Slackware 12.2 -- connecting two linux machines with crossover cables

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 01:53 PM

Hello,

I have dell dimension 4700 I installed slackware 12.2 onto with the idea of making it a headless home network jukebox that I could ssh into and control via a crossover cable.

From other posts I've seen, it looks like I just need to set up the IP addresses under the same netmask, and can use ssh then.
On the slackware machine, it does not seem to recognize an eth device.

Code:

# dmesg | grep eth
Driver 'st' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods

# ifconfif -a
loLink encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
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)# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask   Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
loopback    *       255.0.0.0 U     0      0     0 lo

I tried just setting the ip with ifconfig eth0, with there is SIOCSIFADDR: no such device, error along with 2 others..
It was working a few days ago under another os though, and lights up when I insert the crossover cable.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

MS3FGX · 02-12-2009, 01:55 PM

Is this an onboard network device or PCI? Can you post the output of "lspci"?

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 02:33 PM

This is an onboard network device; from the output of lspci (if not, I'll see about getting all of the output up here):

Code:

Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 03)

Thanks for the reply.

Didier Spaier · 02-12-2009, 02:49 PM

Try with a a straight cable.

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Try with a a straight cable.

I don't have any convenient way to connect them both to a router. I wanted to use a crossover cable to be able to send data between them without any other hardware.

In any event, isn't there the same issue of not detecting eth0 using ifconfig? Maybe I'm missing something.

Didier Spaier · 02-12-2009, 03:22 PM

The straight cable is intended to connect them directly.

Whilst e.g. I use a crossover cable to connect my laptop or my desktop to my DSL box -- which can serve as a router --, this does not work to connect directly my desktop to my laptop: to do that I have to use a straight cable.

Of course I have an Ethernet card on both machines

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

The straight cable is intended to connect them directly.

Whilst e.g. I use a crossover cable to connect my laptop or my desktop to my DSL box -- which can serve as a router --, this does not work to connect directly my desktop to my laptop: to do that I have to use a straight cable.

Of course I have an Ethernet card on both machines

Hmm. To connect two computer together directly, google overwhelmingly informs us to use crossover cables. Maybe it's possible with straight cables too, if this is what you do.

At any rate, the cable seems to be less of an issue right now than ifconfig detecting 'eth0'. The computer functionally connected to the internet before installing slackware, so I know it has an ethernet card. In addition to the other information I provided, is there anything else to post? Any other suggestions?

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX

Is this an onboard network device or PCI? Can you post the output of "lspci"?

http://hardware4linux.info/component/31975/
I guess it's pci afterall.

Code:

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 [Radeon X300SE]
03:01.0 Modem: Intel Corporation FA82537EP 56K V.92 Data/Fax Modem PCI (rev 04)
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 03)

Didier Spaier · 02-12-2009, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noviciado

Hmm. To connect two computer together directly, google overwhelmingly informs us to use crossover cables. Maybe it's possible with straight cables too, if this is what you do

Trust me or trust Google, it's up to you

In simple words -- and here, at least:
crossover => KO
straight => OK

Feel free not to believe me but would you ever try, please make us aware of the outcome

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Feel free not to believe me but would you ever try, please make us aware of the outcome

Sure. I'd be happy to try this, but I still cannot get ifconfig to recognize/configure anything 'ethernet'. If you have any suggestions regarding this, or see what's wrong from the other information I have provided, I'm open to hearing suggestions.

Didier Spaier · 02-12-2009, 05:07 PM

Insure the good driver is loaded or load it. As root:

Code:

modprobe e100

When configuring the kernel for this driver it says this:

Code:

Intel(R) PRO/100+ support (E100)

This driver supports Intel(R) PRO/100 family of adapters.
To verify that your adapter is supported, find the board ID number
on the adapter. Look for a label that has a barcode and a number
in the format 123456-001 (six digits hyphen three digits).

Use the above information and the Adapter & Driver ID Guide at:

<http://support.intel.com/support/network/adapter/pro100/21397.htm>

to identify the adapter.

For the latest Intel PRO/100 network driver for Linux, see:

<http://appsr.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp>

More specific information on configuring the driver is in
<file:Documentation/networking/e100.txt>.

To compile this driver as a module, choose M here. The module
will be called e100.

HTH

MS3FGX · 02-12-2009, 05:12 PM

The issue isn't with the cable, the problem is that the system is clearly not detecting an Ethernet device at all. Looking online it seems that device should be supported under Linux via the "e100" module. See what happens if you do:

Code:

modprobe e100
ifconfig -a

P.S.

As for the issue of crossover vs straight (patch) cable, you have the terms correct. A crossover cable is used to directly connect to network cards together, while a straight or patch cable is used to connect a network card to an upstream device like a hub, switch, or router. You would not use a patch cable to connect two computers together. Though a lot of hardware is auto-switching now, which means it can automatically detect which cable is being used and adjust accordingly so either will work. I think this might be the source of Didier's confusion.

noviciado · 02-12-2009, 07:33 PM

See what happens if you do:

Code:

modprobe e100
ifconfig -a

Thanks both for the reply.
When I try modprobe e100, I receive:

Code:

FATAL: Module e100 not found.

so I downloaded the driver and am trying to install on the slackware machine...when I tried "make" I saw that the command wasn't found either.

I downloaded 'make' from http://packages.slackware.it/ and installed it. When I go execute 'make install' for the e100 driver, I get:

Code:

Makefile:65: *** Linux kernel source not found. Stop.

I see quite a few posts with this error and this module, but not really a solution. As far as I can tell, it should already be in the kernel? And there are some other steps I will need to take to build a module for the kernel (though I'm unclear on this part). Is there some reason it wasn't found? I tried just reinstalling the os (more than once), but I have the same problem.

EDIT
I tried following these directions http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/x181.html
I searched for e100 module, and found e100.ko
attempted:

Code:

# insmod ./e100.ko
insmod : error inserting './e100.ko': -1 Invalid module format

Am I headed down the wrong path?

Didier Spaier · 02-13-2009, 01:36 AM

I seems that your installation be not complete.

So please tell us:
- what is your Linux version (output of 'cat /etc/slackware-version' command)
- what is your exact kernel version (output of the 'uname -r' command)
- if you did did a full install of Slackware (e.g. kernel-modules is it included ? I hope so!)

Please give the output of 'ls -l /boot' command too.

All you need is included in Slackware, do not use packages coming from elsewhere.

The "e100" driver is shipped with every recent Slackware and come with the kernel-modules package, so you do not need to compile it. If for some reason you miss it, just install or reinstall the slackware-modules package: cd to the directory where the package is (the a/ directory on the first CD or on a mirror) then issue following command: 'upgradepkg --install-new --reinstall <kernel-modules>'. Replace <kernel-modules> by the exact name of the package ending in .tgz.

noviciado · 02-13-2009, 02:21 PM

Thanks for your help. I think the problem was with the cd I burned. The md5sums checked out, but I received errors during the installation which I tried to go back and reinstall later. I didn't receive any errors when I reinstalled them, but I something must have been 'off'.

I burned a new copy of the installation disk 1 and reinstalled slackware 12.2 again. This time there were no errors, and eth0 was detected immediately without reinstalling any modules.

I'm now able to ssh between the machines. As a note, I can only successfully do this with a crossover cable. I tried with a straight cable and received the error:

Code:

ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.200 port 22: No route to host

Perhaps there is a way to resolve this, but since it already works with a crossover cable, I won't bother with it.

The only problem I'm running into now is when I execute an 'ncurses'-based program over ssh. When I try to use function keys (F1, F2, F3..), they start performing functions on my local machine (like launching a help menu). I think I just change local key-bindings though. We'll see how that goes.

Thanks all for the help!