troubles getting Gigabit NIC to work in slack 10 (HGA32T NIC)
 

I recently purchased the HGA32T for use in a linux machine (running slackware 10.0 kernel 2.4.26). So far, I've had no luck getting the NIC to work. The kernel recognizes the card, but as a Realtek 8129 rev 16, not as 8169 (as the NIC documentation says). And as such, it is automatically loading the 8139too driver for the NIC. At this point, when I initialize the network, the card acts as though it's working fine, but when check the device, via "ifconfig", the NIC has no MAC addy, i.e. it says "00:00:00:00:00:00".

At this point, I can ping the IP assigned to the card, but that is it.. nothing external, which is to be expected, since it doesn't even have a MAC addy.

If I unload the module for the 8139too, and try to use load the r8169 driver (included with slack 10 - used command "modprobe r8169") it errors, and tells me: "init_module: No such device"

which tells me that it doesn't even recognize the card at all.

It's really weird. The device is even being assigned an IRQ, an IO addy, and a mem addy.

From this point, I decided to compile and use the driver supplied on the CD that came with the NIC. Once I compile it, via the given Makefile (with module path corrected in it), and install it, I "depmod" and then try to "modprobe r8169" and this time it not only gives me the same error as before, but now it's complaining about the driver I compiled being tainted.
I seriously doubt that the taint error has anything to do with the problem, since the same problem happens with the driver supplied with slack 10.

So, now I install the test 2.6.9 kernel that comes with slack 10, and try to get the NIC working. This time, slack recognizes the card as a 3c59x, and installs the driver for it, which don't work.

Then, I deinstalled that driver and load the r8169 driver, whichs does actually load now... but when I try to bring up my NIC via "ifconfig eth0 up" I get an error "unknown interface: no such device".

I'm confused.

HELP! (=

I'd appreciate any insight and such that anyone can give on the matter, so that I can start using this new NIC!

please feel free to bombard me with questions and I can give you as much info as I have at my disposal.

well... i don't know your nic. but you could try the tulip-module
it's a driver for many nic's. ( just try " modprobe tulip " )
just a guess....

egag

Have you removed all other NICs? You have tried Knoppix to see which module it loads? What's the lspci output?
And are you sure you REALLY bought this card?:D

Ok, I've now tried two different HGA32T cards in this machine on both Slackware 10, with kernel 2.4.26 and 2.6.7, and Knoppix 3.6 with it's default kernel.

I updated the MB bios to the most recent.

I beat the computer to death with a hammer.

It doesn't work still.. it still recognizes the NIC as a 8129. hawking support told me that it should be recognized as a 8169, which is isn't. It is recognized as a 8129 rev 10 or rev 16, depending on the location of the sun, apparently.

I'm beginning to think that these cards are a bad choice.

My brother even tried both cards in a win98SE machine, and he's not having any luck either.

And this is on a brand spanking new Athlon 64 MB/CPU.

( don't ask why running 98SE on a 64 bit MB, please.. ::smile:: )

Does anyone know what gigabit NICs *will* work in *nix and windows 98SE?

Thanks!

Maybe one of those they used in supercomputer clusters.

One way to find out is to go into the kernel source by

make menuconfig in the kernel source directory.

Go to Device Drivers --> Networking Support --> Ethernet (1000Mbit)

8169 is supported. Maybe you want to just compile that driver IN TO your kernel instead of leaving it as modules. OR just compile everything as module :)

as i read it all , he already tried the 6189-module , but it wouldn't install.
and hawking-support is just doing a bad job; if someone would know where to get a decent driver, then they should be it.

so...it's not said that it isn't there....but if i were you i would try to exchange it for another, better supported card. ( as you bought it recently ).

egag

I have the Marvell Yukon card, but it's onboard. For a PCI card...the Intel PRO/1000, totally. Damn fine card. And, it should have 98 drivers.

A friend got an intel 1000. It works (of course).

The HGA32T Revision 1.1 works fine with Slackware if you use the 2.6.7 kernel.

You can install Slackware with the 2.6.7 kernel by going to the following site: ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/...s/linux-2.6.7/
Be sure to read the README file for installation instructioins! You will be installing from packages and will be using the the "mkinitrd" command. (The mkinitrd command lets you append modules to the kernel during bootup in a ramdisk image - its a very powerful little tool for updating your kernel)

Your 64 bit machine will love you for switching to the 2.6.7 kernel - a whole bunch of stuff will run better.

Also, Windows 98 (cough, cough) is out of its league when it comes to gigabit ethernet -- it maxes out around 100Mbps, for details see: http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sectio...le41-page6.php

Good Luck!

[...]
> 8169 is supported. Maybe you want to just compile that driver IN TO your kernel instead of leaving it as modules. OR just compile everything as module :)

This is a sensible suggestion. 'dmesg' should tell the names (eth0, eth1...) which are given to the adapters.
If you try 2.4.28 + http://www.fr.zoreil.com/~romieu/mis...9.c-test.patch and it still
does not get recognized, just send the output of a 'lspci -vx' + 'dmesg'.

--
Ueimor

Update FYI
 

We basically returned the cards as defective. We then purchased a Dlink DGE-530T, plugged it in, and it worked right out of the box. (= Which basically means I'll never purchase another Hawking product in my life, thanks to their complete and utter lack of support.

Thanks for the suggestions and help everyone!