I have an out-of-the-box Fedora Core 4 on Athlon 64 3000, main board ASUS A8N SLI with nVidia nForce 4 built-in Gigabit MAC with external Marvell PHY that supports NV ActiveArmor, NV Firewall and AI NET2. My computer is on a LAN with a gateway to the Internet. The network requires manual (no DHCP) configuration. I bought this computer as a replacement for an older one. The older computer had no network problems.

Linux recognizes the card as nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller. Using Ethereal, I can see that packets (e.g. DNS queries) are sent via the card to the network. Servers on the network respond. However, the replies are not delivered to appropriate programs. If I switch the promiscuous mode in ethereal off, then ethereal sees only outbound packets. I have carefully set up the network in the same way as in the older computer (IP address, mask, gateway, DNS).

I tried two different Linux distributions: Kubuntu 5.04 live and Knoppix 3.9 live. Both had the same problem. I also tried Debian 3.1, but it freezes for more than 10 minutes every now and then during installation displaying messages like "Detecting hardware to find CD-ROM drives 84%", and it freezes for much longer during partitioning, so I aborted the installation. I also tried SuSE 9.1, which I have on the older computer, but I had 32-bits-only distribution, and encountered an error during installation.

The computer is brand new, but I cannot exclude that the shop staff performed some experiments on it. I did not run any nVidia software for the built-in hardware firewall as there is no program for that on Linux. There is a CD-ROM included with the motherboard. It contains some nVidia LAN drivers, but not for 2.6 kernels. I have seen a post requesting adding precisely my hardware configuration to the list of Fedora Core 4 compatible motherboards. The user must have used a modem instead of a network card!

I also downloaded drivers from nVidia -- a file named NFORCE-Linux-x86_64-1.0-0301-pkg1.run. Running it ends with an error:
/tmp/selfgz3098/NForce-Linux-x86_64-1.0-0301-pkg1/nvnet/nvnet.cc:990: error: `struct pci_dev' has no member named `slot_name'. I used '--keep' parameter to the script, and then changed `dev->slot_name' to `pci_name(dev)'. Then I ran the supplied installer (I installed only the network card driver, and I left sound as it was). There were no errors. I also changed /etc/modprobe.conf as suggested in ReleaseNotes.html. The module nvnet does show in the list of loaded modules regardless of whether I have `alias eth0 nvnet' in the configuration or not. The nvnet module is not used by any other module. In the network configuration program window the network card is still seen as `nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller'. I grepped *.h and *.c in the sources of the nvnet driver, and the string CK804 does not show up there.

What should I do? The only thing I have not tried yet (at least it seems to me so) is installing and running the Virus Distribution System, and also trying the supplied software for the configuration of the hardware Windows-only firewall. However, I am Linux-only user, and the idea seems to me quite disgusting, and I simply don't have any Windows.

Regards,
Jan

I installed an additional network card - a Realtek one. It was recognized by the kernel drivers and installed as eth1. However, the default route was via eth0, and I could not change it using route nor using the graphical tool in KDE. By the way, apart from an entry for 192.168.150.0, which is correct, the routing table contained also 169.254.0.0, and I have no idea where it could come from.

I reinstalled Fedora, and told it during installation to deactivate eth0 (the nVidia nForce 4 card is built-in, so I could not physically remove it), which showed up as assigned to nVidia card. What I got was inactive Realtek on eth0, and active nVidia on eth1, with the default route via eth1. Clearly a Linux bug!

Being unable to change the route with other means, I switched on NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispather - demons that configure the routing dynamically. At last I got the routing table I wanted. However, there is no real progress with the network connection. The Realtek card also works only in promiscuous mode. So it looks more like a Linux bug than a hardware bug.

Now I have a very expensive scrap metal. I will have to buy Windows to make it use my Internet connection.

Regards,
Jan

Hey there

I have the same board as you (same processor as well ;-). I'm using Slackware 10.1 with outdated kernel (2.4.29 I think) and my net connection is working just fine.

On the other hand, i'm working my ass off to find out how to install those nasty NForce drivers and get the sound working too...

Hi I dont know it this will help, but i thought i would post it just in case it does. I sounds to be like you are having trouble accessing the internet. I just bought a new mobo witht the nforce network card/ built in hardware firewall. I was having the same problem, however mine was in windows. I havem't hade the time to install linux yet snd i always install windows first on a dual boot machine. I am assumong that your computer is in a network environment with some sort of router. the problem was that my router was spoofing my internal ip addresses ie: 192.168.?.? to keep it hidden from people outside the network and as a result the firewall was blocking communication to the router/ internet. I could send packets but i couldn't recieve any. Try disabling the Block outbound spoofed IP packets and the Disallow promiscuous mode settings in the advances configuration for the firewall. this should help. at least it helped me !

p.s.: about sorry my grade 1st spelling and grammer LOL

I believe that I've run into the same problem as the original poster, albeit on WindowsXP and through different means.

I have an A8N-SLI and the onboard Ethernet died recently. So naturally I pulled a 100T out of the closet, plugged it and expected to be on my way. No such luck. While the card is working great for uploading, when downloading it stalls on certain operations, apparently on big files, usually graphics. Web pages tend to stop loading midway, but work fine if browser graphics are turned off. (oddly enough the problem is worse with Firefox, probably has to do with how memory is managed) There doesn't appear to be anything I can do to tell the nforce 4 onboard networking logic to go away. I've deactivated the onboard gigabit Ethernet in the bios and turned off and uninstalled the firewall. And naturally, as I am in a windows environment, I reinstalled the OS. Nothing seems to stop nforce (or whatever the problem is) from meddling with downloads.

Did anyone figure out how to bypass the problem and get a network card working on nforce 4?

I'll let you know if I find anything else out.