The real scoop on Realtek RTL-8139X NIC chip

dwurmfeld · 01-01-2008, 10:06 AM

Basic problem: Fedora 7/8 does not recognize my NIC card on my Clevo 888E (Sager NP8887) laptop (it does work under Fedora 6/XP Pro. I get the error that it can't find the DCHP server when I attempt to activate it from the Network Config GUI App.

I seem to recall there is a driver problem with the RTL-8139D variant, is this correct?

I do not know enough to discover the real issues, and the tests I have tried are no help. Short of un-installing Fedora 8 and re-installing fedora 6, (or installing a PC Card with a different wired/wireless NIC) I can't find my way past this install problem.

I am trying to develop this laptop into my "Lab Machine", it may be old, but it has 'real' serial and parallel ports, necessary to connect to the chip/FPGA programmers I am using. It isn't a slouch, with a 2.8 GHz Intel P4, a Gig of RAM, an ATI FireGL card and three, 120 GByte Hard Drives built in. What I do not want to do is to use up my PCMCIA slots or USB slots just trying to connect this beast (it weighs 13.7 lbs) to the Internet. I want to keep the ports free for my lab connectivity, and keep the "extra" stuff to a minimum.

Using the forum as a guide, I have done the following:

looked at dmesage
looked at lspci
looked at lsmod
tried 'dhcpc eth0'
ping 192.168.0.1 (my gateway)

and have found no happiness.

I can ping the loopback address: 127.0.1.0 just fine

Here is the output from my investigation

***** output from 'dmesg | grep eth0'
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xf8ab2000, 00:90:f5:0d:2a:e1, IRQ 10
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
eth0: link down
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready

but the info from lspci is different:
***** end output

***** output from lspci (searched for '8139' in editor)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Unknown device 8880
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 128 (8000ns min, 16000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at a400 [size=256]
Region 1: Memory at d0008000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
***** End Output

The Network config application thinks it is a RealTek RTL-8139/8139C

When I try to activate it from the config app it cannot find a DHCP server. This wired adapter worked with Fedora 6 on this laptop, and I haven't changed the linksys cable modem/router, all of which work under Windows XP pro (and worked under Fedora 6).

Thanks in advance for any help, even if it is an admonishment to 'RTFM', as long as you are kind enough to point me to the relevant 'FM'.

David

nileshgr · 01-01-2008, 10:15 AM

i am also using RTL 8139 card on F7 but I have no problems since installation.

Simon Bridge · 01-01-2008, 10:23 AM

Fedora 7/8 does not recognize my NIC card
... not true:

eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
... fedora just recogniZed it!

The Network config application thinks it is a RealTek RTL-8139/8139C
... that's because that is what the card says it is:
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

What makes you think it is a RTL-8139D?

Please show the result of (CLI stuff)
# lspci -v | grep ethernet -i -A8

lsmod | grep 8139

ifconfig

ifup eth0

Most people have trouble with these when it is not genuine realtek, in which case the lspci listing says "unknown device". For example...
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...t-fedora7.html

dwurmfeld · 01-01-2008, 10:35 AM

[QUOTE=Simon Bridge;3007591]Fedora 7/8 does not recognize my NIC card

What makes you think it is a RTL-8139D?
that is what dmesg says, I will get the results of the others in a moment.

Simon Bridge · 01-01-2008, 10:51 AM

Actually, dmesg says:

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xf8ab2000, 00:90:f5:0d:2a:e1, IRQ 10
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'

lspci says:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

i.e. it's a generic. Manufacturer didn't want to add a diffrent ROM for each possible configuration, so added all the configs to the one ROM. Should be OK though. The driver should be 8139too or similar.

I guess the lspci output was provided - but I'll want to see the rest.

dwurmfeld · 01-01-2008, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge

Actually, dmesg says:

I guess the lspci output was provided - but I'll want to see the rest.

Here is the latest information from lsmod, ifconfig and ifup
ifup:
Determining IP information for eth0... failed; no link present. Check cable?

ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:F5:0D:2A:E1
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 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:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xa000

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:35:63:C5:79
inet6 addr: fe80::20e:35ff:fe63:c579/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:14106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1868 errors:0 dropped:2 overruns:0 carrier:1
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x4000 Memory:d0001000-d0001fff

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8031 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8031 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:11490548 (10.9 MiB) TX bytes:11490548 (10.9 MiB)

lsmod:
8139cp 21697 0
8139too 24513 0
mii 8385 2 8139cp,8139too

Thanks for the help...

David1357 · 01-01-2008, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwurmfeld

Thanks for the help...

I think the problem is that Realtek apparently released a new version of the chip but reused a VENDORID:DEVICEID pair. So the rtl driver is able to get the correct device string, but lspci just goes by the VENDORID:DEVICEID pair and reports it as an older model.

Try downloading the Windows driver and using ndiswrapper until Linux catches up again.

dwurmfeld · 01-01-2008, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David1357

I think the problem is that Realtek apparently released a new version of the chip but reused a VENDORID

EVICEID pair. So the rtl driver is able to get the correct device string, but lspci just goes by the VENDORID

EVICEID pair and reports it as an older model.

Try downloading the Windows driver and using ndiswrapper until Linux catches up again.

Sorry, but I don't understand how to do that, if this is not the forum, could you direct me to where I can find out how to "ndiswrapper " a windows driver? Thanks, David

David1357 · 01-01-2008, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwurmfeld

...could you direct me to where I can find out how to "ndiswrapper " a windows driver?

Here are the instructions for installing ndiswrapper. You can skip the parts on downloading, compiling, and installing if you can get a package for your distro.

Next time someone suggests something in these forums, but does not provide a link, google the word first.

dwurmfeld · 01-01-2008, 01:23 PM

Thanks for the information, I will look on my Fedora 8 Distro for NDISwrapper (any clues?) If I understand correctly, I will need to re-compile the kernel, a new experience for me, pointers welcome.

David

David1357 · 01-01-2008, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwurmfeld

If I understand correctly, I will need to re-compile the kernel, a new experience for me, pointers welcome.

Run "yum search ndiswrapper" and pick the one for your kernel. To see which kernel you are running, use "uname -r".

There is a warning about the "8K versus 4K stack size" problem. I had to rebuild my FC4 kernel from source to solve the problem. You may have to do the same.

zoranp · 01-01-2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwurmfeld

ifup:
Determining IP information for eth0... failed; no link present. Check cable?

The problem is not in network card but in the lame Windows driver. You obviously installed XP and tried to reinstall GNU/Linux.

Go back to XP, check the box "Wake on LAN" in driver settings and your problem is solved.

dwurmfeld · 01-05-2008, 06:40 PM

Tried the "wake on LAN" idea in XP, but no happiness... I am going to try to do the "NDISwrapper" thing. Is there a recipe for spinning another kernel in Fedora 8? (be gentle, greping for kernel compilation returns 1000's of hits. Any clues would be appreciated)

David

David1357 · 01-07-2008, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwurmfeld

Is there a recipe for spinning another kernel in Fedora 8? (be gentle, greping for kernel compilation returns 1000's of hits. Any clues would be appreciated)

If you use Yum (or the equivalent) to install the kernel source, it will put a tarball somewhere in "/usr/src/redhat". If you extract the tarball, there will be a file named "README" with generic instructions for building the kernel. If you want Red Hat specific instructions, check the first google hits for "howto build kernel fedora core".