Arch installation doesn't load my NIC
Hi all.
Here's my problem. I have a WinXP partition and a blank partition on my hard disk, and I decided to create a XP-Arch dual boot system. So I downlaoded the Arch FTP install. I have 4 net cards on my Toshiba Tecra laptop: - 1394 Net Adapter (no idea what it's for) - Toshiba Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card - Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection - Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC I'm only using the Realtek card (and it's working fine in Windows XP), the others are disabled under Windows. The MAC address of the the cards are: Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection : 00-00-39-63-8C-EE Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC: 00-19-E0-19-53-95 However, when I boot the CD and run the Arch installation, on the "Configure Network" page where I need to choose which ethernet card to use, I only have one choice: eth0, and next to it is displayed the physical address eth0, which appears to be 00-00-39-63-8C-EE. So Arch has loaded the Intel card, okay, but what about the Realtek card? Normally I should have had two choices, eth0 and eth1 (eth1 referring to the Realtek NIC). Naturally, when I select eth0, a "Failed to run DHCP" error message appears. Another strange thing I noticed. At bootup, the Realtek NIC's green light is off, and turns on when Arch prepares the installation, precisely during udev uevents. By the way, udev uevents takes a very long time to finish (around 180000ms !). I think maybe Arch is trying to load the card, but fails. And also, during the installation, the Realtek NIC's light is on. So, any clues on how I could get Arch loading my NIC card (maybe manually, coz there's a message in the installation saying that I can load the ethernet modules manually) ? Thanks in advance. |
Hi, first 1394 is the designation for a firewire port.
For your ethernet problem, when in arch, look, look at ifconfig if it isn't just an installer bug, then check dmesg if there aren't any signs of trouble from the cards. |
Hi serafean, I don't think it's an installer bug, "ifconfig -a" only returns two interfaces: eth0 and lo. Also, here's what lspci returns:
Code:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04) And I don't quite know how to check for signs of trouble from the cards in dmesg, should I post the result of dmesg here? (it's quite long). |
Hi, for dmesg, try dmesg | grep rtl and post it here if you see anything suspicious. Or simply try modprobe 8139cp or modprobe 8139too and then look at the end of dmesg.
As for the whole dmesg, either post it here, or paste it on pastebin.ca or something like that. The fact that it doesn't how up in lspci is really strange. Thus I found out that there are two 8139 drivers, so I suggest you check which one gets loaded, and try the other one. Or try them one by one. Another thing might be that somehow windows leaves the card in a state the L. drivers can't deal with, so you might try completely cutting power for about 30 seconds before booting Arch (to reset any memory the card has). BTW : I don't see the wireless card detected either, so you might want to check into that too (from what I've found, your card might be based on an Atheros chip.) |
Hi, "dmesg | grep rtl" doesn't return anything. And here is "dmesg | tail" after "modprobe 8139too" and "modprobe 8139cp"
Code:
Code: cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc <cc> cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc The driver that gets loaded is the 0.9.28 version, isn't it? Which is other driver, and how can I try it? Thanks in advance. Edit: I also tried turning the computer completely off during 30 sec and then running Arch, but still the same problem. |
Hi, it seems to me that its your PCCARD/PCMCIA slot that freezes up the system... relevant dmesg for future readers :
Quote:
The dmesg you posted here shows that the 8139 drivers find no hardware to configure (lspci told us roughly the same thing). |
Hi serafean, thanks for your explanation, and guess what, the problem is solved!
As you suggested I removed the realtek card and used the Intel card only. And dhcp worked! So now I have a shiny new Arch system, all is perfect. Thanks mate! I think the problem comes from the Arch kernel which is unable to load multiple net cards (no problem with Gentoo kernel and Ubuntu). Well, everything's fine now. |
Glad you're up and running, have you considered buging the arch guys about this? BTW does you wireless card show up now or not?
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