Slackware 11, network problems and Control Module error

Davschm · 10-15-2006, 10:51 PM

Just got slackware 11 installed with the default 2.4.33.3 kernal (used the SATA flaver in the install wiz)

I am a real linux newbie, just FYI.

i have made it to the KDE desktop but with no sound or network support.

Looking under Network Settings to configure the NIC, I get a popup "Unsupported Platform - KDE Control" It asks that i pick from a list of supported distros.

My Motherbord has onboard LAN, (ASUS p4p800). Once i get the unit online, i will work on the sound problems. I also need to get the raid controller working on that board some how. Its not seeing my other hard drive hooked into the raid.

Any help would be great, thanks.

Bruce Hill · 10-16-2006, 12:09 AM

As root in a terminal run "netconfig" and see if that gets it setup.

As for sound, there was a mail message you should have read after you
installed. Probably nothing more needed than running "alsamixer" as
normal user and unmute and turn up volumes, then "alsactl store" as
root to save your settings.

NB: KDE is known to cause sound problems.

Davschm · 10-16-2006, 12:19 AM

netconfig doesnt help sadly (i think that was run before, durring the install)

And still no sound after alsamixer. I had already found the mute settings in KDE and turned Vol to max.

Davschm · 10-16-2006, 12:35 AM

OK, well strangly sound is now working ok (not sure what changed since last boot) But the network is still completly down, i did notice i am not even getting any lights from the card, and the router has no light for my port. But it worked fine in my windows install.

Bruce Hill · 10-16-2006, 01:59 AM

Post the output of "/sbin/lspci" and "lsmod" run from a terminal.

Davschm · 10-16-2006, 02:29 AM

hmm, no easy way to transfer the output from that PC to this one... (i have no idea how to make a thumbdrive work in linux) I will type the line I think your looking for,

LSPCI:

02:05.0 Ethernet COntroller: 3com Corp 3c940 10/100/1000Base-T [Marvell] (rev 12)

LSMOD:

i dont see anything that I can tell effects networking or the NIC.

Bruce Hill · 10-16-2006, 10:04 AM

It looks as if your NIC uses this module:

Code:

Marvell Yukon Chipset / SysKonnect SK-98xx Support (SK98LIN)

Say Y here if you have a Marvell Yukon or SysKonnect SK-98xx/SK-95xx
compliant Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.

This driver supports the original Yukon chipset. A cleaner driver is 
also available (skge) which seems to work better than this one.

This driver does not support the newer Yukon2 chipset. A seperate
driver, sky2, is provided to support Yukon2-based adapters.

The following adapters are supported by this driver:
- 3Com 3C940 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter
- 3Com 3C941 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970LX Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970LX/2SC Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970SX Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970SX/2SC Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970TX Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2970TX/2TX Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2971SX Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Allied Telesyn AT-2971T Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
- Belkin Gigabit Desktop Card 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter, Copper RJ-45
- EG1032 v2 Instant Gigabit Network Adapter
- EG1064 v2 Instant Gigabit Network Adapter
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Abit)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Albatron)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Asus)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (ECS)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Epox)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Foxconn)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Gigabyte)
- Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Iwill)
- Marvell 88E8050 Gigabit LOM Ethernet Adapter (Intel)
- Marvell RDK-8001 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8002 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8003 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8004 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8006 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8007 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8008 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8009 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8010 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8011 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8012 Adapter
- Marvell RDK-8052 Adapter
- Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter (32 bit)
- Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter (64 bit)
- N-Way PCI-Bus Giga-Card 1000/100/10Mbps(L)
- SK-9521 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter
- SK-9521 V2.0 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter
- SK-9821 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-T)
- SK-9821 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter
- SK-9822 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-T dual link)
- SK-9841 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-LX)
- SK-9841 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-LX Adapter
- SK-9842 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-LX dual link)
- SK-9843 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-SX)
- SK-9843 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-SX Adapter
- SK-9844 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-SX dual link)
- SK-9851 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-SX Adapter
- SK-9861 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-SX Volition)
- SK-9861 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-SX Adapter
- SK-9862 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-SX Volition dual link)
- SK-9871 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-ZX)
- SK-9871 V2.0 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-ZX Adapter
- SK-9872 Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (SK-NET GE-ZX dual link)
- SMC EZ Card 1000 (SMC9452TXV.2)

The adapters support Jumbo Frames.
The dual link adapters support link-failover and dual port features.
Both Marvell Yukon and SysKonnect SK-98xx/SK-95xx adapters support 
the scatter-gather functionality with sendfile(). Please refer to 
<file:Documentation/networking/sk98lin.txt> for more information about
optional driver parameters.
Questions concerning this driver may be addressed to:
<linux@syskonnect.de>

If you want to compile this driver as a module ( = code which can be
inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want),
say M here and read <file:Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt>. The module will
be called sk98lin. This is recommended.

And that module is in the default Slackware-11.0 kernel:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~$ cat /server2/ftp/pub/Linux/Slackware/slackware-11.0/kernels/sata.i/config | grep -i sk98lin
CONFIG_SK98LIN=m

So as root in a terminal issue "modprobe sk98lin" and you should
have your module loaded. Then perhaps "netconfig" will help you.

NB: Asus provides the 3c2000 driver on your motherboard's CD, and on their website.

Davschm · 10-16-2006, 11:28 AM

Wow, well that fixed it. Ethernet card is now working and I have internet access, thanks a lot guys.

Now 2 questions:
First I would like to know how "modprobe sk98lin" fixed it, and where I should have looked myself to find that solution. I am actually a PC Tech in real life, but all my experience and knowledge is Windows based. I am trying to learn Linux for the first time here.

Second, While i have network and internet access now, my DNS is actually not working, i can manually type 72.14.203.104 and get google.com to come up, but it doesnt resolve in DNS by itself. I am guessing I can go in and manually enter my DNS servers to fix this, but with DHCP I really shouldnt have too, i would like to fix DHCP... But how?

And again, thanks for helping me get this far.

Bruce Hill · 10-16-2006, 07:36 PM

In Linux you have the kernel, which is basically the operating system. Windows has a kernel, also. The main difference is that ours is separate from the programs.

All commands which have a manual page can be accessed by typing, in a terminal, "man <command_name>". Such as:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~$ man modprobe
modprobe - program to add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel
<snip>

The reason "modprobe sk98lin" fixed it is because your ethernet card's chipset uses that module (driver). So when you issued the command, it added that module into the kernel. You can issue "lsmod" (lsmod -- program to show the status of modules in the Linux Kernel) to see all of your modules, including sk98lin.

NB: You didn't have to reboot for it to work, either. The only time you need to reboot with a Linux distribution is to install a new kernel, after building and configuring it.

The way I know that "sk98lin" is the module you need was by searching. Here at LinuxQuestions.org, we have a HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) where users can post their hardware, then a Review to say how well it works under Linux. Since almost all hardware manufacturers only make drivers for Windows, in Linux we depend upon someone to write a driver. Hopefully it will get submitted and put into the Linux kernel. If it does, then you can use it the way we did with yours; if not, one must hope that someone wrote a driver and it is available to build and insert into the kernel such as the Nvidia graphics driver.

Quote:

Originally posted by Davschm
I am trying to learn Linux for the first time here.

Me, too. Since June 2003.

Here are a few resources which might help you along the way:

Introduction to Linux - A Hand's On Guide

Steve's Bourne / Bash shell scripting tutorial

Eric Hameleer's Wiki
and check out his repository of Slackware packages

Slackware 11.0 Changes and Hints

Slackware Linux Basics - For Slackware Linux 10.2
(hasn't been updated yet, but most of it applies to Slackware 11.0)

Google <Linux>
(gives answers which apply to Linux distros only)

For nameservers you need to edit "/etc/resolv.conf" and use your ISP's DNS servers, or others that work for you.

NB: My nick on LQ was Chinaman for 3 years because I didn't know you could use your name. I had logged in to reply to an old post, and apparently cookies didn't clear before I replied to yours with the modprobe advice.

Davschm · 10-16-2006, 11:28 PM

Thanks for the great links, i will start reading.

Also i noticed the "modprobe sk98lin" fix has to be run after each reboot. I am guessing i will need to add this change into the kernal and then recomplie it (somthing i have been dreading).

Quote:

For nameservers you need to edit "/etc/resolv.conf" and use your ISP's DNS servers, or others that work for you.

Ok, so there is no way to have it pull down the DNS automaticly from the DHCP Server (my router)?

I worry about using my ISP's DNS because, lets say this was a laptop, if I was away from home on a public wireless network then i could have problems.

Bruce Hill · 10-17-2006, 01:04 AM

What do you have in "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf" for DHCP?

You should have USE_DHCP[0]="yes"

Sorry if this doesn't help -- I use all static IPs in my LAN.

Davschm · 10-18-2006, 11:13 PM

yes, "USE_DHCP[0]="yes" is there.

I am still looking around for anything else i can change. Its really suprising that it wouldnt pull the DNS down by default.

Bruce Hill · 10-18-2006, 11:27 PM

Yes, it should work through your router.

Rather than recompile your kernel, you can add "modprobe sk98lin"
(no quotes) to /etc/rc.d/rc.local and it will start with each boot.

But you shouldn't be scared of kernel compiling...that's what is
unique about the Linux kernel, vs. the other OSes available. This
Kernel Rebuild Guide is a great place to learn; and after you've
done a few, I have an Easy 2.6 Rebuild Guide for Slackware that
you might use.