Getting the Realtek 8139 chipset cards to work

[histo]

I've noticed that the realtek 8139 cards are working with PHLAKS live cd distribution.

I infact have a 8139 card that does not work with Knoppix it was most likely flashed by M$; however, I doubt that. Because my card works flawlessly with PHLAK.

It would be wonderful if knoppix could include whatever drivers phlak is using into the next release of Knoppix.

[baldyeti]

Which exact driver does that other distro load (type "lsmod" from a console)? Also which kernel version (uname -a); 2.4 or 2.6.

[Harry Kuhman]

.... it was most likely flashed by M$; however, I doubt that. Because my card works flawlessly with PHLAK....

I haven't use PHLAK (didn't even know about it), but I'm the one that seems to have first reported the NIC stops working issue. I had a NIC built into a new XP based notebook and ran Knoppix on it from several CD for several weeks before accepting an XP "security update". After doing so none of the Knoppix CD's would run the network on that PC. They still booted fine and still could access the network on other PC's, but not that one. And I even burnt another copy of Knoppix from the same known good and tested ISO and, as expected, it couldn't access the network either.

I mention all of this because while I have not used PHLAK, I have found other live CD Linux distros that do boot on my knotbook and do access the network with no problem (and I've found still others that have the same problem Knoppix has). So I know I have a problem with the NIC, I know it's not the CD or Knoppix, and I too have seen other live CD's work.

You certainlly might not have the same problem. Is Knoppix believed to support your NIC?

Have you tried the "sudo mii-tool -r" and then "netcardconfig" trick? If that works then you certainly have a very similar problem to what I have.

[histo]

Okay my card is working in SUSE and the following is the output of lsmod and lspci. If you guys need anything else to help track this down let me know. And again my 8139 does not work in KNOPPIX or many other live distros so it must be driver related. Currently I'm running SUSE 9.2 off of a KDE live cd and the card works no problems no messing with drivers it just works off of boot.


Okay lsmod says the following:
Module Size Used by
pppoe 13888 2
pppox 3720 1 pppoe
ppp_generic 28052 6 pppoe,pppox
slhc 7936 1 ppp_generic
nvram 8328 0
usbserial 26856 0
ipv6 237312 11
parport_pc 37824 1
lp 10536 0
parport 37960 2 parport_pc,lp
snd_usb_audio 64224 0
snd_usb_lib 12928 1 snd_usb_audio
af_packet 20872 4
ds 17796 0
yenta_socket 19840 0
pcmcia_core 66100 2 ds,yenta_socket
usbhid 40132 0
via_agp 8960 1
agpgart 32168 1 via_agp
uhci_hcd 29712 0
ohci1394 31748 0
ieee1394 106168 1 ohci1394
8139too 24064 0
mii 4992 1 8139too
emu10k1_gp 3840 0
gameport 4608 1 emu10k1_gp
edd 10012 0
evdev 8960 0
joydev 9664 0
sg 35872 0
st 37404 0
sd_mod 16912 0
snd_seq_midi 9504 0
snd_emu10k1_synth 7936 0
snd_emux_synth 37248 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi 7040 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul 7936 1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_oss 32000 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7424 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 53008 8 snd_seq_midi,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_
seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss 57896 0
snd_mixer_oss 19200 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_emu10k1 86792 1 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_rawmidi 24356 4 snd_usb_lib,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu
10k1
snd_seq_device 8716 7 snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,sn
d_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec 69728 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm 96776 4 snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_cod ec
snd_timer 24708 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 10248 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem 4992 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep 9220 2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd 60164 20 snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1 _synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi _emul,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq,snd_p cm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_s eq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_uti l_mem,snd_hwdep
soundcore 9056 1 snd
dm_mod 54524 0
usbcore 106724 7 usbserial,snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usbhid,uhci_hc d
aic7xxx 179768 0
sym53c8xx 71572 0
scsi_transport_spi 13056 1 sym53c8xx
cloop 15200 1
ide_cd 38176 1
sr_mod 16292 0
cdrom 36508 2 ide_cd,sr_mod
scsi_mod 111308 7 sg,st,sd_mod,aic7xxx,sym53c8xx,scsi_transport_spi, sr_mod


lspci results in the folllowing I have two 8139 card one d-link and one normal realtek i'm using the realtek currently and connecting.
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev 44)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 ISA [Mobile South] (rev 23)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 11)
0000:00:07.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 Power Management (rev 30)
0000:00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV26 IEEE-1394 Controller (Link)
0000:00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
0000:00:0c.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 06)
0000:00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc RTL8139 Ethernet (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev a1)

Heres the uname results although I know its not a kernel update issue because I'm pretty sure it was working under PHLAK which uses the same if not older kernel as knoppix. SUSE however is updated:

2.6.8-24-default #1 Wed Oct 6 09:16:23 UTC 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

And the modprobe commands don't do anything in SUSE 9.2 they just return back to a bash prompt line. Sorry for the long post I don't know how to make the cool little code boxes that you guys do I'm way to tired right now to look around anyways.

I found your posts harry by experiencing the exact same problem you did with a realtek card after the m$ update my card was done but since then i've found it to work with certain distros with no playing around with drivers or flashing cards. It still shows the same problems your experiencing with the KNoppix distro but it does work with SUSE live distro.

[baldyeti]

Try "modprobe 8139too" (you may need to "rmmod 8139" and kill any background "pump" process as well...)