Network card not working...?
 

I'm having problems with my ethernet conenction in this old mahcine I got some days ago.
I installed Debian 3.0 on it. It's AMD 200mhz, 32MB RAM. When i run lspci i get an ethernet controller called Realtek (RTL-8139). Now, when i run ifconfig i get nothing at all. What should I do?


bear with me, im a real n00b with this.
thanks in advance.

You need to load a kernel module for the card, it will be called 'rtl8139' or '8139too', the second one is newer.
Do 'modprobe 8139too' or 'modprobe rtl8139' to load the module then configure your network.

thanks i did the modprobe and then ifconfig 192.168.0.102. All seems good, but I can only ping computers in my network.
Let me be more specific, I have 3 computers connected to a router which goes into a cable connection. computer 1 has winxp and slackware and both work. computer 2, my bro's laptop, winxp and works. computer 3, the one we are talking about, only pings inside the network. are there other options in ifconfig i should set up?

What is your routing table like? post the output of:
route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0


as for pc 3..
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0

now... I access my router info by going into the browser and goign to 192.168.0.1. Wwhat can u tell me from all this?

You need to add a default route to PC3.

ok i got it working, but, for anyone who wants to use the advice I have to add and modify soem things.
once I did the modprobe and configured the network, I ran that route command. As david_ross pointed out, I had to add a default connection but his code didn't work for me. I used:
route add -net 0.0.0.0 gw 192.168.0.1
once with that, i had to make sure there was a /etc/resolv.conf on PC3. There wasn't. I copied the one on PC1 into PC3 and... internet works. Thanks guys. ( Im a satisfied n00b)

Sorry man - I forgto netmask:
route add 0.0.0.0 netmask 0.0.0.0 gw 192.168.0.1

Your way is fine to - linux is usually able to workout the mask for your network.

ok cool thanks. one more question though. modprobe only loads the module temporarily. If i want the 8139too driver to be loaded on startup, I have to recompile the kernel, right?

no, you sure don't.

it can be loaded as a module on boot. (I'm using the same card, although having some troubles)

check out the rc.modules file and uncomment the line for
modprobe 8139too

save that, and it should load on boot.

:)

Hope that helped.
-Shade

Hi. I have a question about my 8139 card. Bear with me because I am totally brand new at this. I did modprobe 8139 to load the module for the card but it still is not working. When I tried to activate the card, it give me "SIOCSIFFLAGS: Device or resource busy" error. When I do "dmesg" I get the message "No IRQ Known for pin A of device 01.0b.0" How can I fix this? Thank you in advance.

Pleaseeeee
 

Please someone help me with the question above. THis is my first Linux experience and it's disappointing me. Please help me if you can. Thank you.

You need to do 'modprobe 8139too'.