OK, for the last time before I give up. I have posted about this problem several times on various boards, forums and groups with no answers. So, here we go again, one last time.

I have a 2.4 GHz P4 with a GB of RAM on an Asus P4PE motherboard and an on-board Broadcom 440 network adapter. I have a Dlink DI-614+ router connected to a Zoom 5011 cable modem for my local network and Internet access. I have installed on this box, WinXP, Mepis3.3.1, PCLinuxOS, DSLinux, Puppy, Knoppix, Santa Fe and Debian Sarge rc3. I use Lilo as a boot manager installed from PCLinuxOS to the MBR. Everything works very well, all OSs connect to the Internet, browse shares on the network, use the network printer and send and receive Email.

However, when I run Mepis and then reboot to WinXP, the Broadcom nic is disabled. I can't connect to the network or the Internet. WinXP shows no IP address and release IP address fails with a message that says adapter already released and renew IP address gives a can't renew error message. The only way to restore nic function is to shut down, power down and unplug the power cord. Removing all power from the nic apparently resets the nic to some standard default state. If I boot Puppy after a Mepis session, it stalls at the point where the nic is being setup. I haven't checked all of the other Linux distros but PCLinuxOS is able to startup and the nic is reactivated and I can connect to the network and Internet without the power down/unplug step.

This problem does not occur after any other Linux distro session, only Mepis. So, it appears that Mepis is doing something to the nic configuration that puts it into some unusual state that WinXP and at least one Linux distro can't cope with.

Questions:

Has anyone else had this problem?

What could be causing the problem?

Is there a script or configuration or anything in Mepis that could be changed to prevent this problem?

Any and all help will be appreciated, jimbo

try shutting down the nic before you shut down mepis and boot into windows. if this resolves your problem, you can add a Kscript to your /etc/init.d scripts.

first though, try shutting down the nic.

as root: 'ifcfg eth0 down'
make sure it is down
'ifcfg -a'

then shutdown normally and bring it back up into windows. not sure which nic driver you are using, but you may want to try removing it as well, before shutting down. something like 'rmmod eth0' may remove it depending on how it was configured.

hope this helps.

-rhett

Thanks for your reply. "ifconfig eth0 down" does take the nic down, "ifconfig" shows just lo. And there is no longer a connection to the network or to the Internet. But "rmmod eth0" responds with a message "module eth0 does not exist in /proc/modules". And I don't see anything in /proc/modules that looks like a network adapter driver. (Maybe the driver has been compiled into the kernel?)

Anyway, after shutting down Mepis and booting WinXP, the nic is still disabled. Do you have any additional advice?

Thanks for your help, jimbo

I took another look at /proc/modules and found a module "bcm4400" which has to be the Broadcom 440 driver. Two other distros use a "b44" module for the Broadcom 440 driver. So I did the "ifconfig eth0 down" and "rmmod bcm4400" steps and rebooted. WinXP still cannot access the nic and the IP address is 0.0.0.0. and is "already released" and gives error 2 when I try to "renew".

Thanks for any additional help, jimbo

jimbo -

Not sure that this will help, but after installing mepis on my Dell with the broadcom integrated nic, I noticed when booting into XP that I had an "ethernet cable unplugged" error. Both network and DSL worked fine in mepis.

Researching the mepis.org forum , I found an individual with a similar problem. His fix was to update the WinXP BC drivers. With no internet access in XP, and a bad floppy on the box, this was a bit of a chore (thank the heavens for USB). After updating the BC driver in XP, my problem was also resolved.

It gave me a headache to try to figure out how installing mepis could have anything to do with XP nic drivers, so I quit worrying about it, and just enjoyed my new mepis install.

Have you tried updating the BC driver in XP? What driver version are you using?

Hope this helps.

Thanks very much for your reply. Well, my WinXP nic comes back to life when I remove all power from the nic, then power back up and boot and WinXP is back in the network/Internet business. My driver is dated 09/11/2002 and the version is 3.48.0.0. I will try to update the driver and see if that helps.

Thanks again, jimbo

tekkieman, you da man!!! The BroadCom web site had a WinXP driver for the BCM4400 adapter dated 11/01/2004, version 4.28.0.0. I downloaded and installed same. It works with no problems in WinXP AND when I boot into WinXP after a Mepis session, the nic is active and I have network/Internet access without going through that power down and unplug routine.

I can't estimate how much time I have spent searching for a solution. I am particularly puzzled about the Mepis forum. I got almost no response and a search turned up nothing about the BroadCom adapter. It just shows that two people can search for the same thing and get totally different results.

I think the current driver recognizes the unusual state that Mepis leaves the nic in and resets it to the correct state. Anyway, everything works perfectly now.

Huge thanks, jimbo

Anytime jimbo. Glad you got it fixed. It's also nice that even a complete linux n00b can have a chance to give something back.


EDIT: I caught your post at mepis.org. If you get the chance, you might want to update your post there as well, as it might give the next person with this problem a better chance of finding it in a search.

I tried to use ifcfg -a and I got "ifcfg: command not found"... also, I thought that eth0 configuration was supposed to be located in /etc/sysconfig(I can't find this directory)/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 ... I can't find that on the brand new install of Mepis 8... I know that that's the path for it in RH... so, where is supposed to be in Mepis???
I've tried locate and it doesn't return anything either...
I will appreciate any help that anyone can give me...
Thanks in advance...

jimbo-62,

Just to second tekkieman's suggestion, that would be extremely helpful to others experiencing the same problem.
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