why do I get an error message saying my ethernet card is not present?

Bronzzy · 10-28-2003, 09:21 PM

Well I'm using a Sis900 Fast Ethernet Card and I've just recently installed red hat linux 9. When ever I try to activate my ethernet adapter I get this error message. eth0 is not present delaying etc. Do you know what I should do?

h/w · 10-28-2003, 11:24 PM

might be a stupid question, but what are you doing to "activate" it?

Bronzzy · 10-29-2003, 09:29 PM

the ethernet controller activates on startup and I activate it by pressing the activate button in the network configuration panel.

h/w · 10-29-2003, 11:44 PM

type in "/sbin/ifconfig" in a terminal - do you see your eth interface there?
also, see lspci for the sis900, or dmesg to see if there was some problems at boot time?

Bronzzy · 10-31-2003, 12:05 PM

What exactly am I looking for? I tried /sbin/ifconfig and a whole bunch of stuff came up. no error messages. I don't know how to acces the other stuff you were talking about. I'm farily new to linux.

musrum · 10-31-2003, 12:21 PM

Try:

ifconfig -a

Did you see a line starting with 'eth0'?

If you did, does the next line start 'inet addr:', and the next line have the work 'UP' in it?

If yes and yes, you are looking good.

If you saw the line 'eth0' but no 'inet addr' or 'UP' the nic is running, but the OS is not configuring it with an address.

If you didn't see the 'eth0' line, then the kernel doesn't know about your nic.

In this case try:

lspci

You should see a line containing sis900. If you don't, try:

modprobe sis900

Then do the lspci and ifconfig again and let us know.

Bronzzy · 10-31-2003, 12:46 PM

so the first line did not have the ethernet adapter in it. But the inet address was there. how do I access ispci and the other tools you mentioned?

musrum · 10-31-2003, 12:55 PM

If the inet address is there, the nic is configured. Did the next line after the inet address contain the word UP? It's in a line with a bunch of other capitalized words.

lspci is a command line tool like ifconfig. Just type lspci. It will show you every device on the PCI bus.

As for modprobe, it is also a command line tool. Linux device drivers (and other stuff) can be built into the linux kernel, or built as separate 'modules' that are loaded into the kernel later, after the kernel boots up. modprobe is one of the tools which allows the user 'root' to manage the modules loaded into to kernel. Running 'modprobe sis900' loads the module for sis900 nics into the kernel so that the networking layer can talk to the nic.

Another too, lsmod, shows you what modules are currently loaded. Try it! There is also 'rmmod' which unloads modules - DON'T use this unless you know what you are doing, or want to experiment. modinfo will tell you stuff about a module.

Bronzzy · 10-31-2003, 01:33 PM

the word up is there. when I try to use the Ispci command line it says it does not exist what is the exact command line for me to use for those tools? is it /sbin/Ispci? my ethernet card is not on the pci bus. it is integrated. modprobe says nothing to load. ismod say no such file/directory.

musrum · 10-31-2003, 01:46 PM

Are you typing things correctly?

It's lspci, thats lowercase L. Even though your nic is built into the motherboard, it's on the PCI bus.

modprobe only does something if you tell it what to do, as in 'modprobe sys900'.

It's lsmod, thats lowercase L.

Bronzzy · 10-31-2003, 02:39 PM

The first line which came up when I typed in /sbin/modprobe sis900 was /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/kernel/drivers/net/sis900.o insmod sis900 failed. When I did lspci the ethernet adapter was in the list which came up.

ozstar · 10-31-2003, 04:31 PM

Hi, I too am having similar probs...

with ifconfig I have..

Line 1. Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:60 etc
Line 2. UP BROADCAST etc
Line 3. RX Pack 1161 errors - rest are 0's
Line 4. TX packs all 0's
Line 5. Collisions 0's - TX eque 0's
Line 6. RX bytes 143421 TX 0
Line 7. Int 10 base o

I also get a loopback congig which does give the inet address on the second line .. 127.0.01 Masl. 255.0.0.0. also UP LPPOP RUNNING

Thanks

ozstar · 10-31-2003, 04:44 PM

As an addendum to above..

With lspci I get the card..

00:0d.0 Ethernet Controller: Realtek Semi Conductor Co .RTL-8139/ etc...

lsmod I get..

8139too -- I noticed this # is in the Realtek line.

I am lost here as I still cannot get to the network. I am missing something somewhere but have no clue where to go now.

ozstar · 10-31-2003, 04:48 PM

This is my latest effort - but its still not getting thge network.

with ifconfig I have..

Line 1. Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:60 etc
Line 2. UP BROADCAST etc
Line 3. RX Pack 1161 errors - rest are 0's
Line 4. TX packs all 0's
Line 5. Collisions 0's - TX eque 0's
Line 6. RX bytes 143421 TX 0
Line 7. Int 10 base o

I also get a loopback congig which does give the inet address on the second line .. 127.0.01 Masl. 255.0.0.0. also UP LPPOP RUNNING

With lspci I get the card..

00:0d.0 Ethernet Controller: Realtek Semi Conductor Co .RTL-8139/ etc...

lsmod I get..

8139too -- I noticed this # is in the Realtek line.

I am lost here as I still cannot get to the network. I am missing something somewhere but have no clue where to go now.

Bronzzy · 11-01-2003, 10:30 AM

well no worries I got the ethernet working. I installed all rpm packages on the cd and something must've been installed because my eth0 adapter is working now. Thanks for all your help.