for the information.

Ok I want to thank you for your help. I was able to get it working well I was able to get it to reconize is more like it, I still have to set up the ipchains for the gateway, but I went into rc.modules and uncommented it, like on my soundcard and now it shows up in boot and all as eth1.


Thanks again.

Dunno if this is the sort of clustering you are interested in but have a look at http://www.mosix.org - its a patch for the kernel and associated tools that let you transparently spread processes accross a cluster.

cheers

Jamie...

Thanks, i will look into that, as they say right now Slackeware is not ready just yet, they have a release but not up to primetime as they say, i will keep an eye on them.