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Old 10-12-2005, 01:40 AM   #1
ergogirl
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Registered: Oct 2005
Distribution: Sarge
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Question Eth0 present; Cannot ping 127.0.0.1; next step for driver installation?


Let me start by saying this is the first time I've ever installed/used Linux so I am woefully ignorant in the most basic of tasks in this operating system.

I just installed Debian Sarge (kernel: 2.4.27-2-386) from CD on an old Micron Transport XKE laptop (Pentium, 233 MHz, 32 MB RAM). The installer worked great and now my system is up and running, albeit a bit slowly. Still, better than when it was running Win98SE.

Now my goal is to get the Linksys Etherfast 10/100 PCMCIA card to work so I can have internet access.

When I plugged in the card and connected it to my router, the three green LEDs lit up but did not flicker. I could not connect to the internet using Mozilla, no ping packets were returned, etc. Network Settings (under Gnome) showed Eth0 was set to DHCP as it was under the Windows system, but activating it / enabling it seemingly had no effect.

I assumed I needed updated drivers and a Google search pointed me to the scyld.com/driver_updates.html site where I grabbed the netdrivers using another PC, burned a CD, and transferred them to the laptop. I then did a make, then make install, and got a bunch of errors about kernel-headers.

More Googling.

It became clear I needed the headers, so I used Synaptic to install kernel-headers-2.4.27-2-386 and then repeated the make / make install process. At this point, things looked more promising and the only errors I got was a warning about "strict-aliasing rules", which I ignored.

I then shut down for a while and when I rebooted it several hours later, there were now _4_ kernel entries to choose from at startup, rather than the original two:

Originally:
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-386
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-386 (recovery mode)

Now:
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-686
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-686 (recovery mode)
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-386
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27-2-386 (recovery mode)

No clue why it did this. At any rate, I selected the first one and it failed to boot (returned me to the same screen after a while). I then chose the -386 version and it booted correctly.

Unfortunately, the ethernet connection still did not work. I saw that others having this problem were asked to report what lspci resulted in... since I have no way of grabbing the output and transferring back to my working PC to paste here, please understand these are not complete messages. I just transcribed the parts that seemed important:

0000:00:0a.0 Cardbus bridge Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
0000:00:0a.1 Cardbus bridge Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 11)

Currently, ifconfig eth0 returns the following:
Link encap: Ethernet HWAddr blah blah blah
inet addre: 192.168.2.12 Bcast: 255.255.255.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX Packets:901 (and all the other values = 0)
TX Packets:583 (all other values = 0)
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes: 95578 (93.3 KiB) TX bytes: 56530 (55.2 KiB)
Interrupt:9 Base address:0x4000


Also, when I tried to ping 127.0.0.1, I received:
connect: Network is unreachable

I don't really know what my next step should be.... do I need to do anything more to the drivers I installed? Others have mentioned modprobe but I was under the impression from the scyld.com website that I didn't have to do that if I installed the whole group in one fell swoop.

All suggestions appreciated.
 
Old 10-12-2005, 03:21 AM   #2
sean_pereira
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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Perth, WA
Distribution: Gentoo, ubuntu, BeatrIX, Knoppix, RedHat <= 9, Solaris 8
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I am about to suggest an approach which may not solve your problem directly, but hopefully should help your find one.

1. Download and burn a Live CD distro like Knoppix, ubuntu or Beatrix (note : current versions these distros are kernel 2.6 based)
2. Boot with the live CD
3. If the system boots successfully (can check for network access, etc), then have a look at what modules worked (lspci again). You could use this information to sort out your debian-sarge install.
4. Should you have problems with these live CDs, then a read of the boot time cheatcodes should help.
 
Old 10-12-2005, 03:56 AM   #3
SkyEye
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First of all, welcome to LQ ergogirl!

First run a
Code:
dmesg
and check the output to see eny entries relating to ethX and your NIC. Should have something like (if things are ok),
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on auto-negotiated ...........

Try "ifdown eth0" and "ifup eth0" do take the interface up and down. Check the output. If you get errors have a look at the end of the file "/var/log/messages" If averthing seems fine we'll use some other tools.

If you have synaptic you would not have much trouble installing some more support packages like ethtool, mii-tool, etherconf (if you don't have them already installed)

Try reconfiguring the NIC using etherconf
Code:
dpkg-reconfigure etherconf
You can use the other tools to change network parameters. You should down and up the interface to reinitialise it. And check pinging the 127.0.0.1 (this is loopback, not eth0. Just checking because you said you couldn't ping it)

These will help you to find out the cause. After you do these things and your own researching, and still have troubles LQ members will be here to help you.

Last edited by SkyEye; 10-14-2005 at 01:20 AM.
 
Old 10-13-2005, 01:15 PM   #4
ergogirl
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Registered: Oct 2005
Distribution: Sarge
Posts: 5

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update

Hello sean_pereira and SkyEye, thanks for the suggestions. Here's my progress so far.....

1) Tried to boot off a Live ubuntu 5.10 CD and got the following message:
Code:
Loading nic-firmware-2.6.12-8-386-di failed for unknown reasons. Aborting.
The the screen went blank and after some time I shut it down and allowed it to boot from the hard drive. I have no idea what this means. Could it be that my old laptop doesn't support the 2.6 kernel and ubuntu comes with 2.6?

(As an aside, I loaded my work PC off of ubuntu as it was down due to a Windows virus) and it started up beautifully. I'm so impressed with it, and so sick of having to patch Windows, that I think I'll install the full ubuntu version for good.)

2) Anyway, back to my progress. I checked the dmesg and didn't see the message you suggested, SkyEye. Here's some of what I did see:
Code:
Linux Tulip driver version 0.9.15-pre12 (Aug 9, 2002)
and
Code:
tulip0: MII transceiver #1 config 3100 status 7869 advertising 05el
eth0: ADMtek Comet rev 17 at 0x4000, 00:04:5A:A6:2D:5F, IRQ 9
When I typed "ifdown eth0":
Code:
/etc/network/interfaces:15" too few parameters for iface line
ifdown: couldn't read interfaces file /etc/network/interfaces"
I got the same message if I typed "ifup eth0".

If I type "more /etc/network/interfaces" this is the reply:
Code:
#This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
#and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5)

#The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

*The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
name Ethernet LAN card


iface inet static
iface  dhcp

auto

iface inet static

name Ethernet LAN card
My next step is to see about those config tools you mentioned, SkyEye. I plan to experiment with them for a bit and if I STILL can't get the etherfast card to work, I will shift tactics and try to get my wifi card to work instead.

In the meantime, if anybody sees any clues in the above messages, please let me know.

Thanks!
 
Old 10-13-2005, 02:37 PM   #5
mgmax
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 82

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Two things:
1.
127.0.0.1 is the interface lo, not eth0. It doesnt have to do with each other. If you can ping 192.168.2.12 or whatever your ip on eth0 is, then eth0 is ok.

2. I think the dmesg output means that line 15:
iface dhcp
is wrong.

Could you try to delete all lines after "name Ethernet LAN card"?

Max
 
Old 10-13-2005, 11:54 PM   #6
ergogirl
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Registered: Oct 2005
Distribution: Sarge
Posts: 5

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Getting closer.......

ok.... I am encouraged.

I just downloaded ethtool and etherconf (mii-tool was not on my synaptic list, probably because I only burned and scanned the first 4 CDs for Debian) and they installed successfully, if a bit awkwardly. One of the tools asked me several network-specific questions which I answered Shortly after using Synaptic, I couldn't open any terminals in GNOME, so I shut it down.

Upon restart, it gave me the following message: "Could not look up internet address for micron.comcast.net. This will prevent GNOME from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by adding micron.comcast.net to the file /etc/hosts. LOG IN ANYWAY TRY AGAIN

I logged in anyway and opened a terminal.

The good news:

1) I can now ping 127.0.0.1 Yay!

2) After bringing eth0 down and then up, I can now ping my laptop's IP address. Double yay!

3) dmesg now includes a new line:
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII#1 link partner capability of 45e1

4) The /etc/network/interfaces file was rewritten by etherconf to say:
Code:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
(I think this is what you were trying to tell me, mgmax. Thank you.)

The bad news:

1) I still cannot connect to outside IPs. For instance, I tried to ping google (66.102.7.99) and got "Network is unreachable"

2) Whenever my screensaver tries to kick in, I get the following message:
Code:
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified
Error: Can't open display :0.0
Xscreensaver :00:20:08:  0: child pid 1370 (gears) exited abnormally (co
and the rest of the message runs off the screen.

3) when I type ethtool eth0, I get the following:
Code:
Settings for eth0:
No data available
Is this what it should say? Or should there be some basic settings already in there?

So, I think I'll browse the forums and see if others have had problems connecting to outside IPs and how they resolved it. Once again, if anybody sees anything striking in what I've written, or knows of a solution, please help this newbie out.

Thanks for all the help so far!
 
Old 10-14-2005, 01:43 AM   #7
SkyEye
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If you say you are a newbie, may be you are, and a good one. Not many have what it takes to navigate this confidently as a newbie.

Anyway, you'd better check your nameserver (DNS) and route settings. If your interface is working, you should chech these settings in your network. Try a traceroute also.


Quote:
2) Whenever my screensaver tries to kick in, I get the following message:

..................................
This to me looks like a seperate issue. Try this
Code:
xhost
If the output says something like "access control enabled, only autherised users ...." Then add localhost and your host name to xhost.
Code:
xhost +
will enable any user.
 
Old 10-14-2005, 03:06 AM   #8
ergogirl
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Registered: Oct 2005
Distribution: Sarge
Posts: 5

Original Poster
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Thumbs up SUCCESS!

Got it!

Not exactly sure how, though.

I rebooted my laptop because GNOME was acting buggy, not letting me open other applications, etc. After the reboot, I still got the error message about not finding the internet address and GNOME not working properly......

I opened up a terminal, brought up eth0, and now all is well. I can ping out, and more importantly I can connect to the internet, use Gaim, etc.

The thing is, I'd like to automate it so that eth0 is brought up automatically when my laptop is booted. I know I can do this is the /etc/network/interfaces file but I'm not sure how.

My current file looks like this:

Code:
### etherconf DEBCONF AREA. DO NOT EDIT THIS AREA OR INSERT TEXT BEFORE IT.

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

###END OF DEBCONF AREA. PLACE YOUR EDITS BELOW; THEY WILL BE PRESERVED.
So, I took the eth0 down, opened up vim, and added one line below the debconf area: "auto eth0"

Then I rebooted and got several errors about not being able to bring up eth0.

Took out the offending line, rebooted, and it booted up nicely.

So.... what is the correct way to automatically bring it online? Should I ignore the DEBCONF warning and add eth0 to the "auto lo" line? or is there some other way to go about this?

Thanks!
 
Old 10-15-2005, 10:50 AM   #9
ergogirl
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Registered: Oct 2005
Distribution: Sarge
Posts: 5

Original Poster
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persistent login warning

I typed "xhost +" and successfully disabled the access controls, but that warning at login is still present:

"Could not look up internet address for micron.comcast.net. This will prevent GNOME from operating correctly. It may be possible to correct the problem by adding micron.comcast.net to the file /etc/hosts. LOG IN ANYWAY TRY AGAIN"


I think it would be able to look up the internet address if eth0 was brought up during boot. When I bring it up manually, it can lookup its internet address just fine.

I have tried adding the line "auto lo eth0" to /etc/network/interfaces but that doesn't bring it up.


Any ideas on how to automatically bring up eth0 during boot?


Thanks!
 
Old 10-18-2005, 01:27 AM   #10
SkyEye
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Re: persistent login warning

Quote:
Originally posted by ergogirl
I have tried adding the line "auto lo eth0" to /etc/network/interfaces but that doesn't bring it up.


Any ideas on how to automatically bring up eth0 during boot?
Try adding the line ONBOOT=yes under the section of your interface.

Last edited by SkyEye; 10-18-2005 at 01:34 AM.
 
  


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