Problem setting up Ethernet on SuSE 8.2 Pro
 

I'm using a Microsoft PCI ethernet adapter (MN-130), and I'm having some problems getting it to work on SuSE 8.2 Professional. As far as I can tell, the OS detects the physical location and details of the card, and installation set it up as /dev/eth0 . So far I've been able to ping localhost, but when I try to ping the gateway address of my router I get some error (can't remember right now, but something to the effect that the adapter isn't configured). I don't think that it's a problem with my router, since the adapter didn't seem to be working when it was connected directly to my cable modem. Any info would be appreciated, but if additional info is needed, let me know and I can post it after work.

Edit: I've tried both manual and automatic configuration of the adapter, but I haven't had any success.

Hard to say what is really wrong. Almost certainly, it is an initialization problem with your card. Try typing "ifconfig". You should see an entry for "lo" (the loopback interface which allows you to ping localhost) and an "eth0". I suspect you will not find the "eth0" listed, because it never initialized.

eMail me direct, and I will attempt to walk you through the setup.

It appears that the card isn't initializing (as I initaily suspected), however I've been able to find out a little more info about it. It has an ADM Tech chipset (AN983B), and after checking out their website it appears that it should work with the tulip.o module. However, I've tried to manually configure the card to use this module and it still doesn't work (it appears to be a supported module with the SuSE 8.2 distribution). Basically what I've done is to manually configure the SuSE YaST2 Network Interface GUI to use this module with the following options:

io=9400
irq=10

These are the same settings that SuSE tells me in Device Info (I find it strange that the card is being detected as a network interface and is listed properlly as a PCI device, but that it also states it as an unknown controller as well) and these happen to be the exact settings that XP Pro has it configured with. Unless I happen to be wrong, it shouldn't matter what I set as the local host and domain name, since this would only apply to my LAN. Other that that, DHCP is enabled for the device, which should also be the correct settings (I'm using a router configured for DHCP under XP, so if a DHCP request is made the router should provide an IP). But that is sort of irrelevant since the card isn't being initialized for communications to begin with.

There is one odd thing that I do notice when the linux kernel is loading during the boot process. When I view the console in verbose mode, a message comes up stating that network interfaces are being set up (the loopback one loads fine, but the initialization for eth0 fails). After this happens a message comes up stating that hotplug devices are being initialized, this would include USB, IEEE1394 and net. I'm not sure if this matters, but if 'net' is being initialized as a hotplug device, shouldn't eth0 be initialized after this is done?

Right now, I'm really not sure what to do...it sucks not being able to get an internet connection. I've tried just about everything that I can find that may apply to the problem I'm having. If worse comes to worse, I guess that I could try to use an old 3Com card that's been lying around (3C590), but I'd rather not do this since I've got a feeling that XP Pro wouldn't be too happy (if I remember right, 3Com doesn't provide driver support for that card under XP).

Anyway, if this extra info spawns any thoughts as to what may be wrong, let me know. Also, if you'd like me to post any configuration info, please be specific as to what may be helpful...I'm sort of relearning Linux (haven't used it in about 7 years, and ever then it was short lived) so I guess I'd be sort of a n00b (just don't know what to look for). Other than that, I'd have to say that I'm glad I decided to use Linux again...aside from the seemingly minor problems that I've had (this, trying to get 3D acceleration for ATI 9700 Pro working, and getting the NT boot loader to startup Linux). That's not to say that I'm not a bit frustrated at the moment, since I've wasted about 20 hours over the last 3 days without any success on these issues. The other ones I could probable fix no prob, it's just that it'd be infinitely easier to do if I had a working internet connection aside from XP.

Hi!

have you already tried to disable the PnP Option in the Bios?

Look at: http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/intnull.html

If you can find and disable PnP, it usually solves a lot of problems!

Hope it helps
:)

Thanks for the tip, I'll see if I can try that when I get home...otherwise I might just decided to go pick up a second NIC. Although I did a bit of searching within some of the config files, and I've got a feeling that the tulip.o module w/MMIO may not be compiled into the kernel (which could explain why it simply won't work).

Any suggestions on a NIC that does work with SuSE 8.2?

Well, I no longer need any help on this question...I decided to go drop $20 on a Linksys NIC, and happily it was detected on boot up. Now on to getting 3D acceleration for my Radeon 9700, and getting dual boot to work though the XP boot loader...