No remote access after kernel update
 

I started off with a basic Slackware 10.0 installation which gave me the kernel 2.4.26. Here are the steps I followed to update to 2.4.29.

The update worked fine, everything is reporting 2.4.29 as the current version, except now I can't access the machine remotely. ifconfig only shows the local loopback. What happened to my NIC?

What is your NIC ? (/sbin/lspci | grep net)

I've got two: D-Link DFE-350TX and a Realtek RTL8139D.

From a fresh install, no kernel updates.

/sbin/lspci | grep net

00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:10.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 43)

Looks like the D-Link isn't being picked up, not entirely sure why. Possibly because there's no network cable plugged into it.

That happened to me after I updated my system with swaret.

No problem, just fire your shell and type 'netconfig', without the quotes.

That should do it ^_^

If that doesn't add all your NIC's, open the file /etc/rc.d/inet.conf or inet1.conf
and add your configuration there..

Hope that works.

Well, I patched the kernel again and got back to the same point I was at before with no remote access.

Ran netconfig, nothing. Even rebooted, but no such luck. As for editting /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf, I've got no idea what to put in there.

Why are my network settings disappearing? And where are they stored before I patch the kernel; I checked rc.inet1.conf beforehand, and there was nothing stored in there.

You need driver for your NIC.

try : /sbin/modprobe -l | grep -i via
and look for something like via-rhine, it is the driver for your 2nd NIC

/sbin/modprobe -l | grep 8139
and look for something like 8139, it is the driver for your 1st NIC

Now, if you got result, try /sbin/modprobe <module name without .o>
after that, try netconfig, if all goes well and a modprobe line in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules
to load your NIC driver at boot

Are you sure your 'patched kernel' has the NIC's drivers compiled into it or as modules?!

As keefaz mentioned, you need the drivers to run the devices.

cd /usr/src/linux
make xconfig

Make sure you've selected your device's drivers and the proper protcols.

modprobe didn't find the drivers that used to be there. Looking through /etc/rc.d/rc.modules, I found the entries for my network cards, so I uncommented them and rebooted. Several things came to my attention.

modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module char-major-10-135
Module dependencies up to date (no new kernel modules found).
modprobe: Can't locate module agpgart
modprobe: Can't locate module 8139too
modprobe: Can't locate module via-rhine
modprobe: Can't locate module ide-scsi

So when I patched the kernel from 2.4.26 to 2.4.29, the drivers for my NICs went AWOL and I guess do did the AGP and IDE/SCSI drivers/modules?

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...True#16Unix%20(Linux)

Several driver options here, not entirely sure which I should pick. Either "Linux driver for kernel 2.4.x (RedHat 7.2/ 7.3/ 8.0/ 9.0)" or "Slackware 8.0 (kernel 2.2.19 and 2.4.5)".

---

Oh man, I'm an idiot. :) Just noticed that there's a package available for download at slackware.com/pb - kernel-modules-2.4.29-i486-1. This may just solve all my of headaches, I'll post after I install it.

Ok, fresh install. Installed the modules-2.4.29 package. Patched the kernel up to 2.4.29. Rebooted. Still not autodetect of NICs. modprobe can't find anything.

How can I point modprobe to look for the drivers that I know are installed on my system? Or am I missing something when I'm patching the kernel? I know that when I run make modules and make modules_install that it says it can't find any modules, so maybe I am missnig something somewhere.

Dumb dumb dumb. Didn't select the 8139 and via rhine modules when running make menuconfig. Did that now, report soon.

Ok, so everything is compiled in and should be ready to go. I can see the computer trying to bring up eth0, but something is failing somewhere.

dhcpcd: MAC address = xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (editted unless necessary)

This displays for a little while (10 seconds or so) and then nothing. Syslog says that there's a timeout waiting for a valid DHCP server response, so I'll see what I can do on my end with my ISP.

I'll keep updating as things progress.

The idea just hit me: dhcpcd shouldn't be getting a timed out response, because I know for a fact that before the kernel update I had internet access.

So why am I suddenly getting dhcp timeouts?

Here's a question: would it be a bad thing to simply grab /slackware-current/kernels/bare.i/ from my favorite mirror, make copies of what I have, and then overwrite the three files?