Nvidia network card (MCP73) not working
 

I have installed enterprise linux (OEL5) 2.6.18-92.el5PAE on an Acer desktop. Its a dual boot with Vista as another OS. The network card works on Vista.

I have been trying almost all solutions since 3 days that I could find on google and couple of them on LQ. but, nothing works!

DEtails of the error:

lspci gives me
00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP73 Ethernet (rev a2)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Unknown device 0137
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 7
Memory at fea73000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at c880 [size=8]
Memory at fea7e800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Memory at fea7e400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue=0/3 Enable-



[root@localhost dev]# lsmod |grep force
forcedeth 57360 0


[root@localhost dev]# modinfo forcedeth
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5PAE/kernel/drivers/net/forcedeth.ko
license: GPL
description: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver
author: Manfred Spraul <manfred@colorfullife.com>
srcversion: 419E434E54F6E412C7D8F20
...and other details

[root@localhost dev]# ifconfig eth0
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Below is the configuration of eth0
# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
TYPE=Ethernet
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
HWADDR=00:21:85:04:AB:76
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.0.4
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

I am new to linux. could somebody please help me?

Well let's see if it's a hardware issue or a network issue. It seems that your system detects the hardware for your ethernet card. Do you see lights on the device when it is connected? There should be a green light indicating power and an amber light when data is being communicated.

Secondly, I'm not clear on how accurate your network settings are - they seem to be fine - but have you tried attaining address information from DHCP?

Yes I could see the green light. But it doesn't blink. I tried DHCP too. Just curious, why do you think the system detects the ethernet card? because, I tried the GUI to configure the Card and whenever i try to activate it says it didn't find eth0 and will delay initialization.

also wanted to add that the ifconfig -a gives me lo and sit0 no eth0!

I think it detects your Ethernet card because of the following output from lspci:
Here's what mine looks like:
So I'm assuming the MCP73 is the Ethernet card in question. The fact that lspci finds the card but ifconfig doesn't is very confusing. Is there any chance you have the card disabled in the BIOS or do you have the card administratively down like using the command ifdown or ifconfig eth0 down? I'm going to google while you read my reply.

double post

Does it have anything to do with Vista as the other OS?

One question. Whenever linux tries to activate a card, does it log anywhere what it is trying to do? Like it found conflicting address? or is finding the driver of wrong version?

just fyi. The SATA drivers from nvidia work and so do the display drivers after i downloaded and ran the script. So its just the Lan driver which doesn't seem to work.

It has nothing to do with Vista as the other O/S. Once you boot into OEL5 it has complete control over the hardware and the Vista O/S has no interaction with the hardware.

you have a static connection ?. or are you using ppoe. or adsl. . if so do you have a built in wifi also.. ifconfig eth0 up. then type dmesg and see the out put then type ifconfig and see if the eth0 is up. i had a wifi card in once and it just decided it wanted to be eth0 instead of eth1 or ath0 or wkan0 but that happen when bios see it it first. go into bios set it to none windows operating system now bios can let linux read them linux is not very good at controlling
the bios they like to read them then set up to them. now we know it is not a irq problem. as root or sudo ifconfig eth0 up . then type ifconfig and if you see it that tells you the /etc/rc.d/rc.init1 is not being loaded. a few reasons but lets just see if this helps. if ifconfig eth0 up and it works if you now you may have to sigh in through you gateway. or do a dhcpcd.
if it does not connect type dmesg read the out put. now do a /etc/rc.d/rc.init1 restarts. then typ if config nothing then type dmesg read the out put . nothing this will tell you the rc.init1 file not the the conf. file. is not set to executable bug one. the scripts are suposed to do this for you when you put all that info in the gui interface.

I tried the dhcp connection too. Also I don't have any other network device other than the lan card.
the ifcgf-eth0 now looks like this:
TYPE=Ethernet
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes


I then tried ifconfig same problems:

[root@oraapps network-scripts]# ifconfig eth0
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found
[root@oraapps network-scripts]# ifconfig eth0 up
eth0: unknown interface: No such device

One thing i noticed is the lsmod shows ipv6. is this a problem? does that mean the ipv6 is enabled?

I have had manny problems with that chipset also, tried manny dists, but when i installed ubuntu everything just worked, debian suse redhat and manny others all had problems either with the nic or the sata controler.

It doesn't have anything to do with v6. What is the output of just ifconfig? Don't specify "eth0". Try it with root permissions as well if that makes any difference. This is perplexing!

this is a coppy of mine check it out.
# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]=""
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""
this tells the scripts to look for a live eth0 and start pinging for it.
as root type lsmod make sure you module is loaded. if it is type ifconfig
if nothing type ifconfig up. then type dhcpd this run the sript that ask your conection to connect. once it is up you still need to do your gatway through your browser.
tell us what your hooking up to like a router or a dsl modem cable modem etc etc.

Drakeo ->

It's already done, just scroll to the top of the page.

dhcpd command runs dhcp server deamon, not client. You won't help anyone with that kind of posts.

Othergoodboy ->

please post the output of command. Maybe your card showed up as eth1?

Output to ifconfig (with out -a) shows the lo only. No eth0 or eth1. But ifconfig -a show sit0 in addition to lo.
Here is the output of ifconfig -a:
[root@oraapps ~]# ifconfig -a
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:926 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:926 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1907044 (1.8 MiB) TX bytes:1907044 (1.8 MiB)

sit0 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

The modprobe.conf looks like this:
alias scsi_hostadapter ahci
alias scsi_hostadapter1 usb-storage
alias eth0 forcedeth


It also doesn't give me any errors while i load forcedeth:
[root@oraapps network-scripts]# modprobe forcedeth
[root@oraapps network-scripts]#

Does any body have any diagnostics program that I could run to get more info on the error?

1. try to disable wake on lan in BIOS if you can; here is the article and solution for realtek cards, maybe it's similar problem since you dual boot: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=538448
2. use other distros liveCD as diagnostic - maybe it's distro specific problem.