Hey everyone

I'm having a problem that I'm sure is quite simple. When the computer starts up it doesn't initialize the ethernet card. I have to call "dhcpcd eth0" at the shell prompt before I get a network connection. I have tried running netconfig and it seems to set everything up ok but I still get the problem.

I'm running slackware 9.0 and the network card is a RealTek 8201

Thanks
kierse

need to add the command 'dhcpcd eth0' to one of the rc.inet scripts in /etc/rc.d. do a grep on those scripts though as there may already be an entry in one of them (commented out of course) for dhcpcd.

I looked in the rc.inet1 file and found the line where it calls dhcpcd, here is the code:

# Edit these values to set up your first Ethernet card (eth0):
IPADDR="127.0.0.1" # REPLACE with YOUR IP address!
NETMASK="255.255.255.0" # REPLACE with YOUR netmask!
# Or, uncomment the following lines to set up eth0 using DHCP:
USE_DHCP=yes
# If your provider requires a DHCP hostname, uncomment and edit below:
#DHCP_HOSTNAME="CCHOSTNUM-A"

# Edit the next line to point to your gateway:
GATEWAY="" # REPLACE with YOUR gateway!

# You shouldn't need to edit anything below here.

# Set up the loopback interface:
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo

# Set up the eth0 interface:
if [ "$USE_DHCP" = "yes" ]; then # use DHCP to set everything up:
echo "Attempting to configure eth0 by contacting a DHCP server..."
# Add the -h option to the DHCP hostname:
if [ ! "$DHCP_HOSTNAME" = "" ]; then
DHCP_HOSTNAME="-h $DHCP_HOSTNAME"
fi
/sbin/dhcpcd -t 10 ${DHCP_HOSTNAME} -d eth0
elif [ ! "$IPADDR" = "127.0.0.1" -a ! "$IPADDR" = "" ]; then # set up IP statically:
# Determine broadcast and network addresses from the IP address and netmask:
BROADCAST=`/bin/ipmask $NETMASK $IPADDR | cut -f 1 -d ' '`
NETWORK=`/bin/ipmask $NETMASK $IPADDR | cut -f 2 -d ' '`
# Set up the ethernet card:
echo "Configuring eth0:"
echo "ifconfig eth0 ${IPADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} netmask ${NETMASK}"
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 ${IPADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} netmask ${NETMASK}
# If that didn't succeed, give the system administrator some hints:
if [ ! $? = 0 ]; then
echo "Your eth0 card was not initialized properly. Here are some reasons why this"
echo "may have happened, and the solutions:"
echo "1. Your kernel does not contain support for your card. Including all the"
echo " network drivers in a Linux kernel can make it too large to even boot, and"
echo " sometimes including extra drivers can cause system hangs. To support your"
echo " ethernet, either edit /etc/rc.d/rc.modules to load the support at boot time,"
echo " or compile and install a kernel that contains support."
echo "2. You don't have an ethernet card, in which case you should run netconfig"
echo " and configure your machine for loopback. (Unless you don't mind seeing this"
echo " error...)"
fi
fi # set up eth0

When I dmesg looking for anything with eth0 this is what I get:

eth0: Realtek RTL8201 PHY transceiver found at address 1.
eth0: Using transceiver found at address 1 as default
eth0: SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xd000, IRQ 10, 00:0a:e6:79:fc:fa.
eth0: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex

As far as I can tell, no text is outputted from the rc.inet1 file, its like it isn't called

any ideas?
Kierse

if its not being called you can check the /etc/inittab file. Look up some info online for details (or manpage it) but this is what decides what gets executed when. I'll take a look at the scripts on my laptop (my slack system) and see what I can see too. maybe inet0 calls inet1?

ok, I was able to get rc.inet1 called by adding it rc.local which is the last thing called on startup, but I shouldn't have to do this. I am loggin in as root at the moment could that be the problem? I don't have any idea why its not calling the rc.inet1 script file.

Here is the execution trail:

on Startup /etc/inittab is called and the following line is executed:

# Script to run when going multi user.
rc:2345:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.M

then in rc.M, the following line is executed:

# Initialize the networking hardware:
if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 ]; then
. /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
fi

then in rc.inet1, the following is executed:

# If your provider requires a DHCP hostname, uncomment and edit below:
USE_DHCP=yes
...
..
.
# Set up the eth0 interface:
if [ "$USE_DHCP" = "yes" ]; then # use DHCP to set everything up:
echo "Attempting to configure eth0 by contacting a DHCP server..."
# Add the -h option to the DHCP hostname:
if [ ! "$DHCP_HOSTNAME" = "" ]; then
DHCP_HOSTNAME="-h $DHCP_HOSTNAME"
fi
/sbin/dhcpcd -t 10 ${DHCP_HOSTNAME} -d eth0
elif more stuff.....

What seems to be happening (if I have understood everything correctly) is that the if statement
if [ "$USE_DHCP" = "yes" ];
is failing and the script drops to the elif clause which is wrong!

Does anyone have any ideas?
Kierse

take control... you know you want to use DHCP so take out the if statement... keep a backup copy of the script incase you break anything ... or just put the dhcpcd command into rc.local.

hehe, yes masta!

thanks
kierse