New Server install, no NIC cards, CentOS

sir-lancealot · 03-22-2010, 09:57 AM

I only had disk 2 with me (no biggie as this is all I needed in the past), but installed CentOS 5.2 on a new Dell R610 Server. I have both patch cords going into their respective switches, and the keyboard on a remote KVM at our co-lo. The install finished, so now I am on the machine and can't get the network cards to start. lspci shows the following;

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)

I did setup a local ifcfg-eth0 and eth1 files, but when I start I get a msg saying those IP's are in use already (which there not and I did try others). But looking at the 1st part, by unknown, is it really at this day and age telling me it doesn't have network drivers for this hardware (yet the older servers with the same chipset did work)?

Thanks.

OdinnBurkni · 03-22-2010, 01:56 PM

Can you do Setup in CLI? If so what does the network config show you?
If that's a mess try deleting all files from the machine... well not all..
Do service network stop.
Go to /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ and delete the ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-eth1 if they exist. Or every file except ifcfg-lo but that's probably not there.
Then to /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/ and delete ifcfg-eth0 and 1 there if exist. Actually the only files you need there are hosts, network and resolv.conf.
Then to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and take a look at your ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-eth1 they should look something like this

Code:

# Here you might see a line with the name of your nic vendor
DEVICE=eth0  # remember to change this according to your file, i.e. eth0 or eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
HWADDR=00:00:00:00:00:00  #the mac address of the card if you know it
ONBOOT=yes
DHCP_HOSTNAME=your.hostname #not required
IPADDR=your ip
NETMASK=255.255.255.0 or your subnet mask
GATEWAY=your gateway # should only be on one nic
TYPE=Ethernet

If you don't know your MAC addresses it might be OK to skip it but then you might not know which nic is which...
Make sure these files are OK and then do service network start.
Try this and let us know.

sir-lancealot · 03-22-2010, 02:44 PM

ok, 1st error was my fault, seems Device throws an error where DEVICE doesn't. So with that, the config is still the same, but DEVICE=eth0 and a network start gives me;
Bringing up interface eth0: Device eth0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.

Looking at the rest of the reply, there was nothing in the /devices folder and nothing in the profiles/default folder. So it really seems that CentOS 5 didn't come with drivers for the broadcom. As I said, lcpci shows it, but the unkown is really the thing that is making me think that.

The conf file is similar and since I can't get the MAC, I do have that omitted. As for 'setup', that doesn't seem to be installed with the bare minimum and no X either so everything is CLI.

Anyway, I will look around for that model and drivers.

Thanks.

mario.almeida · 03-22-2010, 02:56 PM

Hi,

Check if /etc/modprobe.conf has below entries

Code:

alias eth0 bnx2
alias eth1 bnx2

Also open /etc/sysconfig/hwconf and search for

Code:

Broadcom:

What is the output of

Code:

lspci  | grep net

OdinnBurkni · 03-23-2010, 03:28 AM

Good point Mario Almeida.
Just to clear things up for sir-lancealot. The thing you should see in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf should look something like this:

Code:

class: NETWORK
bus: PCI
detached: 0
device: eth0
driver: e1000 # this will probably be bnx2
desc: "Broadcom something..."
network.hwaddr: 00:00:00:00:00:00  # here you should see your MAC address
vendorId: 8086
deviceId: 100f
subVendorId: 15ad
subDeviceId: 0750
pciType: 1
pcidom:    0
pcibus:  2
pcidev:  0
pcifn:  0

Of course all other numbers can be different from this but this should give you an idea of what you should see.

sir-lancealot · 03-24-2010, 09:19 AM

Sorry was out yesterday, but here are the responses;

Quote:

/etc/modprobe.conf

Neither alias entry

Quote:

/etc/sysconfig/hwconf

No Broadcom

Quote:

lcpci |grep net

I did show that in the first post, but shows;

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)

OdinnBurkni - a grep -i network /etc/sysconfig/hwconf comes back with nothing. Odd.... very odd!

Tnx for the help so far, I will keep looking as well as this box is 40 or so miles away, network cables are plugged and I have remove KVM only so would much rather get the network working remotely but might have to make that drive but not sure yet....

rock1961 · 03-24-2010, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sir-lancealot

Sorry was out yesterday, but here are the responses;

Neither alias entry

No Broadcom

I did show that in the first post, but shows;

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 163b (rev 20)

OdinnBurkni - a grep -i network /etc/sysconfig/hwconf comes back with nothing. Odd.... very odd!

Tnx for the help so far, I will keep looking as well as this box is 40 or so miles away, network cables are plugged and I have remove KVM only so would much rather get the network working remotely but might have to make that drive but not sure yet....

i see the same thing with a brand new hp dl360 and centos 5.4. the only diff is my lspci shows my correct broadcom model but other than that i have the same problem and tried the same things. its weird because i loaded an identical machine with the same disk and it worked ok. when i go into the bios broadcom settings it shows the hw address as 6565f9c0e6a5 which seems like an odd address to me. i even reloaded the machine and it did the same thing. any help would be appreciated.

OdinnBurkni · 03-24-2010, 10:05 AM

Do you have root access to the machine? If not you might have to sudo the commands.
grep -i network /etc/sysconfig/hwconf doesn't show anything if you don't have any network setup.
When I setup CentOS I usually only use CD1. Did you only use CD2? Sounds strange... But it seems like it doesn't recognize the hardware.

sir-lancealot · 03-24-2010, 12:25 PM

Yep I have root access and the past 4 servers I setup (all dell 1950's) just disk 1 was all that was needed as well. This is a brand new Dell PowerEdge R410 and I am just thinking somehow the broadcom chipset used on that is newer than the CentOS 5.2 installer I am using.

I will have to burn 5.4 and try that install, but wanted to keep things on the same platform.

Thanks for the suggestions

OdinnBurkni · 03-24-2010, 02:39 PM

If you setup CentOS 5.2 and do yum update then it goes up to the latest. So it should be 5.4 after update.
I guess you must be right about the chipset, but I'm still surprised, never seen that.

sir-lancealot · 03-24-2010, 03:06 PM

Me either, and I wasn't sure if a yum update would do the next version, I thought u needed a dist-upgrade or something like that, but will burn the 5.4 and make that drive ...

Thanks again

OdinnBurkni · 03-24-2010, 05:30 PM

Damn... Well it would be nice to hear about the progress. Just to know if it's sosmething you figure out or if it's a faulty nic or whatever.

OdinnBurkni · 03-24-2010, 06:01 PM

Just a thought... Did you check the HCL?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php/cat/202
They've got a Broadcom list.

rock1961 · 03-25-2010, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OdinnBurkni

Just a thought... Did you check the HCL?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php/cat/202
They've got a Broadcom list.

just a quick note on my situation with the hp dl360. i had 1 power supply in only and when i completely powered down the unit and powered up on the other supply the nics showed up ok. putting it back to the way i had it and it still worked. not sure what was up with that but my problem is now solved. maybe try a complete power cycle.