Puzzling Network Problem on HD Installation - Sudden Stop

I had my Knoppix box up and running just fine, then shut the machine off and went on vacation for a few days. When I came home and turned it back on, it would not see my network, always comes up with that default IP address of 169.254.103.69 that a card gets if it is all alone in the world.

Now, booting from the Knoppix CD, I can connect just fine, so the hardware isn't the problem.

I haven't changed anything that I know of, but no combination of changes to /etc/networking/interfaces or other config files has helped.

I like to run this box with a fixed IP, but setting it to use static or dhcp I get the same result.

I'm not sure how to diagnose it or what tools to use to try to figure it out. I haven't done much with this machine since I built it, so I could consider a reinstall, but I'd really rather not.

How can I figure out what's wrong?

Posting config info and stuff will be sort of tough since the thing is offline, but I can reboot from the CD and copy the files at least.

Thanks in advance...

What does ifconfig -a tell you? Does the box even see eth0? If so does it have an i.p. address? If it has an i.p. can you ping inside your LAN? Outside?

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Originally Posted by mzilikazi

What does ifconfig -a tell you? Does the box even see eth0? If so does it have an i.p. address? If it has an i.p. can you ping inside your LAN? Outside?

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Thanks for the reply. :)

Yes, the interface comes up, but it comes up the "generic" IP address of 169.254.103.69. Otherwise gateway, mask, etc., appear to be set correctly (it would hurt my head to try to type the whole thing out between KVM'd boxes :P)

My internal network is 192.168.1.0, and the static ip for this box is supposed to be 192.168.1.200. When Knoppix boots from CD, it finds my router and gets the next DHCP address. When I boot from the hard disk, it doesn't find the network whether set for static or dhcp.

It's really puzzling. It's a brand new build, so I could reinstall without losing any work, but I would really prefer to figure it out in case it happens again. Are there some magical configuration steps that Knoppix goes through in an HD install boot? I tried editing a couple of things in knoppix-autoconfig (disabling pump) from something I saw here, but that didn't help.

I get the message:

SIOCDELRT: No such process

when I try to do things with the interface or with route. I've searched on this a lot and found lots of things to try, but so far it has kept me stumped.

I'm still not sure what went wrong, but I decided it was time for a little head banging until I figured it out.

The last thing I did was down the network services and unload the ne2k-pci module (have a Winbond W89C940 card), then reloaded the module and restarted networking and it got the right IP address - I'm posting from my Knoppix box right now. :)

Okay, so now I have a solution, but I'm not sure I understand the problem. The ne2k-cpi module was loaded, as it should have been, but it almost seems like networking was being brought up before the module was loaded (although modconf shows it installed in the kernel).

I guess I'll see on the next reboot if it stays straight or goes south again. At least for the moment I'm back online.

It's possible that the driver needs to be unloaded before the card is brought down so that it comes up again properly on next boot. Simply add something to your init scripts to rmmod the driver.

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Originally Posted by mzilikazi

It's possible that the driver needs to be unloaded before the card is brought down so that it comes up again properly on next boot. Simply add something to your init scripts to rmmod the driver.

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That's a thought. Still puzzles me that it started misbehaving in the first place. All I can figure is that maybe I ran a dist-upgrade that touched something I didn't know about, and didn't show up until the next boot. I don't reboot often, so there's no telling where it went south along the way.

Weevil

Read my post, might help you
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...046&highlight=

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Originally Posted by shah

Weevil

Read my post, might help you
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...046&highlight=

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I believe I had read your post before, because I had tried this trick already, without success. When I reboot I have no network.

I'm looking for the right place to put my restart lines, but haven't found it yet. Here's what works:

ifconfig eth0 down
/etc/init.d/networking stop
rmmod ne2k-pci
insmod ne2k-pci
ifconfig eth0 up
/etc/init.d/networking start

Trying to put it in Knoppix autoconfig doesn't seem to be the right way to go about this. I think I'll just have to add my own startup script to kick in late and drop these commands in it, unless there's a more "standard" place to put it.

Weevil

I didn't edit my knoppix-autoconfig either even though it's working for me, I just restart my networking for second time and it's working. I have static I.P everytime.
What I did was adding a symlink to networking:
On /etc/rcS.d I add S40networking.

I missed you lines:
ifconfig eth0 down
/etc/init.d/networking stop
rmmod ne2k-pci
insmod ne2k-pci
ifconfig eth0 up
/etc/init.d/networking start

Yes that will work. Create a script with those line using your prefered name ex: mynet.sh save it in /etc/init.d or you just can save in rc5.d .
1) If you save in /etc/init.d then you need to create a symlink to that file in rc5.d
2) If you save directly in rc5.d, the name should change to something like S60mynet.sh or something which reflect your boot order.

I hope this time it will work. :D :D :D :D

I did exactly that, shah, and now I get a clean boot with network connectivity and static IP.

Thanks for your help!