DSL doing eth0, eth1 - only have ONE card

Forum: Networking
Topic: DSL doing eth0, eth1 - only have ONE card
started by: robgreene

Posted by robgreene on April 15 2005,04:05

I admit this is really weird, and I have a hunch why it happened. However, I don't know a good way to get past it.

I pulled out my old 486-33 (which was upgraded to a P83 overdrive) to put DSL on. Once I got all the hardware configured and the bootdisk working, everything worked well...

Except for my network card. I didn't check from the LiveCD, but I suspect it didn't work there either

Many moons ago, this box served as my firewall. It had two cards in the machine. Somehow DSL still thinks I have these two cards in the machine - even though it has only had one card in it during the entire DSL install.

The only explanation that makes sense is that DSL examines the pre-existing configuration - which must have been still setup with two cards before this machine got mothballed.

How do I convince DSL that I don't have two network cards? From the scripts that mention "eth", they all pull the network configuration from the /proc filesystem. When I look at the file, that file lists two network cards - neither of which is in the system.

I've aliased 3c509 to eth0 in /etc/modprobe.conf and manually run modprobe. I've created /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg.eth0. I've edited /etc/sysconfig/network and run it. I've run /sbin/ifconfig and tried to configure it manually. I've played with /etc/init.d/ifupdown and /etc/init.d/network. No luck!

The only plan I can come up with is to boot from the LiveCD, mount my 340MB and 540MB drive and then rm -rf them to wipe them clean. Maybe even drop the partitions. I'd reboot the LiveCD again at that point - just to make sure.

That seems way too drastic. I'm sure there is a file hidden somewhere that I can edit or a detection script that can be re-run.

Thanks for any suggestions!
-Rob

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on April 15 2005,04:18

Does your nic do more than one type of media?

Like serial and cat5?

or does your bios have a serial port set up as a nic?

DSL does not look at anything on a hdd when you are booting the CD.

Posted by robgreene on April 15 2005,13:09

Nope, just one NIC - one connection. Serial not setup as a NIC. I do have a serial mouse - but that wouldn't show up as eth0 or eth1.

The reason I think DSL grabbed the prior configuration is that there was a message that suggested it was examining the prior Linux install to figure out hardware setup. At least that's what I interpreted the message as.
-Rob

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on April 15 2005,14:08

Okay, do this.

Pull the hard disk(s) out, start up DSL, and see if it still sees 2 nics.

If no, then you're good to go, just dump the partitions and install DSL, if it is still seeing 2 nics, something else is going on, and you should post your hardware info (mobo, proc, chipset, etc).

-J.P.

Posted by robgreene on April 15 2005,19:20

Did that - it saw one NIC (3c509) which appears to be correct. Unfortunately, the network wouldn't work.

DSL tried to turn it on automagically - no success. I tried the network setup stuff that DSL has and DHCP wouldn't go; static IP wouldn't work either. I tried to manually add a /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and /etc/sysconfig/network and /etc/modprobe.d/network to setup eth0 but that wasn't good.

Assuming I didn't do something stupid, I guess I'll start moving the card around in the slots. The cable has to be good since my Myth front-end prototype usually uses it. However, I did see an entry for the network card (as a 3C509B) in the /proc/isapnp (??) file.

I'm using DSL 1.0rc2, btw. This is an Gateway 4DX-33V (was a 486 33MHz VESA Localbus). Now a whopping Pentium 83 OverDrive with 48MB RAM. :laugh:

-Rob

Posted by robgreene on April 16 2005,17:42

Well, I shifted slots with no luck. I switched to my normal desktop line (which was working as of Wednesday when my laptop died - but that's another story!!).

I installed FreeBSD, and that looked to pickup the network just fine. It wouldn't boot, however, so I'm not 100% certain. I think it's because I stuck it on the 2nd harddrive and not the 1st. (Remember, this is really an old computer - the dates are 1993 or so.)

Anyway, I'm going to get FreeBSD working. But I'd rather get a more current version of Linux going - I'm much more familiar with it.

One more note - it looks that booting from the LiveCD does recognize one ethernet card - 'cat /proc/net/dev' yields a list with "lo" and "eth0" and that's it. "lsmod" gives 3c509 as being loaded. But the network doesn't work. When I installed DSL 1.0.1 to the harddisk, the kernel thinks I have two network interfaces (eth0 and eth1). This was after dropping the partition too.

TIA for any more suggestions!
-Rob

Posted by robgreene on April 16 2005,21:10

Ok, corrections here:

1) FreeBSD does work. Network is ok. I don't ran out of inodes installing and don't have a graphic environment, so that stank, but I could ssh to another Linux box on the network and use links to browse. A solution, but not a good one.

2) With all prior configuration wiped from the drives (both needed to be reformatted to get FreeBSD to work), DSL still decides I have two network devices!

As asked before, here's the hardware:
* Not sure what the motherboard is - sorry. It is a VESA Local Bus machine, however. Gateway model 4DX33V.
* 4 cards in the machine:
- ISA Etherlink III 3c509b
- ISA Soundblaster (SB16, I think)
- VLB SIIG Fast EIDE Controller (Enhanced IDE Master VL)
- VLB Speedstar Pro
* Drives:
- MadDog CDRW, using secondary connector on SIIG card
- WD 340MB disk, primary connector on SIIG card; master
- WD 540MB disk, primary connector on SIIG card; slave
- Combo 3.5, 5.25 drive that came with computer

Because of the age of this computer, I'm using SmartBtMgr to boot from floppy and then boot from the CDROM. (Is this bad? Does DSL have a boot floppy that I can - or must - install from?)

What I did notice while putzing around:
* DSL autodetects the eth0 and eth1 devices. Neither work, and I don't know how to figure out what physical device DSL thinks eth0 or eth1 are.
* lsmod does show 3c509 driver loaded
* lsmod also shows USB related stuff as well as ieee1394 being loaded (could this be the network devices?). This still shows up after doing a "dsl noscsi nopcmcia nousb noagp noapm noapic nomce noddc" at the boot prompt.
* After removing the USB and ieee1394 from the loaded modules, the network devices still didn't load.
* I added an alias in /etc/modprobe.d/network of "alias eth0 3c509" but that didn't work at all.

This is all from the bootup. I haven't reinstalled DSL to the harddisk yet.

Suggestions?

Thanks!
-Rob

Posted by cbagger01 on April 17 2005,04:20

If it thinks that you have a firewire card it is possible that DSL thinks that your firewire card can be configured as a network interface.

I would try to boot with

failsafe

and then try manually modprobing the correct 3com driver and then try netcardconfig script from command line.

Posted by robgreene on April 17 2005,14:07

Thanks - just tried it with no luck.

However, between last night and this morning, I thought I'd try Gentoo. Unfortunately, the 340MB + 540MB disk appear to be to small for a first time install (I have no clue where stuff gets installed). I'm a tad afraid how long a P83 install will really take, but that the heck, I don't have a computer of my own right now.

Gentoo also detected eth0 and eth1. Interesting? eth0 would not work but eth1 worked via DHCP. From there I could run links2 and surf the net. That's under a Linux kernel.

Could the older Soundblaster card be throwing everything off? I'm not really using it (this computer will go into the basement once it's functional). This is just so weird. Back in the day, this was running one of the first CDs of Slackware and then RedHat 2 - I don't remember any problems like this!!

Posted by robgreene on April 17 2005,16:01

LOL, it's working now. I'm posting this from my way cool 48MB P83 machine!

I ripped out the sound card and booted in failsafe mode. All is well. I totally forgot that the interrupts (etc) are not managed at all. I'm a bit confused because I'm SURE is used to work under the older distribution, but whatever. I'm up and running.

Time to install DSL on the harddrive!

Thanks all!
-Rob

Posted by ke4nt1 on April 17 2005,16:12

Do you have plug&play enabled in your bios ?
Usually, if this is turned off, your bios sorts out
the io and irq conflicts before booting the OS.

Also, I've seen some issues posted about
using add-on IDE cards .. that's another one to
pull out as a test, and see if the liveCD runs and
networks with it removed.. then you may be able
to add back in the sound card.

73
ke4nt

Posted by robgreene on April 17 2005,22:34

This computer is from before Plug & Play - not a PCI bus. It's an old 486 (VESA Local Bus) which "upgraded" to a Pentium over-drive (83MHz).

Posted by ke4nt1 on April 18 2005,00:45

My bad..
You mentioned that before..

Keep us posted on how well DSL runs on your 486 box !

Also, there was some thread I read about someone else having a similar
issue with an 3c509 card in DSL, and needing to rmmod and then modprobe
the card to make it work...

Did you try searching the forums for "3c509" ,
using the options "all open forums" and "from the beginning" ??

73
ke4nt