Debian Sarge 2.6 Kernel No Network

willis3000 · 04-16-2005, 12:23 AM

Hi,

I recently installed kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686 on my Debian 3.1 by following this quick tutorial.

After I boot I couldn't get any network connection and my ethernet card doesn't show up in ifconfig.

The 2.4 kernel works fine.

What could be the problem?

Thanks!

Will

TigerOC · 04-16-2005, 02:24 AM

The most likely cause is that the ethernet card driver is not in the kernel but is a module which means you'll have to install the driver. You need to know the make and model of the card which you should have from the 2.4 kernel. As root do modconf. If it says unknown then apt-get install modconf then do it again. This will produce a menu. Go down the list until you find network card drivers and select. Then select the relevant driver for the card and install. It will do the necessary stuff for you. You then need to configure the network. The configuration is in /etc/network/interfaces

fr_laz · 04-16-2005, 07:57 AM

Hi,

you can see your PCI devices by using 'lspci' or by reading the /proc/pci file... you should have a line concerning your ethernet device and the info needed to find the corresponding driver.
Once you now what driver you need, recompile your kernel with the module corresponding to your driver.

If you've trouble to know what driver you need, post the lines of /proc/pci concerning your NIC, I'm pretty sure someone on the forum will know the driver from this.

willis3000 · 04-16-2005, 12:50 PM

Thanks for the replies!

I'm having trouble finding the driver. The line in /proc/pci regarding my NIC is as follow:

Code:

  Bus  0, device  16, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 16).
      IRQ 5.
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=32.Max Lat=64.
      I/O at 0xa000 [0xa0ff].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xce800000 [0xce8000ff].

Which driver am I suppose to select?

Thanks!

TigerOC · 04-16-2005, 01:23 PM

Thats odd. It should use the 8139too driver which should be part of the kernel. Suggest installing hotplug and discover with apt. Also have a look at the kernel config file and see if 8139too is part of the kernel or a module.

willis3000 · 04-16-2005, 01:48 PM

Thanks!

I got it to work by making some changes to the kernel config file.

Here are the lines I changed in "/boot/config-2.6.8-2-686":

CONFIG_8139CP=m ---> CONFIG_8139CP=y
CONFIG_8139TOO=m ---> CONFIG_8139CP=y

Also I used to have to manually load psmouse and mousedev for X to start, now they're loaded automatically.

What do these 2 lines mean? Do I need to set them both to 'y'?

Thanks again!

TigerOC · 04-16-2005, 03:04 PM

You wouldn't have got it to work merely by editing the config file and not recompiling the kernel. The entry;

CONFIG_8139CP=m
CONFIG_8139TOO=m

indicates that the drivers have been included as modules in the compile process and are therefore in the modules library.