Cannot Configure Ethernet Adapter With SUSE Linux
 

i got a server with Intel SE7520BD2 board. I ran Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 on it. It comes with 2 ethernet adapter :

1) Intel 8254IPI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (eth1)
2) Marvell Yukon -EC88E8050 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (eth0)

SLES 9 detected those 2 network cards as :

1) Intel Ethernet Controller
2) Intel 82541GI/PI Gigabit Ethernet Controller

The only problem is i could only configure just the Intel 8254IPI. I tried to assign an IP to the eth0 (Marvell) but whenever i tried to ping it, it didn't response at all! Even the light indicator next to the RJ45 port didn't blink.

What is the most probably problem here? Please help me.

Thanks.

Check the cable and the network it plugs into. A NIC interfaces link light will usually light up even if the computer is powered down.

the cable and the network is ok.

use ifconfig to see which Networkdevices are up. use option -a to see all of your installed devices.

with mii-tool you can see which connection (if any) a particular device has.

Give output here if you're not making any progress.

On SuSE, you can restart that interface with the command:
sudo /sbin/rcnetwork restart eth0
Do this after running "sudo tail -f /var/log/messages" in another terminal. A message in one of the terminals may indicate a problem.

I assume that these interfaces are on different network segments using different network address, or different subnets. Does the output of the "route" command look OK. Is the interface configured to start on boot?

For some NIC devices, there may be a better kernel module to use. Using google may be the best way to find if that is the case.

Also check the SuSE Firewall configuration. That interface may be assigned to a zone that has all services blocked.

the results of ifconfig -a is :

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:23:BB:CE:FC
inet addr:10.118.196.194 Bcast:10.118.196.255
Mask:255.255.255.192
inet6 addr:fe80::204:23ff:febb:cefc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr:::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1

sit0 Link encap:ipV6-IN-ipV4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1

What you can see from the output is that only one networkcard is up. Namely eth0. With an IPaddress of 10.118.196.194 and with an subnetmask of 255.255.255.192.

The other card is not even recognized. I think you need to load the kernelmodules. I`m not so into suse but if you have a file named /etc/rc.d/rc.modules check it and see what modulename follows after the name of the networkcard.
Then do a modprobe modulename.
After that check again with ifconfig -a and both nics should be up.

Check out the man page of ifconfig to get a hang on the how to fidle with your nics.

Also put in the networkcable and do a mii-tool to see which nic you put in the cable.

I use SuSE. There isn't an mii-tool package for SuSE, so I googled for 'mii-tool "man page"'. The first line of the man page at http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/mii-tool.8.html says that the command is obsolete.

Since the device shows up in the "Network Devices" -> "Network Card" dialog, the kernel module is probably loaded. Check when the device starts up: Under Network Devices -> Network Card -> Advanced -> Detailed Network Card Settings, there are a number of options for "Device Activation": At Boot Time, On Cable Connection, On Hotplug, Manually and Never.