Please help with RTL 8139 on RedHat 9
 

Hi everyone,

I have just bought a generic PC card based on the RTL8139 Cardbus. When I pop the card in RedHat tried the 8139cp driver and failed. It then suggested I try the 8139too driver.

I did a "insmod 8139too.o" and that came up with a whole bunch of unresolved symbol errors.

From a brief search of the web I discovered the rtl8139 driver and downloaded it. The problem is I cannot compile the rtl8139.c source file. It came up with a huge list of errors.

Has anyone managed to get this card going on RedHat 9? If so, can you please tell me how?

Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Dany.

Put 2 lines in /etc/modules.conf file:
alias eth0 8139cp
#alias eth0 8139too

Leave one line commented out and run modprobe
modprobe 8139cp
If it fails comment out 8139cp and uncomment 8139too then modprobe again
modprobe 8139too

If you didn't do anything to the original modules which came with RedHat then they should not have dependency problems.

Hi /bin/bash/

I want to thank you for your post responding to danywu because the solution you offered for him worked for me today.

:newbie: troyboy

Slow - low throughput
 

I have ADSL with 300k+ download consistently and yet I am only getting a total of about 10k download speed on this Redhat 9 box that I am using the eth0 8139too driver.

Fact 1
When the download first starts it looks like a normal 40 k or 50 k download, which might be expected from the download source being throttled, but then it continually depleats until it is at 7k or 8k. I'm downloading an 80 Mb file and the estimated time is...forever!

Fact 2
My local network has 3 computers currently (1 XP and two Redhat boxes). The other two computers are testing out at full speed download and upload. The 3rd computer that now has Redhat, had Win98 last week and had full speed internet with no issues (switched to Redhat because I need a second development server).

Fact 3
I tried transferring a file within my 10/100 Lan and got the same results on the new Redhat box. Starts out fast (although not as fast as it should be) and then steadily loses throughput.

Fact 4 (more theroy that fact really)
I read some thread about the 8139too driver having some logical problems with its programming. One of the alleged problems was loop racing, which might explain this problem.

My Diagnosis:
Eth card or driver is bad or configured wrong.

Before I take this card back to the shop where I bought it. Has anyone experienced this and overcome the problem? Can someone offer a solution other than trying another card (which would be the 5th one on this machine).

If I have to try another card, has anyone installed a card on a Redhat 9 machine that did not have ANY config issues?

This card was listed on the Redhat compatibility short list so I thought I would be safe with it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

-troyboy

Funny you should mention that. I have a D-Link RTL8139 in the kids computer that works fine in Windows. But when I boot into Linux it's like it turns into a 2400baud modem card! I don't use their computer much and they use windows so I haven't felt the need to research.

Is there any way you can swap NIC cards with one of the other computers, and put that one in a windows-only box?

I think what I'll do is try the new 2.6 kernel on that machine and see if it helps. I've seen alot of patching of the 8139too module in 2.6 so someone is aparently aware it has problems. If I can remember I'll post back.

Good luck.

<edit> BTW To the original post. I'm pretty sure the rlt8139 module is for 2.2 kernel, which would explain why it would not compile.

More oddities
 

Plot thickens...

Tonight I get home and check the RH9 box out to see if it downloaded the 80MB file and after 6 hours it did.

Then I tested the LAN file transfer again and it was transferring full throttle at over 800k which is not bad since it was pulling data from an old 266. Then I logout as a normal user and log back in as root to get ready to do some serious work. I try Mozilla and get the snail effect again.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD...

I theorize that maybe something about logging in as root is screwing up the eth card so I log out with the intent of logging as regular user again to test the theory.

I click logout and the screen goes black, pauses and up comes a message that 'x' won't load and asks if I want to see the details of the error. My mouse and keyboard are frozen so I have to hard reboot.

I hard reboot and end up back at the same prompt with mouse and keyboard frozen again.

I try it again and another earlier prompt comes up asking if I want to scan the file structure. I go through this whole process reassigning various items from 2 designation to 1 (can't remember all of the details).

Reboot again and I'm back at the 'x' won't load prompt with keyboard and mouse frozen.

I just put in the Redhat Shrike 1 CD and loaded in rescue mode, but I'm not sure what to do now.

BIG QUESTION...Is Redhat 9 not stable? Should I try downloading Redhat 8 or is it as goofy as RH9 is being to me?

One other thing about my install that might be a factor...I have KDE and Gnome both installed on the same RH9 box and I've been trying both of them back and forth over the last couple days to see if one is better than the other. Could that be the root of the problem? I am a total newbie to these graphic interfaces, because I have always done my server admin at command prompt or with a web-based manager. Now I need to use some tools that require either KDE or Gnome so I have to get up to speed.

I know that I data dumped in this thread -- thanks for the patience with me.

-troyboy

I sounds like your X configuration somehow got borked. When you get stuck like that (between booting and startx) you need to try booting into single mode. At lilo menu hit <Esc> then type linux single. This will boot you into a single user bash prompt. From there you can run xconfigure or whatever tool RH uses I think setup will do it.

Gotta go to work now.

Console Device load
 

I found that if I initiate interactive setup and then tell it not to load gdp (or is it gdm), that it doesn't lockup the keyboard. I then was able to load the shell and try to run x server from there. It says it is missing pcidata so I think the problem might be related to the NIC card eth0.

I did I file find last night looking for any file with the name pcidata, but the operation was still going when I fell asleep. I'll check it again this afternoon when I get home.

Total reinstall
 

I did a total reinstall. Which was harder than it should have been. Everytime I would install the CD's anaconda would shut down.

I searched and searched to try to find out how to reformat the hard drive from Redhat, but could only find how to change partition settings, which evidently wasn't enough to scrub old configs off of the hard drive.

I ended up taking an old Win 95 boot disk and using fdisk and format command to scrub the drive. Then when I put the RH9 cd in I was able to have it autoconfigure partitions and install again.

Now a new install of RH9 is up, but the Realtek 8139D card is still not working correctly. I was able to get it to ping Yahoo, but with some data loss. It also loses data packets when pinging other computers within my LAN. I called the shop that sold me the card and they are supposed to have someone call me back tonight, but I am ready to give up on it.

The million dollar question...Is there a good card that is plug-n-play for Redhat 9? This one was supposedly on the compatibility list.

I have already lost 3 days progress messing with this machine because of the ethernet card. I've tried 4 cards, 5 if you include the original that I took out at the start of this painful process. I am hesitant to buy another one, because it may well be another wasted trip to the store.

3COM ?
 

I just talked with a Linux hardware supplier here in Kansas City who recommended a 3COM card. He said it is the most reliable.

Any input anyone?

3Com is a good choice for linux.

FYI, I put 2.6.0 on the kids computer and don't seem to have the problem with the 8139too driver. I didn't do a thorough test but did download an iso and it maintained a respectable d/l rate.

Got it working
 

I finally got it working full throttle. The 8139too driver was OK all along (I think).

ROUTER FIRMWARE This is what I found that worked for me. I have a Linksys BEF4 router (not wireless) and I upgraded the firmware on it so that it would recognize this NIC easier. Before it was recognizing the card, but intermittently.

DHCP While I was able to get some pings with packet losses with a static IP designated on the machine. I got full speed with no losses using DHCP. I have the DHCP table in the router restricted to just the number of computers that I am actually using to increase search and assignment speed.

SAVE SETTINGS REBOOT The other thing I found was that when I make network config changes, I want to shutdown the computer and click save setting on the logout screen. If I continued working without a saving and reboot, I started to lose performance an hour or two later. And then when I rebooted I had to go through the same process over again.

Once I was successful at getting it to load correctly from boot, it worked consistently. Now my connection on this machine rivals any other computer on my LAN.

Thanks for your input and help.

Glad you got it working. Seems like you did all the work though. :D