I Have Slacked – Almost
 

I have a i3-2220 in a Asus P8H77-V mother board, with 8 Gb of RAM, and a 40 Gb intel SSD.

I have loaded 14.0x86_64. I also have the book, Slackware Essentials, which has been a big help.

It boots up, I sign in as user then root, KDE comes up at the root command kdm, it works well. But I can not get the system to find the LAN, and then make the connection to the Internet.

I have not been able to make use of chapter 5 – Network Configuration.

I would like someone that could help. My understand of the command line seem to be inadequate.

Thanks;

Tom
on the wet coast, in the sunshine:

find ethernet devices:
$ ifconfig -a

wake up the LAN (for example eth0)
$ su
# ifup eth0
# dhclient eth0 # may be unnecessary after ifup
# ping google.com

Boot your system, login as root, run 'netconfig'.

If you are booting to runlevel 3 (the default in a fresh install), then you are best to start your GUI with 'startx'. You can select your choice of GUI prior to running startx with 'xwmconfig'

Have you seen this? http://docs.slackware.com/
and the configuration guide? http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide

Member Response
 

Hi,

Look at these links specifically;

• Plus look at the links in my signature.

Thanks for the replies:

I did the following:

# netconfig

Filled in the blanks, chose DHCP, and added my centurylink user name.

# /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 eth0_start

No comment and no smoke.

# ifconfig -a

lo: flags+73<UP, LOOPBACK, RUNNING> mtu 16436

inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255000
inet6 ::1 Prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
Loop txqueue 0 (local loopback)
Rx Packets 0 bytes (0 .0.B)
Rx errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0
Tx packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0.B)
Tx errors 0dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
Then:

# ifup eth0
command not found

# dhclient eth0
SIOCSIFADDR: no such device.

So what does this tell us?

Tom McLean
on the wet coast;
with a beautiful evening

In Slackware, use '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart'.
The output does not show your network card as being present.
What is the output of '/sbin/lspci'?

Just to answer my own question, I reckon that the output of lspci will show an Atheros AR8161 ethernet controller. As I understand it, that device is not officially supported in the Linux kernel.
You will need to download and build the alx kernel module.
e.g. http://www.joshzam.com/2013/04/ather...oller-drivers/
https://github.com/mcgrof/alx/issues/2
http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=3646.0
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...f=150&t=126355

Allend:

# /sbin/lspci
Athens Communication Inc. Device 1091 (Rev 08)

I have tried several other things suggested by the refeences given and no change.

Does this mean I have to build a kernel?

How do I do a new kernel or set of drivers with no Internet connection?

Tom McLean
On the Wet Coast,
Finally, with rain

I would have expected something like this
Making allowance for the likelihood that you have manually transferred the information, it does seem likely that you need the alx kernel module.
Summarising from the links I gave and transferring to the Slackware way of doing things.
1. From https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/ker...ts/2013/03/28/ download the file compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u.tar.xz (This can be done from any computer with internet access, such as the one you last posted from).
2. Transfer the file to your Slackware install e.g. use a USB key
3. Extract the file using 'tar xvf compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u.tar.xz'
4. Get into the directory that is created. 'cd compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u'
5. Run './scripts/driver-select alx'
6. Run 'make'
7. As root, create a directory for the module in the /lib/modules tree. 'mkdir /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/'
8. As root, copy the kernel module into the /lib/modules tree. 'cp ./drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/'
9. As root, update the module dependencies with '/sbin/depmod -a'
10. As root, test with 'modprobe -v alx'

I have tested up to step 6. If all else fails, fit a supported network card in your PC :)

Allend:

Thanks

I believe that you are correct, I did manualy transfer the device ID and probably left off the intro. I will check that and see what I can get done on the rest. This amy take a day or two.

Tom McLean
On the Wet Coast,
again, with sunshine

Sorry for the delay. Too many things going on in my life.

Allend:
The full line from; /sbin/lspci is:
03:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 1091 (Rev 08)


All:
I am guessing that the model number does not change things any. I still need the alx drivers.

I tried, but only got part way.

I down loaded the file: compat-drivers-2013-03-5-u.tar.xz and copied it to a CD.

The CD is loaded into the slack computer and I can find the file both in terminal mode and with KDE.

In KDE, I can also find the alx file. However, there is no indication that tar xvf works. I also do not get anything that makes sense to me from KDE, and therefore am not sure that the file has been compiled. Either the whole file or the alx folder. In the KDE help system I found information on how to make a file. But, do not know what to do with the 3 lines of code.


KDE is brand new to me and the command line only a little better.

I have the driver file on a CD and on my desktop in Ubuntu. What to do now?

Thanks for your help and patience.

Tom McLean
On the Wet Coast
In the full sun.

Copy the file compat-drivers-2013-03-5-u.tar.xz from the CD to your Slackware system using the Dolphin file manager.
Then use 'Shift-F4' to open a Konsole terminal window. Proceed from step 3 in post #9

Thanks Allend;

I think that I managed to get it un-tarred (extracted). I extracted a copy to /home/thomas/ and it showed up there. There are 4 atl drivers in the package.

Which One? My system is 1 gigabit. The lspci gives it as device 1091. There are too many applications for the Atheros drivers to find this on either the Atheros or Asus sites. I will assume either ATL1E or ATL1C. Any comments?

I will switch computers and try your suggestion.

Tom McLean

Allend:

I am apparently having trouble with the command line.
mkdir does not seem to work.

I type on the command line:
Bash-4.2# mkdir /lib/modules/-r/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/

I get:
Cannot create directory /lib/modules/-r/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/ : No such file or directory

What is up?

Thanks;

Tom

Replace the -r with the output of 'uname -r'. Or type the line exactly as I wrote in post #9, using $(uname -r).

Allend:

With the help of dolphin, which comes with a terminal attached in release 14 and KDE, I am down to Item 7 of your post 9 with confidence that all is OK.

I am having trouble with the term $(uname-r). The command line tells me that there is no such file or directory when I type it verbatim as you have written it {/$(uname-r)}. I have also tried variation of this and none seem to work. I also don't understand what you mean when you say the output of {uname-r}. The terminal returns /-r/ when I use /$uname-r/. Ref. post14


I am unable to get to the file: compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u using the terminal. I used Dolphin and found them. The terminal keeps telling me: “not a file or directory” when I use the command : 'cd compact-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u'. {?} I worked through this issue using Dolphin, but someday I would like to know why I can't using the terminal.

Thanks for your help. We seem to be getting there, sorry that I know so little.

Tom McLean

The -r option to the uname command needs to be separated with a space character. i.e. Type 'uname' then a space then '-r'
If you open a Konsole terminal window with the Shift-F4 key combination in Dolphin, it should open with the working directory set to that being displayed in Dolphin.
You can check this with the 'pwd' command.
You should also be able to see the contents of the directory with the 'ls' command.
You move between directories using the 'cd' command.

Allend:

Sorry for the last miss post. I will try the space now.

My verson seems to include a terminal with Dolphin and is set to follow the directory viewed in the GUI. That is how I got the new Module made. Someday, I would like to know why I could not do it in the command terminal.

Now the last step.

Thanks

Tom

Allend:

I did the following with the indicated results.

Bash-4.2# modprobe -v alx

lnsmod /lib/modules/3.2.29-smp/kernel/drivers/net/mdio.ko
lnsmod /lib/modules/3.2.29-smp/kernel/drivers/ethnet/atheros/alx/alx.ko
Error: could not insert 'alx' : unknown symbol in module or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

I entered 'dmesg' and got about 200 lines of stuff. Every thing before this went smoothly with no comments from the commandline

I did not reboot before tring the probe. Maybe I should have.

I will return tomorrow.

We are nearly there!

Tom

Try to type 'dmesg | tail' this should give you only the relevant information. Post what dmesg outputs in code blocks. Also typing $uname -r in your terminal is the wrong way to go about things. The $ denotes to the shell that you are entering a variable. It should also be saying something like "-r command not found" because it expects "-r" to be a command. But uname itself is a command. Try typing 'uname -a' in the terminal. It should output a bunch of information about your system. Like kernel version hostname and stuff like that. Typing 'uname -r' returns only the version of the kernel you are using. 14.0 ships with version 3.2.29, so that is what the terminal should output.

In the future, 'dmesg | tail' can be a very useful tool for troubleshooting. I use fluxbox, for example, and fluxbox does not automount (or would it be called hotplug?) devices such as external drives when they are plugged into my computer. And sometimes I do not know what device they would be under /dev. Typing 'dmesg | tail' into a terminal tells me exactly what device I have just plugged in, and what label it has (/dev/sdc1 for instance) so I can then mount it or add it to my /etc/fstab if need be. But dmesg does not just stop there! dmesg can be extremely useful when it comes to tracking down most errors.

If you need additional help with anything, try reading the man pages. Sometimes you might not need to google things at all, and sometimes still, you might just get information that was in the man page already. To learn more about dmesg, try typing 'man dmesg' in your terminal. Man pages provide lots of information about commands that you might not know how to use. It is sort of similar in some ways to adding --help, but much more detailed.

I realize this post didn't really solve any of your problems, but I hope some of this information helps you. I am not an expert Linux user, and won't claim to be. All the same though, weaning yourself off the GUI can be very useful. Once I started using fluxbox (Currently I use no other wm) I learned so much more about how to use the shell simply because no programs were doing it for me. And finally, good luck slacking!

Thanks Flyinggeorge:

What is the symbol between dmesg and tail. I don't think my key board has a vertical line on it.

I will give these things a try. However, the slack box isn't connected to the Internet, that's what started this thread, and I have no way of cutting and pasteing screen shots.

Tom McLean

Member Response
 

Hi,

Vertical bar | is the 'pipe' symbol which is 'Shift-\' on most keyboards.

onebuck beat me to the punch!

It's called the 'pipe.' Hold shift and type '\'

The pipe is a very useful symbol. It's sort of like an amendment to commands. You can use several different arguments after the pipe to make the output of commands more readable. The best examples (I guess these are just the ones I use more often) would be, most, less, tail, grep. The most and less commands do basically the same thing. Try typing 'ls | most' in a directory where you have a lot of files. Maybe if your home directory is not very populated yet, try typing 'ls /usr/bin | most' or replace most with less. This allows you to scroll through the output and look for a certain file. Or maybe you need to know if a certain file is in a certain directory. You could type something to the effect of 'ls *name_of_directory* | grep *name_of_expected_file* Or you can use grep to locate specific lines in a file. If you have a log file outputted from some program and you need to find a specific date (assuming there are timestamps) you could use cat and grep to locate the lines of interest. Something like 'cat log.txt | grep Jul\ \ 8' This example comes from a log I happen to have sitting in my home folder and there are two spaces between Jul and 8. Of course you could also search for a specific error like this.

I hope some of this helps you in the future.

Gentlemen:
Thanks for the lesson. So it is called the pipe and typed thusly |.

This would be an aside to the thread, but apropos to the thread originator:

Flyiinggeorge, since you are newer at this then Onebuck, where or how did you learn the commandline. I have the TLCL e-book, however that is 500 pages plus on my computer,and I prefer a printed book. They allow me to read several pages at one time, which helps my learning process. Preferring the printed book is probably a carryover from my engineering school days, where we would read two or more books, including appendix, at one time. With the command line I need to refer to a book at the same time I am trying things on the computer

I will work on the slack box later, and report back.

Thanks;

Tom McLean

I guess I learned from necessity. Like I said I switched from a GUI-heavy interface to a CLI-heavy interface. I learned basically everything I know from google or man pages. I wish I had a cooler story to tell, lol. Some of the things I googled that might help you out were things like "basic linux commands." Stuff like that, people will lay out examples of commands, how to use them, and such. I have never sat down with an actual book and read about the subject, although that would probably help me a lot.

Also I think I learned the most about my system when it was broken. I remember the first time I tried to upgrade my kernel I forgot to update lilo to boot to the new image and my machine would not boot linux. So I stuck the Slackware install DVD in and made it boot to /dev/sda1 and from there I read the man page on lilo and fixed it. Simple things like this not only give one a sense of accomplishment, but IMO teach a good deal about how to use a system. That is not to say that I see no use for a good book though. I've just never owned one.

*Edit: don't forget to post the output of dmesg | tail for us!

Here it is. I assume that the last four lines tell what went wrong. But I do not know what to do next. I ran /sbin/depmod -a earlier after I finished making and loading the module. The commandline returned no comment.

/home/thomas# dmesg | tail

[ 9.3762831] inputs: HDA Nvidia HDMT/DP,pcm-3 as/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card/input 13
[ 9.4909281] Adding 4162556k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1
[ 9.5057881] fuse init (API version 7.17)
[ 10.4897061] Ext4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: (null)
[ 10.682401 ] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[ 10.683730 ] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 14.0229671] alx: Unknown symbol backport _dependency_symbol (err 0)
[ 14.746007 ] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 17.0584731] alx: Unknown symbol backport _dependency_symbol (err 0)
[ 18.755461 ] NET: Registered protocol family 5

Thanks to everyone for your interest and help;

Tom McLean

Please post the output of 'sbin/modinfo alx'.

The only hint I have found on this suggests a license restriction. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5...-kernel-module

Allend:

Here it is. I apparently need two dependencies: compat and mdio. (?)

:~$ /sbin/modinfo alx

filename: /lib/modules/3.2.29-smp/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx.ko
version: 1.2.3
license: Dual BSD/GPL
description: Qualcomm Atheros Gigabit Ethernet Driver
Author: Qualcomm Corporation, <nic-devel@qualcomm.com>
description: 6FCBC2A7406D04372B764
Alis: pci:v00001969d000010A0sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
Alis: pci:v00001969d000010A1sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
Alis: pci:v00001969d00001090sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
Alis: pci:v00001969d00001091sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends: compat, mdio
vermagic: 3.2.29-smp SMP mod_unload PENTIUMIII

This was retyped from the original screen.

Thanks for your insight and patience Allend:

Tom McLean
Still; half/slacked, but gaining altitude.

As you point out, the alx kernel module has a dependency on the compat.ko kernel module. This is also built when you build the alx.ko kernel module. The mdio.ko kernel module is already present.

Try this, with the directory where you built the module as the working directory,
i)As root, create a directory for the module in the /lib/modules tree. 'mkdir /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/compat'
ii)As root, copy the kernel module into the /lib/modules tree. 'cp ./compat/compat.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/compat'
iii)As root, update the module dependencies with '/sbin/depmod -a'
As root, test with 'modprobe -v alx'

On a side note, the Dual BSD/GPL licence is fine. http://www.tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/x279.html

If you are looking for a good printed book that will teach you the command line and set you on your way to becoming a Linux guru, I highly suggest you pick up a copy of Rute from Amazon. It is older, but still relevant.

Finding the best book for whatever subject I'm studying is a genuine obsession of mine. For Linux, this one is my favorite.

You can also read it online for free:

http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

Although I share your preference for a printed book, it is nice to have a digital copy as well.

BloomingNutria:

Thanks for the suggestion. A new book from Amazon comes with a CD. The best of both worlds.

Tom McLean