Problems loading eth0 automatically.
 

Howdy folks.

I'm playing with Linux and have had it installed for all of two days. I'm running Red Hat 7.1 currently. (work is going to require the use of RH 7.2 with VMWare ESX server here very soon so I'm trying to ramp up a bit.)

The install went fairly well, but my NIC wasn't detected. I'm using the Mastering Red Hat Linux 7.1 book by Sybex as a guide to learning this stuff. Found it cheap at a bookstore.

Anyway...

After some serious digging in the book and online, I've got my linuxconf set to detect the module to load the driver pointing to /lib/2.4.2-2/modules/kernel/drivers/net/8319too.o
Which is the driver I have found out on the net is appropriate for the D-Link DFE-530TX card that I have installed in the system.

When I boot or restart the deamon the system returns that the module wasn't found. However, when I go to a terminal and do a /sbin/insmod and append the path listed above, the NIC will load and obtain an IP from my DHCP server. Takes a while to get an address, but it does come back with one. Looks as if I'm sending almost 40 packets to get an address back. Seems a bit heavy to me, but maybe that's normal.

I've found a thread from 2002 talking about removing the PNP stuff from BIOS and have tried that to no avail. I'm not aware of any IRQ conflicts but really wouldn't know how to go about verifying what IRQ's the system has in use at boot time anyway.

Why will inserting the module work from the command line, but not from the GUI admin app?

Also... (purely newb question here) why is it that I have to use the full path to use the insmod command even if I'm sitting in the /sbin dir?

TIA for any assistance.
:newbie:

insmod is a is a hard link to lsmod " lsmod - > insmod"

still thinking on your firdt issue

If your card is really a DFE-530TX, it uses a VIA chipset, and needs the "via-rhine" module, not 8139too. The DFE-530TX+ uses a Realtek chipset and associated Realtek modules (rtl8139 or 8139too).

Run the following command to verify the make of the card's chipset:

lspci -v |grep Ether

(case-sensitive; the first letter of the command is a lower-case "L")

As for determining IRQ and I/O address assignments:

less /proc/interrupts
less /proc/ioports

also check the output of the "dmesg" command to review your bootup messages. Look for anything related to eth0, Ethernet, and the 8139too module.


As for the need to specify a full path when you're in the directory where the program lives, the short answer is this:

For security reasons, Linux does not search your current directory when parsing your request to execute a given program. If you want this to work, you need to force the shell to look in the current directory for the executable you specify:

./name_of_program

(a "." in a pathname indicates the current directory)

Try adding the module name to /etc/modules.conf like this:
alias eth0 8139too
...or...
alias eth0 via-rhine <--- based on the previous reply


...this will load the module on bootup

DMR is correct on the chipsets used by the 530TX and the 530TX+. I set up a router once using an onboard card (530TX+ included in some IWILL Motherboards) and a PCI card (530TX) and just stumbled onto the drivers he mentioned to correct the issue. Until then I had similar symptoms.

Thanks for the ideas.
 

Have to wait until tonight to check into them, but I appericate the assist.

Regards,
ESXu