First posting. Here I go... I'm TOTALLY new to Linux but have a bit of HP-UX and Windows experience.

I just built a Linux computer for fun and learning. (So far, mostly learning...) It's a P4 on an ABIT IT7-Max2 motherboard with on-board LAN, sound, etc.

I installed Fedora Core1 and all seems fine. Sound works, display works. But I can't activate the LAN (NIC). I get:

Determining IP Information for eth0...Failed.

Anyway, don't I need to get drivers for all the hardware in this machine? The motherboard came with a driver CD for windows, of course, but does Fedora have all the drivers built in? Could this be my LAN problem?

And, even if that's not my problem, how does one install drivers in Linux anyway? Is there some equivalent to "Device Manager" in Windows?

Thanks in advance.

Utah

You might want to start of by posting the output of either or both the folowing commands:

# service network status
# ifconfig

...and lspci.

welcome to linux and linux questions..

just run lspci as root and tell us what it tells ya

this might be kinda a pain cuz i i am guessing you're not on the network on your linux machine
but the only way to find a driver for your network card is to find out the kinda chip you're using and lspci will tell ya this

just find what looks like your network card in there and copy it down and post it here

otherwise you could try a different distro that might support your card....

Hy! I suggest you to find somewhere in your configuration panel some Hardware Manager (just like Device Manager in WIN) and find there your LAN and if you find there your should see, if it's module is working correctly, or what error does it have, but if you don't find your LAN it that list that means you need some driver for your LANcard. You need driver too, when the currently driver doesn't works. If there isn't driver error, than you should run linuxconf to configure your Network, and somewhere you should find the IP configuration, and there select mode-->static, and type in the IP address. Then save the configuration, and reboot!! It should work!

If you need a driver download it, and read the driver's manual, notes and try to install it! GOOD LUCK!

Fedora Core has the redhat-config-network tool, which is under System Settings in the main menu.

Red Hat has very good automatic hardware detection, my first guess would be that the network interface is set to use DHCP, but isn't getting IP settings back from a DHCP server.

Thanks everyone. I'll try all this and get back.
Utah

Here are the results and some more info:

# service network status
Configured devices:
lo eth0 (What is the "lo" refering to?)
Currently active devices:
lo


#ifconfig
lo Link encap: Local Loop Back
inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask 255.0.0.1
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric: 1
RX packets: 1670 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets: 1670 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes: 1240678
TX bytes: 1240678


#lspci
Ethernet Controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)


I'm using redhat-config-network to try to activate the ethernet "card" and it reports it's "status" as "ok".

Some more data:
*The green activity light turns on when I plug in my LAN cable.
*I plug in my laptop to the same cable and connectivity is fine.
*I have DSL and a Belkin wireless, 4port router so I am telling redhat-config-network to "Automatically obtain IP settings with dhcp." On my XP laptop, for instance, I configure it to for dhcp and to "Obtain DNS server address automatically" so it seems like this Linux box should do the same to work with the router.


On a side note, when I make these changes Linux says I "may want to restart the network and network services or restart the computer". I'm not even sure what it means to "restart the network". But it would be nice to not have to reboot after each change like Bill G. always wants us to do.


Utah

You don't have to restart after each config run, or at least I don't. Check the HCL on this site. Here is the link to Abit mobos:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php?cat=30
You know more about your mobo than I do, so check for yourself. If you do have to install a driver, find it on the web and download it. You might have to run a makefile to get it to work. The README for the mod will help a lot. Then, you can use the modprobe command to check if the driver is installed properly.

Thanks for the pointers.

I checked the Abit site. Mine wasn't listed. But I found a reference to my NIC on the HCL and there was a statement such:

"Uses the 8139too module in slack, probably most other distros... works wonderfully"

Questions: (I'm really new to Linux...) 8^)

What are these "modules"? Is that what Linux calls drivers?

The site didn't seem to indicate where I can GET that 8139too module. Where would that be?

Utah

Modules are little bits of program that you can insert into the kernel and take out at your leisure. They are usually some type of driver. Some can be built monolithically into the kernel but some can't. You can load and unload modules via the modprobe, insmod and rmmod commands. You can type lsmod at any time to check which modules you have currently loaded.

To manually load the 8139too module you'd type modprobe 8139too as root (8139too should be included with your distro). This will make your card active (ie the lights should go on). If that loads without error (check with lsmod), then I'd recommend editting /etc/modules.conf (for 2.4 kernels) or /etc/modprobe.conf (for 2.6 kernel) and adding the line:
If you don't know which kind of kernel you have type uname -r at the command prompt. The above will cause the driver to get loaded any time its needed.

Now you'll have to configure the actual network connection. I assume you have dynamic IPs. Therefore do an ifconfig eth0 up and then a dhclient eth0. Then try to ping yourself, then your gateway, then a website (like google or yahoo or whatever).

Thanks for the great explanation of Modules and how to view them, etc.

When I run lsmod the LAN module "8139too" is, indeed, in the list and the alias line is also in /etc/modules.conf.

I run
#ifconfig eth0 up and then lsmod:

There is an interesting other module listed: "mii". Here's the two lines:

Module Used by
----------------------------------------
8139too 1
mii 0 [8139too]

Does the "8139too" module need the "mii" module and, if so, could that be my problem?

I ran:
#dhclient eth0
Listening on LPF/eth0/(my nic's mac address)
Sending on ''
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to ........
(several more of these lines)
NODHCPOFFERS recieved

Like I said before, the green activity light on the RJ45 rear panel connector is on and the "link" light is on for that port on my router.
And I can ping 127.0.0.1 just fine.

Why can't I activate this dang NIC?! 8^(

Thanks again for all the help so far.

Utah

Here's a (hopefully) better formatted version of the lsmod results in my last post. (I'll use the vbcode "code" tag and see it it works...)





Utah

Yes 8139too depends on mii. It's not a problem, many modules have dependencies.
Slightly disconcerting. Are you sure you have a DHCP server? If so is it in your router or you gateway? Are they one and the same?

You could try and go static. Try an ifconfig eth0 <your nominated IP address>. Then a route add default <your gateway's IP>. Then try the ping test.

My setup:
DSL Modem going to a Belkin 3port/wireless "Gateway/Router"

I have a wired desktop and wireless laptop running fine off this setup and they both are set up to use dhcp. If I do a ipconfig on the XP laptop it reports a dhcp assigned IP address and shows DHCP server, DNS server and default gateway all to be the Belkin router (192.168.2.1). And if I unplug the LAN cable from my Linux box and plug it into the laptop (wireless disabled), the laptop gets an IP address just fine over the wire and all works perfectly.


The "route add ..." command replys something to the effect of:
"No such device"

Any other ideas?

"When you don't get what you want....., You get experience!
I'm about to go buy a PCI NIC and stick it in and see if it works better than this on-board NIC.

Utah