No ethernet (or CD/DVD) after hardware upgrade (prob. w/ Intel DG33BU motherboard?)

adasiak · 07-11-2008, 08:22 PM

(First, apologies: I only now read Finegan's "What to include in a Hardware question" sticky. Since I'm away from the machine with the problems, I can't post some of the preferred information yet. I'll come back with it soon. Perhaps interested folks could start chewing on this now? I'd be grateful.)

I just gave my computer a spiffy hardware upgrade, and now I can't get any operating systems to work on it.

Specs:

Motherboard: Intel Classic Series DG33BU (also identified as Intel LGA775 DG33BUC)
Storage controller: Promise Ultra 133 TX2
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Graphics card: Sapphire, ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512MB
Optical drive (not upgraded): LG GCC-4480B CD-RW/DVD-ROM

I tried all the live/installation discs at my house, with these results:

MEPIS 7.0, which installed perfectly, does not connect to the Internet. There seems to be no /eth0 device.
Debian 4.0 cannot detect the CD/DVD drive.
Kubuntu 8.04 install will not (1) Auto-configure network with DHCP, (2) Select and install software, (3) Build LTSP chroot, or (4) Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk.
Fedora 7 (live CD) will not connect to the Internet.
Slackware 12.0 can't find a CD/DVD drive.
openSUSE 10.2 reports, "An error occurred during the installation." I looked for I/O ports and for devices -- no eth0 is mentioned.
Gentoo "Could not find CD to boot, something else needed!"

If I had to guess, I'd say that Linux doesn't play well with the motherboard -- and some distros less well than others. One post in Linux Forums suggests that the DG33BU (or DG33BUC) may not be supported. It referenced Intel's Desktop Boards page, which seems to confirm that.

If the mobo isn't supported, or has limited support, what are my options? Are there drivers to download? Do I need a newer kernel? Do I need to scrap my mobo in favor of one with known Linux support? If I must scrap, is there a clearinghouse for information on Linux-compatible (or particular-distro-compatible) motherboards?

I'd like to continue using SimplyMEPIS, or another Debian-derivative -- but, really, anything will do for the moment. Is anybody else using the Intel DG33BU successfully?

onebuck · 07-11-2008, 09:46 PM

Hi,

I would first break the system to the bare minimum. The motherboard has onboard ide/sata. Set up with that and the onboard video. You can setup the network without too much trouble.

You can use whatever Livecd to test the minimum system. I would use 'SystemRescueCD', 'Knoppix' or 'UBCD Ultimate Boot CD'.

Once you get the system boot then get all the system information you can. Store it on removable media. Then start adding equipment to test the rig. This way you can win with the information you garnish.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

adasiak · 07-12-2008, 11:42 AM

In another forum, somebody else reported on problems with DG33BU & Linux. His discovery was that everything on the DG33BU was supported under kernel 2.6.24. So it appears that a kernel upgrade is in my future.

Following are the outputs suggested by Finegan. Feel free to say if you think I'm on the right track with a kernel upgrade.

--Paul

Output of uname -r is

Code:

2.6.22-1-mepis-smp

Output of lspci is

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 29c0 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 29c1 (rev 02)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 29c4 (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 294c (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2937 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2938 (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2939 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 293c (rev 02)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Unknown device 293e (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2940 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2942 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2944 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2946 (rev 02)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2948 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2934 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2935 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2936 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 293a (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2912 (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2920 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2930 (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation Unknown device 2926 (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 71c1 (rev 9e)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 71e1 (rev 9e)
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Unknown device 6101 (rev b2)
07:01.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20269 (rev 02)
07:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

Output of dmesg (yikes!) is

Code:

Linux version 2.6.22-1-mepis-smp (root@mepis-pro) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Dec 2 19:15:40 EST 2007....

-- Actually, with the addition of that last one, I exceeded the character limit. Let me know if you'd find it useful.

adasiak · 07-15-2008, 01:25 PM

Problem solved:

I learned from Intel's product page for the DG33BU that it uses the 82566DC Gigabit Ethernet Controller. I found suggestions elsewhere that the e1000 driver was needed. A little Googling found me the MEPIS page on the 82566 chipset; it seems to offer a solution less radical than rebuilding my kernel.

So far, it seems to work. See post here for fuller explanation.