Debian 3.1 dhcp success then failure

shuuhen · 07-04-2005, 08:00 PM

So I'm trying to net-install Debian 3.1 r0a (Sarge) on a StarMax 3000 (ppc). After figuring out which kernel and ramdisk to use with BootX, the base install goes fine and I reboot to finish the install. During the basic install from the CD my ethernet card was detected fine and everything was configured, but after the reboot it cannot find eth0. The installer seemed to install

My /etc/network/interfaces

Code:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

When I type lspci I do find the ethernet controller listed as

Code:

0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

ifconfig lists the loopback interface, but nothing else. ifconfig eth0 says "eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found"

I know this ethernet card works with Linux, because I used it with Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1. Any ideas why it's not working?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

mjrich · 07-04-2005, 08:56 PM

Surprised it didn't work straight off -- it's quite a common chip. Have you tried

Code:

insmod r8169
ifconfig eth0 up
ifconfig

If this is works, then it may just be a matter of ensuring that the module is loaded before /etc/network/interfaces tries to bring it up.

Cheers,

mj

shuuhen · 07-04-2005, 09:17 PM

insmod just returns with 'no module by that name found'.

/lib/modules/2.4.27-apus/kernel/drivers/net only has dummy.o, plip.o and tun.o. The part that surprised me is it worked fine when it first booted from the CD to install the minimal set of files.

I think the Debian installer decided to install the wrong kernel. It should have installed 2.4.27-powerpc, but I have 2.4.27-apus. I'm thinking if I can find a good PPC Live CD, then find the files that should have been installed, I can ftp the files from my laptop.

mjrich · 07-04-2005, 10:33 PM

Sounds like a plan

Let us know how you get on with installing the correct kernel.

Cheers,

mj

shuuhen · 07-04-2005, 11:59 PM

When the installer got to partitioning, I went back which took me to the menu where you can select different install steps, execute a shell or abort install. I executed a shell (it gave me ash) so I could see what the ramdisk had for modules, etc. After I continued the install, it asked me about each step. When it got to the kernels, it let me select the kernels, so I got to pick the 2.6.8-powerpc kernel instead of the 2.4.27-apus kernel.

Even though that is working, for some reason I don't have the correct vmlinux kernel for BootX. The cd does seem to have a 2.6.8-powerpc kernel, but it insists "VFS: Cannot open root device sda2" even though the 2.4.27-powerpc kernel would open it fine. I may still need to use a Live CD, but this way to ftp something to my laptop, then ftp the file from the laptop to the partition with BootX.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to try the Live CD idea.

mjrich · 07-05-2005, 12:58 AM

Sda2 -- sounds like you might be using a Sata drive. Guess there's a slim chance that the 2.6.8-powerpc kernel is missing default support for your driver, but that does seem pretty unusual.

Good luck with the Live cd...

Cheers,

mj

shuuhen · 07-06-2005, 11:53 PM

The sda drive is actually a SCSI drive. I'm starting to wonder if there are issues with the 2.6 kernel and BootX.

So far the Live CD is not working. Ubuntu Live CD; boots, but doesn't seem to have a way of getting to anything other than the ash shell that was also on the Debian disc.

shuuhen · 07-09-2005, 12:37 PM

Well, now the NIC is recognized and the correct module is loaded. I went through the install again but after it finished the base install, I executed a shell and copied the modules the install disc uses when it boots to the target disk's modules directory.

Right now the net install is running. So far the only issue I had was the first FTP server I tried wasn't found.

mjrich · 07-09-2005, 06:14 PM

Great news !

Cheers,

mj

zero79 · 07-09-2005, 07:32 PM

you should submit this as a bug report against the discover1-data package using reportbug. i had a similar problem during sarge's testing phase. the issue was that the stage 1 installer was not loading the kernel module for my 1394 controller. so i had a different enumeration of my network interfaces during stage 1 and stage 2, which broke networking during stage 2 (because the installer assumes that this enumeration does not change) even though there was not a problem with my network card per se. something similar could be going on with your system. give them the output of "lspci" and "lspci -n". the developers added loading of the firewire kernel module for my 1394 controller, and the installer works flawlessly now.

you can check out my bug report here (i'd say start looking at the end first because in my original reports, i had no idea what the problem was) http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugre...22&archive=yes