ETH0/ETH1 network problem

[belboz]

I realize there is a thread with this name in hardware/booting, but I wanted to put this in Networking for better visibility (I hope). I apologize in advance for the basic questions below and any duplication of earlier discussions, but Knoppix in particular and Linux in general are brand-new to me; I feel like I've wandered into a wonderful forest but whose paths and flora/fauna are without comprehensible markings .. or ones which need translation.

I am playing with Knoppix on an IBM X20, with an IBM Ethernet Pro card and a Netgear WG511 wireless card. uname -r responds with release 2.4.27.

I have been unable to make the wireless card work at all, even without WEP enabled.

Below I've appended various command results from my attempts to figure out what is, or is not, going on. Essentially what I think they demonstrate is after boot both ETH0 and ETH1 appear on ifconfig output; network connection works over a cable from the Pro adapter to the router (ping results); an ifconfig followin "netcardconfig" to start up ETH1 shows no difference in behavior (and netcardconfig reported a failure trying to reach ETH1); lspci -v shows both nw adapters (although perhaps with no driver for the Netgear card??); and forcing eth0 down and eth1 up from root results in no connections to anything at all.

If there is documentation or confirmation that a WG511 card should work -- and nothing I do gets traffic thru when it is the only connection available -- please direct me to it. If I am missing some education (never mind; I know I am .. pls provide a pointer!) ..

And if this configuration/WG511 ought to work, is there a better way to set a WEP key than ifconfig eth1 enc xxxx?

(Finally, one last note for this too-long post: I tried to save the terminal log onto the X20 hard drive, which is owned 100% by Win XP Pro, and is thus NTFS. I wasn't able to find a way to save a file from KWrite in any of the /mount/hda1 directories, the response to all attempts was "unable to write." I can't remember offhand whether NTFS is read-only to Linux, or if instead that is a FAT32 restriction; or if -- again -- I am doing something fundamentally wrong. In any case I configured KMail and sent the log to another Win machine ..)

Thanks, in advance, for any suggestions and enlightenment!

Wayne

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:45:7D:B3
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1014 (1014.0 b) TX bytes:1368 (1.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:47:0F:D0:56
inet addr:192.168.0.6 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2226 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1632 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1110944 (1.0 MiB) TX bytes:221505 (216.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:500 (500.0 b) TX bytes:500 (500.0 b)

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ ping www.yahoo.com
PING www.yahoo.akadns.net (216.109.118.69): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.109.118.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=48 time=99.1 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=89.4 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=90.0 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=48 time=90.0 ms

--- www.yahoo.akadns.net ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 89.4/92.1/99.1 ms

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ netcardconfig
Sending DHCP broadcast from device eth1 OK.
knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 NOT READY! ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Channel:6 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200
Retry min limit:0 RTS thr=0 B Fragment thr=0 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth1 no wireless extensions.

.. and after $ lspci-v:

0000:00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]
(rev 09)
Subsystem: Intel Corp. EtherExpress PRO/100+ MiniPCI
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 11
Memory at f4003000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at 1840 [size=64]
Memory at f4020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=1M]
Capabilities: <available only to root>
.
.. and:

0000:02:00.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism
GT/Prism Duette] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Netgear: Unknown device 4800
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 11
Memory at 14400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ ping www.yahoo.com
PING www.yahoo.akadns.net (216.109.118.79): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.109.118.79: icmp_seq=0 ttl=48 time=95.2 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.79: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=114.8 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.79: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=100.0 ms
64 bytes from 216.109.118.79: icmp_seq=3 ttl=48 time=110.6 ms

--- www.yahoo.akadns.net ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 95.2/105.1/114.8 ms

.. Now, after "ifconfig eth0 down" and "ifconfig eth1 up" from root:

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:45:7D:B3
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1014 (1014.0 b) TX bytes:1368 (1.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:47:0F:D0:56
inet addr:192.168.0.6 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4544 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2524 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1700208 (1.6 MiB) TX bytes:342352 (334.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:500 (500.0 b) TX bytes:500 (500.0 b)

knoppix@ttyp0[cdrom]$ ping www.yahoo.com
ping: unknown host www.yahoo.com

[belboz]

Some minor progress on this issue over the past 24 hours ..

Running out of ideas, I booted Knoppix without the WG511 PCMCIA card. (This is the "original" WG5111 adapter, with a chipset from Prism.) Once Knoppix was running, I inserted the card, issued "ifconfig eth0 down" and "ifconfig eth1 up" from root .. and one of the card lights came on.

"ifconfig -a" now showed eth1 as active; and "iwlist scanning" then listed several networks -- including mine, and some belonging to neighbors -- so clearly the card was seeing the access point.

But even after setting the WEP key via iwconfig eth1 I couldn't reach the router or anything beyond the access point. A ping to the router "worked" (for a change), in that the ping reported network not reachable; yesterday the ping never started as eth1 wasn't "there."

Running the network card setup served only to disable the card entirely when a DHCP broadcast failed. Another "ifconfig eth1 up" was needed, etc.

Once again, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on further tests or changes here. I have found that the WG5111 works with Linspire v5.0 and with a Live CD of Ubuntu .. but what I really would like is for Knoppix to be happier with it.

Thanks .. !

Wayne

[belboz]

Current status: -right at this moment- the WG511 wireless connection is working. That's the good news; the bad is that I'm not certain why this is -- almost all the commands I issued were from a root shell, and I couldn't find a way to scroll backwards in the window nor to cut/paste sections of it which had scrolled off. (-Is- there a way to do this, please??)

As in my post just above, an "ifconfig eth0 down" and "ifconfig eth1 up" after inserting the PCMCIA card brought up one of the two WG511 lights. "iwlist scanning" then listed various nearby network ids.

But whether or not I specified a specific essid, whether or not I specified a key (or none in one case), whether or not I used the format "iwconfig eth1 enc keyid [2]" and "iwconfig eth1 key [2]," or took the path of "iwconfig eth1 essid .." and "iwconfig eth1 key ..," the result in each case was a DHCP failure. "pump -i eth1" failed (and disabled the card), as did the DHCP broadcast from the "wavelan configuration" menu, regardless of the access point associated with eth1.

My last attempt seems to have been the sequence of two iwconfig's for "enc keyid .." and "key [2]," followed by "netcardconfig" with no operands at all. The only root display still visible is just the netcardconfig, of course.

Hints or possible explanations would still be very welcome!

Wayne

[OErjan]

as for seeing what has scrolled beyond "weiw" hold shift and use "pg up" and "pg down" keys. usually only works for 100 lines or so, depending on settings.

another thing is that the file /root/.bash_history has all the comands issued by root in a console on that computer, and /home/knoppix/.bash_history has for knoppix user...
Sadly in knoppix that means, for that session, as everything in /root is lost at reboot.
if you have a permanent home knoppix .bash_history is saved though.
please note that the " . " means it is a hidden file, it is not a typo from my part, it is "dot"bash_history.

you can also list several options after the iwconfig. like
iwconfig eth1 essid "whatever" mode managed key s:whateverkeyis rate auto


as for copy and paste just mark what you wanted copied, go where you want it pasted (without accidentally marking any new text) and and use either the middle button (mouseweel on some) or both right and left simultaniously, now you have the marked text where you had the blinking pionter (say on one of these text feilds).

[belboz]

Thanks for the tips ..

W.