network issue. no interface. slack 10.0

capicu · 09-23-2005, 04:59 PM

First of all, I apologise whole-heartedly for resorting to the help of the forum. Believe me when I tell you that I have put some serious time into solving this, but it is beyond my limited abilities.

Basically, I am unable to do anything even slightly related to networking with slack 10.0 on my laptop, because it has a problem with the network interface. Trying to bring it up - ifconfig eth0 up (and eth1 too) - just produces the error No interface.

I have checked the long recent similar thread, and any other network related threads.

I have the output for the following:
lspci
lspci -v
lsmod
dmesg

I also have the output from Vector 5.0 SOHO for:
lspci
lsmod
dmesg
(It was the most similar distro I had at hand to test for differences. Couldn't find them myself)

Since I have less than 5 posts, despite the age of my account, I am unable to post the URLs to the files containing these outputs. For the more intrepid of you, here is an obfuscated version of the urls.
dalata net help slack (files: dmesg, lspci, lspciv, lsmod)
dalata net help vect (files: dmesg, lspci, lsmod)
For the first whitespace, put a dot. after that, slashes. yes, the files have no extensions.
For those who can't be arsed - perfectly understandable - just ask, and I will post them.

I sense that all of this effort has been in vain and the solution is a modprobe, or a kernel driver.

[edit: a little backstory: I've been using slackware for a good few years. I used ethernet on my previous laptop, same slackware version, then changed to a new laptop with built in wireless, which i used so exclusively until now that I never noticed the networking problem until a few weeks ago]

Fluxx · 09-23-2005, 05:23 PM

I have had problems with a Broadcom Ethernet Controller and Slackware/SLAX. There is a linux driver at the homepage of Broadcom, may be this is a solution to give a try ...

With SLAX (kernel 2.6.12.2) and the Broadcom Controller there was loaded a module called b44 (lib/modules/2.6.12.2/kernel/drivers/net/b44.ko), but this module doesn't work.

So far my experiences, good luck for you ...

Fluxx.

dcdbutler · 09-23-2005, 05:39 PM

I've been trying to look at the dalata.net links you posted but the server won't let me in, forbidden. Try posting the output of your commands using the Code utility

Code:

like this

Cheers

Is it your wireless network interface you're having problems with?

capicu · 09-23-2005, 05:47 PM

ok then... I tried your driver idea. Long story short, the drivers don't like my computer. Even after a reboot. (I didn't have b44 loaded either, and nothing changed after modprobe).
It's not the wireless interface, it's the basic, dull, boring wired ethernet. I know - it's so random for this to be the problem and not wireless (tried enough distros to know all about that kind of pain), but that's the way things are. I was hoping to avoid posting large amounts of crap, but since it seems to be blocking you (I can get in ok, but there are too many possible issues to address there - main one - "files" isnt a dir, it's just me overannotating).
have lspci

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5831 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5838
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4347 (rev 01)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4348 (rev 01)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4345 (rev 01)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc ATI SMBus (rev 19)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4349
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 434c
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4342
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc SoundMAX 
Integrated Digital Audio (rev 01)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 434d (rev 01)
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 
5835
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 170c 
(rev 01)
02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device ac54 (rev 01)
02:01.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device ac54 (rev 01)
02:01.2 System peripheral: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8201 (rev 01)
02:02.0 Network controller: Harris Semiconductor: Unknown device 3886 (rev 01)

edit: just to pre-empt one possible idea : I have had this same problem on two different networks, both of which use dhcp (one is my home network, one is student halls)

jschiwal · 09-23-2005, 05:55 PM

The next step is to post the output of lsmod.

This will contain a list of the loaded kernel modules.

capicu · 09-23-2005, 05:56 PM

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-pcm-oss            37736   0  (unused)
snd-mixer-oss          12504   0  [snd-pcm-oss]
usb-ohci               19240   0  (unused)
ehci-hcd               17580   0  (unused)
usbcore                59308   1  [usb-ohci ehci-hcd]
snd-atiixp              8584   1
snd-ac97-codec         49500   0  [snd-atiixp]
snd-pcm                56072   1  [snd-pcm-oss snd-atiixp]
snd-timer              13604   0  [snd-pcm]
snd                    30852   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-atiixp 
snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer]
soundcore               3396   3  [snd]
snd-page-alloc          6328   0  [snd-atiixp snd-pcm]
ds                      6548   4
yenta_socket           10336   2
pcmcia_core            39972   0  [ds yenta_socket]
ide-scsi                9328   0
agpgart                43940   0  (unused)

dcdbutler · 09-23-2005, 06:18 PM

Not surprisingly, it doesn't look like there's any ethernet modules loaded. Your ethernet card is Broadcom. There's limited support for Broadcom cards in the recent 2.6 kernels (don't know about 2.4), but it may be experimental. It may also be the b44 module mentioned earlier in which case it's not much use if it doesn't work........

jschiwal · 09-23-2005, 06:19 PM

I think that you should use the bcm4400 kernel module.

For hoot and holler, try modprobe bcm4400 in the chance that you have this module installed. Otherwise you may need to google for more information.

capicu · 09-23-2005, 06:33 PM

Code:

modprobe b44
modprobe bcm4400

1st fails, 2nd not installed.
looks like i have work to do.
Thanks so much for your time guys.
---UPDATE---25/09/05---
bcm4400 module as installed from broadcom website worked after a few installations (of slackware). I was having a very random problem indeed
thanks again
---/update---