configuring nic and dsl modem and pp0
 

I am a newbie, who installed my nic and dsl modem after installing linux. I have a recent dell 512 MB RAM computer with a W2K dual boot.

My eth0 gets found on bootup, but it is set to
3Com3c920 Integrated fast internet controller
(3c-905TX compatible),
when the actual card I installed is a
Linksys LNE100TX fast internet adapter (LNE100TX v4).

I took both those numbers from my W2K device manager, and they appear as eth0 and eth1 in my neat command configuration in Linux.

When I try to set the configuration in neat, and press apply, I get this error:
"Darn, linking device pppo, ns2.mindspring.com failed"

ns2.mindspring.com is my DNS hostname for my cable modem service. My dsl modem is a SpeedStream 5260 adsl modem.

What does ppp0 have to do with this? I thought ppp was used for dialup connections, not dsl. Why does my nic appear to show up twice, or is one of those the dsl modem?
Thank you for helping connect linux to the web; it is sure a lot harder than connecting W2K to the web.

John

First off, pppo is for PPPoE protocols means that you obtain your IP configuration from ISP using ppp authontication process ( I hope I spelled it right). There is a different story if you are using DHCP to connect to your ISP, then you need to configure your NIC to obtain IP information using DHCP, in internet and network configuration it will allow you to do so.

first fix the nic

if you are using modules then edit /etc/modules.conf

put this in for eth0

alias eth0 tulip

rmmod 3c905
modprobe tulip

then after the nic works run this command

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0

then run this command
you will need roaring pengiun

adsl-setup

answer questions

run this...

adsl-start

Thanks David.

I want to understand linux, that was the reason I installed it. I read and re-read the documentation I find, but the hardest part is knowing which part of the million pages of documentation applies to my situation.

I went to roaring penuin, and also copied your instructions in my notebook to use when I go home tonight and get to my linux box. But what exactly do your instructions *mean*?

What is tulip?
What is modprobe?
what is ifconfig doing?

Since I can go look those up now, the most important question I have is:
How did you know that my problem related to those commands in particular?

None of the material I read trying to solve my problem even mentioned these; Instead it talked of neat or DNS, or gave me the man page for netconfig.

Is it true that simply typing incantations and secret fromulas leads eventually to *undertstanding* what is going on?

Thanks again.

this may not apply to your problem, but the reasoning is this...


you said your card was recognized as a 3com so if the 3c905 driver is loaded then rmmod 3c905 will unload it. I doubt it will be because it would have failed to load, so really you more than likely do not need this but it won't hurt.

also there must be an entry for the tulip driver in /etc/modules.conf file

so to use the tulip driver, which works with the linksys card you need to set the alias in /etc/modules.conf for eth0

eth0 is your nic

modprobe attempts to load the driver


ifconfig is setting the ip address of the card to 0.0.0.0 which will get it ready for rp-pppoe, this may also not be necessary but in some cases it may be.

Thank you for your explanation, David. I had some difficulty carying out your recommendation. After editing the modules.conf file and rebooting, the login messages report
"invalid line 7 and line 8 in modules.config", which are the two lines I added. I just went back to be sure everything is spelled right and appears in the proper order, and it's all ok as far as I can tell.

Also, I downloaded the roaring penguin file (from windows of course, because the whole point of this exercise is to get web access through linux). I saved the file to a floppy, but when I tried mounting the floppy, I receive only a message asking me If I want to format the floppy (i.e. linux doesn't see the windows data).

How do I get around this? I have heard that I can mount my windows partition in linux, to have access to the files from linux. How would I do that, enabling me to get to the downloaded file from roaring penguin?

Thanks again.

John

the alias must be there to work with the module


it is exactly this....


alias eth0 tulip



-----------------------


that's it, the other stuff was a command to run and in my post maybe it looked like it should go in the modules.conf file.

sorry for the confusion

Don't worry about the rmmod command it won't do any good. Just make sure the modules.conf file has no other alias for eth0


then from a terminal or xterm run this command ...



modprobe tulip


we need to do this to see if you have the driver and if it will install.

--------------------------------

if it does then it will be great. if not post the error


you said you have two nics, I guess the other one is the 3com

so this could change things a bit

if you have the 3com working as eth0 then the linksys will be eth1

so the modules.conf file would read

alias eth0 3c905
alias eth1 tulip

the floppy will not work because of the lack of support for vfat, or the mount command you are using.



I guess you have a folder named /mnt/floppy

if not create it using this command...

mkdir /mnt/floppy

then use this command

mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

this will try to mount the floppy (dev/fd0) in the folder /mnt/floppy, and the file type expected will be vfat (windows)

if you get the error that it is not supported then you need to enable it in the kernel

I usually do a custom install, and enable dos windows connectivity.

and if the tulip module is not found in the kernel modules then you will need to enable it as well in the kernel.


this is really strange if you have RH 7.1 or 7.2 because they should install the nic when you installed the system. or after install kudzu should have seen it

Thanks. I was unable to run modprobe :
"command not found modprobe"

Slow but sure this linux box of mine will run. What do you suggest?

The failure of modprobe to run prompted me to check my rpm's and see if something is missing. Immediately after install, I couldn't get vim to work, and ultimately learned it hadn't been installed (why, I don't know).

What do the various prefixes in front of the rpm's mean? Are the "missing" ones important? I have a shell that I work in, so I don't understand that bash is missing. Does this have anything to do with why modprobe won't run and why I can't seem to connect to the web?

As for 2 nics, I really thought I only had one. I installed 1, and don't remember that there was one in already. I didn't pay for one to come with my computer. I'm more of a hardware newbie than even a linux newbie.

..?..... /usr/sbin/glibc_post_upgradei
.....U.. /dev/console
S.5....T c /etc/openldap/ldap.conf
.M...... c /home/httpd/html/index.html

missing /etc/default/useradd
missing /root/.Xresources
missing /root/.bash_logout
missing /root/.bash_profile
missing /root/.bashrc
missing /root/.cshrc
missing /root/.tcshrc

I think it was this that led me to believe there were two.

if you have two places to plug ethernet cables into then that will tell you


what does this command say

ifconfig -a


and also what's in /etc/modules.conf

I don't have those two answers yet, but I *did* get the roaring penguin rpm installed (thank you!). The first time I tried adsl-setup, adsl-connect, I got an authentication error, so I thought I was almost home. (Every time I try adsl-start I get a timeout error)

I re-enterd my username and password in adsl-setup, tried adsl-connect, aand twice received a slow-filling screenful of:

using interface ppp3
connect: ppp3 <--> /dev/pts/4
LCP: Timeout sending Config requests
Connection terminated
pppoe: Timeout waiting for PADO packets
using interface ppp3
Connect: pp3 <--> /dev/pts/4

...and so on till I press ^C

Incidentally, I need to type the full pathname for the adsl commands
/usr/sbin/adsl-setup
to get them to run, I guess it's not in my path (?) Is that why modprobe doesn't work, it isn't in my path?

John

you should run it as root


ifconfig -a will show your nics that are installed

when it is working the tx rx lights on the adsl modem will flash while it's connecting and sending or receiving data

I ran ifconfig and modprobe as root, by invoking su and the password. Is logging on from the start as root different?

My /etc/modules.conf file shows one ethernet connection eth0 with a tulip driver, some sound stuff, and
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc

On boot-up, I get
modprobe - can't locate module block major 30
and
bring up interface ppp0 - Timed out

Not sure if that is important.

Will go back in and try logging in as root.

I did everything over again, and made it to the web! I wanted to post my appreciation from linux, but I couldn't find this site in google, so I had to log out of linux to get to my windows bookmark. But anyway, it finally worked. Thanks.