Hello everyone:

I have just tried slackware for the first time... ...and I was warned that you will learn more about linux in a short amount of time with it than with most other distro's. Well, the time has come for me to approach the board in an attempt to get some help!

Below is output from various commands that I have run in trying to determine why I can't bring my network up. From what I can tell, especially from the output of "lsmod" (near the end), that the ethernet kernel module does not exist, but I'm not sure AND I've never actually dealt with kernel modules so am unsure, if this is what the problem is, how to remedy it (copying the module from <where?> to <where?>). Here goes:


root@ns1-$ dmesg | grep eth0
eth0: D-Link DFE-538TX (RealTek RTL8139) at 0xd0a18f00, <my mac address>, IRQ 11
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.

root@ns1-$ ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <my mac address>
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:5310 (5.1 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x8f00

root@ns1-$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop
**** /sbin/dhcpcd: not running

root@ns1-$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start
dhcpcd: MAC address = <my mac address>

root@ns1-$ ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <my mac address>
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:5310 (5.1 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x8f00

root@ns1-$ tcpdump -w tcpdump.out (performed on console 2 [Alt+F2])
tcpdump: WARNING: Promiscuous mode not supported on the "any" device
tcpdump: listening on any

2 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

root@ns1-$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop (performed on console 1 [Alt+F1])
**** /sbin/dhcpcd: not running

root@ns1-$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start (performed on console 1 [Alt+F1])
dhcpcd: MAC address = <my mac address>

root@ns1-$ tcpdump -r tcpdump.out (performed on console 2 [Alt+F2])

Code:

07:14:39.880316 > <my mac address> 0000 592:
                         4500 0240 2c89 0000 4011 4c25 0000 0000
                         ffff ffff 0044 0043 022c 2501 0101 0600
                         8a7b 2a05 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
                         0000 0000 0000 0000 0050 ba5f f26a 0000
                         0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
07:14:43.888250 > <my mac address> 0000 592:
                         4500 0240 2c8a 0000 4011 4c24 0000 0000
                         ffff ffff 0044 0043 022c 2501 0101 0600
                         8a7b 2a05 000a 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
                         0000 0000 0000 0000 0050 ba5f f26a 0000
                         0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000

(not really code, but it makes it turn out right)

root@ns1-$ tail /var/log/syslog
. . .
Nov 21 02:22:11 ns1 dhcpcd[1516]: timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response
Nov 21 02:22:39 ns1 dhcpcd[1535]: terminating on signal 2
Nov 21 02:24:07 ns1 dhcpcd[1540]: timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response
Nov 21 07:14:49 ns1 dhcpcd[1830]: timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response

root@ns1-$ tail /var/log/debug
. . .
Nov 21 02:01:37 ns1 kernel: eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
Nov 21 02:22:01 ns1 dhcpcd[1516]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER
Nov 21 07:14:39 ns1 dhcpcd[1830]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER

root@ns1-$ cat /var/log/messages | grep eth0
Nov 21 02:01:37 ns1 kernel: eth0: D-Link DFE-538TX (RealTek RTL8139) at 0xd0a18f00, <my mac address>, IRQ 11
Nov 21 02:01:37 ns1 kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.Nov 21 02:22:01 ns1 kernel: eth0: Setting
half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.Nov 21 02:22:26 ns1 kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partn
er ability 0000.Nov 21 02:23:57 ns1 kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.Nov 21 07:14:39 ns1 kernel
: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.

root@ns1-$ scanpci
. . .
pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x03 function 0x00: vendor 0x1039 device 0x0900
Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x0b function 0x00: vendor 0x1186 device 0x1300
D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet
. . .

root@ns1-$ lspci
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 90)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet (rev 10)

root@ns1-$ lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
. . .
sis900 13388 0 (unused) #--Does this mean that the module is not loaded???
crc32 2880 0 [sis900 8139too]
. . .



Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

is there a driver module for your card in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules??

Having the same problems meself, and I've found out my kernel (default suse9) just missed a hardware revision with the Sis900.
I'm going to upgrade to a more recent kernel and see if that solves it

320mb:

I'm at work now, but when I get home I'll look for a matching record in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and get back with you. What, though, do I need to be looking for (sis900?...eth0?)? Thanks.


superfuzz:

I'll keep that in mind if it turns out that that's what the problem is?

Thankfully, I have a copy of Knoppix, which runs off the CDROM. So I can still reboot into it, mount my root partition for Slackware and download the new kernel tarball into it, if I have too... Perfect for this situation!!! :-)

silly question: have you verified that your DHCP server works ok? As in: have you connected something else to your network that required DHCP and it worked fine?

Hey artur:

Yes, I've been using my Knoppix cdrom on the same machine to connect to the internet, until I get slack working. Cox communications is my isp and I don't really have any problems grabbing an ip from them. This machine is connected directly to my cable modem.

320mb:

I just found an old LQ archive where comments are made on modprobe sis900 specifically and adding it to the rc.modules file if needed.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...002/12/3/38183

What does your /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf file look like?

Hello Everyone from Slackware!!!

After uncommenting "#modprobe sis9000" in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules I ran

$ modprobe sis900
$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop
$ /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start

This did NOT fix the problem, but after rebooting the network came up great!

Thanks for all your help. And, by the way DavidPhillips, if you're reading this; yes, Slack is "easy when you start to figure it out" (day 2 so far ) (Quoted from the archive referenced above.)

sis900 hassle fixed.

I finally got around to install kernel 2.6.x and boom, my sis900 works.
I believe most major distros have ftp's with kernel rpm's on them. SuSE did anyways, so it was completely painless to install. However, my soundcard suddenly got unsupported. Ah well...

I can't seem to get my sound card to work yet either. I was running the standard kernel that was released with Slack 9.1 (2.4.22), I then compiled 2.6.0-test10, but it didn't help. The sound card worked well with other versions of linux right off the bat, but the research that I've done so far has led me to believe that the i810_audio driver has problems running in this distro. I'm going to keep trying though...

Looks like your system has two NICs, the SiS900 and RTL8139 (D-Link) card. Which one do you want to use? I have the D-Link 538tx as well and it works fine.

Using hotplug the D-Link card is detected automatically. When not using hotplug, I need to just modprobe 8139too.