DHCP Networking Problem with PCMCIA network adapter

degoor · 12-19-2007, 02:31 PM

Hi,

Here is the case: I have just installed Slackware 10.1 over an old TI Extensa 570CDT laptop. The notebook has neither cdrom nor network adapter so I got several years ago Accton 2228 PCMCIA network card.

I managed somehow to install all required packs from A grade plus some N packs (i.e. basic system plus some networking, including PCMCIA and TCP/IP) using newbie installation. Anyway now I am having trouble configuring the network under Slackware.

I have a WinXP box that is connected to Internet and serves as a DHCP server, nameserver and default gateway to the laptop and to my Ubuntu desktop. Ubuntu station's network works fine so the server is OK. It has 192.168.0.1 IP address and the netmask is 255.255.255.0. So 192.168.0.1 would be nameserver and gateway for the laptop.

During installation I used netconfig stating DHCP client network configuration. Since eth0 got no IP address I had to edit some of the configuration files. Here is the changes I made:

(only edits listed)

[/etc/resolv.conf]
search mshome.net
nameserver 192.168.0.1

[/etc/hosts]
127.0.0.1 sweet.mshome.net sweet
192.168.0.1 mamapc.mshome.net mamapc

[/etc/pcmcia/network.opts]
DHCP="y"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
NETWORK="192.168.0.0"
BROADCAST="192.168.0.255"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
SEARCH="mshome.net"
DNS_1="192.168.0.1"

[/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf]
NETMASK[0]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"

After all of these edits eth0 still has not got IP address; only after reboot command it gets some IP of the range 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.254. It seems as if some process is preventing it from getting an IP and when this process is killed it gets configured for a few seconds before system restarts.

Here are some evaluation messages:

ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:10:B5:BE:39:EF
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:255 overruns:0 frame:510
TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:464 (464.0 b) TX bytes:1180 (1.1 Kb)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x300

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

ping 192.168.0.1
connect: Network is unreachable

route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo

and finally some part from

[/var/log/debug]

Dec 18 20:19:56 sweet dhcpcd[1277]: DHCP_OFFER received from (192.168.0.1)
Dec 18 20:19:56 sweet dhcpcd[1277]: broadcasting DHCP_REQUEST for 192.168.0.246
Dec 18 20:20:57 sweet dhcpcd[1327]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER
Dec 18 20:20:58 sweet dhcpcd[1327]: broadcastAddr option is missing in DHCP server response. Assuming 192.168.0.255
Dec 18 20:20:58 sweet dhcpcd[1327]: dhcpIPaddrLeaseTime=604800 in DHCP server response.
Dec 18 20:20:58 sweet dhcpcd[1327]: DHCP_OFFER received from (192.168.0.1)
Dec 18 20:20:58 sweet dhcpcd[1327]: broadcasting DHCP_REQUEST for 192.168.0.46
Dec 18 20:22:00 sweet dhcpcd[1380]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER
Dec 18 20:22:01 sweet dhcpcd[1380]: broadcastAddr option is missing in DHCP server response. Assuming 192.168.0.255
Dec 18 20:22:01 sweet dhcpcd[1380]: dhcpIPaddrLeaseTime=604800 in DHCP server response.
Dec 18 20:22:01 sweet dhcpcd[1380]: DHCP_OFFER received from (192.168.0.1)
Dec 18 20:22:01 sweet dhcpcd[1380]: broadcasting DHCP_REQUEST for 192.168.0.245
Dec 18 20:23:03 sweet dhcpcd[1432]: broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER

I am not quite sure what is the issure here: am I missing some part of the network configuration or do I have to add some kind of module support for the pcmcia card - it needs axnet_cs pcmcia driver and is listed as supported in pcmcia_cs package.

So I hope you can help me

Best regards,
degoor

blackhole54 · 12-19-2007, 11:12 PM

Your log shows enough communication that I think your PCMCIA ethernet is working OK. The DCHP_REQUEST should be followed by a DHCP_ACK which you aren't seeing. Take a look at your Ubuntu logs to see the way it should be working.

This is the way it looks on my Ubuntu desktop:

Code:

Dec 18 20:07:40 ratel dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
Dec 18 20:07:40 ratel dhclient: DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.x
Dec 18 20:07:40 ratel dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Dec 18 20:07:40 ratel dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.1.x

I am wondering if somehow a firewall is blocking the the DHCPACK. I would suggest using a packet sniffer like tcpdump or wireshark on your Slackware box to see what is actually coming back. Since your Ubuntu box is working OK, you should be able to compare to the packets that happen there.

Also, check (with the packet sniffer) and see what broadcast address your Slackware box is using for DHCP_REQUEST -- whether it is 255.255.255.255 or 192.168.0.255. MS might have trouble with the latter.

degoor · 12-20-2007, 01:24 AM

blackhole54, thanx for your kind reply!

OK, here comes the magic: the card was inserted in A slop and since it worked fine under win98 (the laptop is dual OS configured: Slackware + win98) I thought it should work under Linux.

Well, that proved to be wrong - when I inserted the card into B slot the configuration went just fine and now I am 'links'-ing the World Wide Web.

Thanx for your support!

degoor

blackhole54 · 12-20-2007, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by degoor

Well, that proved to be wrong - when I inserted the card into B slot the configuration went just fine and now I am 'links'-ing the World Wide Web.

Very strange! But I guess you don't argue with success.

onebuck · 12-20-2007, 07:45 AM

Hi,

Quote:

[/etc/hosts]
127.0.0.1 sweet.mshome.net sweet
192.168.0.1 mamapc.mshome.net mamapc

Why are you posting your localhost with a name and alias in the '/etc/hosts' file?