Network card not working (not pulling IP address from DHCP)

Hi all,

New here and I first want to say I've read a lot of great stuff on how to work with Knoppix.

That said, here is my problem. Running 3.8.2 and I'm trying to access the internet (using just a cable modem - Comcast, DHCP assigned IP address) and I cannot. This does not work when I boot from CD or from my HD install I did. During the boot process it detects eth0 and then starts DHCP Broadcasting (background).

I tried running netcardconfig and when I tell it to DHCP broadcast I just get operation failed. I tried setting the IP address manually it still no connection.

I've got a 3com Etherlink 10/100 NIC in my PCI slot. Any ideas?

Matt

Try acpi=off in Lilo, doesn't cost much...

Just a quick update. I checked 3Com's website for drivers. The only have Linux drivers through 2.4.x kernel, and I'm using 2.6.x with Knoppix 3.8.

So I'm now wondering if that is the problem. My card specifically is this:
3Com® EtherLink® 10/100 PCI NIC Product #: 3C905C-TX-M

Matt

Quote:

During the boot process it detects eth0

What says ifconfig after network card configuration? Is it up or no? I have something like yours situation - card works on 2.4 kernel, but with 2.6 was detected and everything, but no conection until I put acpi=off in boot loader.

After running netcardconfig and selecting DHCP (and it fails) I only get the following from ifconfig:

Code:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: :1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:194 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:13672 (13.3 KiB) TX bytes:13672 (13.3 KiB)

So it appears it is not seeing the card when I select DHCP (but the boot process does show it detected as eth0).

When I edited lilo.conf and added acpi=off at the end, I received an error when I ran lilo.

Code:

Unrecognized token "acpi" at or above line 123 in file '/etc/lilo.conf'

Did I add it to the wrong place? Nm on this question, found out it has to go on the append line.
Thanks,
Matt

I'm still having problems and would greatly appreciate some more replies. I went out and borrowed a Dlink DFE-530TX+ NIC that has the RTL8139 chipset (which from what I read, should not have any problems with Knoppix).

I did a boot from Knoppix 3.8 CD and it finds the NIC during the boot process but never gets anything from my cable companies DHCP server.

I ran netcardconfig from a root shell and get FAILED.

I then ran lsmod. It shows the following:

8139too 25600 0

Shouldn't that 0 in the last column be a 1? Any ideas at this point? Is there any other info I could post, or other commands I could try?

Matt

Sorry, I don't have experience with cable modem. Try Search section, there are many posts with same problems.

I've tried to set my card manually as well. Couple questions:

1) Netcardconfig asks for my Network Mask. When running ipconfig /all on my windows maching (I'm swapping the lan cable from my cable modem back and forth trying to troubleshoot)) that is the same as Subnet Mask, right?

2) What do I put for Broadcast Address? That is my MAC (or physical) address, right? Well all I get on ipconfig /all is a hex-dec number (which I know it is supposed to be). How do I change that to an IP address?

3) Nameserver will only let me enter one IP address, but ipconfig /all shows two. How do I change that.

When I set what I think is right manually and then ifconfig, eth0 shows up with the settings I put in, but it still does not work.

Matt

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

(I'm swapping the lan cable from my cable modem back and forth trying to troubleshoot))

You're making your life awful doing this. Do yourself a big favor and get an inexpensive DSL/cable router (they were dirt cheap this week at CompUSA and Best Buy even had a Linksys for under $5 after rebate).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

that is the same as Subnet Mask, right?

Yea

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

2) What do I put for Broadcast Address? That is my MAC (or physical) address, right? Well all I get on ipconfig /all is a hex-dec number (which I know it is supposed to be). How do I change that to an IP address?

No your broadcast address is similar to an IP address, except that it's the highest available address as defined by the sub-net mask. That is to say, if your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 and your IP address is 192.168.1.100 then the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255. The subnet mask is the key. Again it would be very esay to tell you what it should be if you had a router, but without one it depends on what settings your ISP is feeding you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

3) Nameserver will only let me enter one IP address, but ipconfig /all shows two. How do I change that.

Put the first one in and don't worry about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

When I set what I think is right manually and then ifconfig, eth0 shows up with the settings I put in, but it still does not work.

Again, a home router should make this problem go away; I get all my setting with DHCP and never fool with any of this.

Quote:

You're making your life awful doing this. Do yourself a big favor and get an inexpensive DSL/cable router (they were dirt cheap this week at CompUSA and Best Buy even had a Linksys for under $5 after rebate).

Tell me about it. :o My cat thinks every time I move the LAN cable around it is a signal for him to attack it.

I had an old Dlink 713 router that I tried but I think it is dead (hence the reason I was not using it to begin with, but I never throw anything out; have a filing cabinet fill of boards, cables, cards, etc.).

I'll look for a cheap router (has to be under $20 for now - I'm deploying in about a month and won't be messing with this stuff anyway, so figure spend cheap to occupy my hobby for now).

Matt

I manuallly set my ip address, subnet mask, gateway, broadcast and name servers on my card with no problem and knoppix reports that it is done (setttings are then shown when I execute ifconfig), but still no internet connection.

So I don't think a router will solve the problem unfortunately. I might go out and buy one just to check and return in later on.

Any other possibilities? I've looked at cheat codes and nothing there seems that it would help, and I've checked IRQ's and the NIC has its own.

I found this in another post that was to a user who was experiencing some frustrations as well and said that all they were getting after 4 hours of tinkering was a burnt dinner and a headache (slightly different problem, but still might try it as it sounds fun!)

Quote:

Turn oven down to a lesser temp so it cooks slower and drink a good French wine. ok ok......

:D
Matt

Some more info.

Here are the results from after I manually set the NIC, connecting straight to my cable modem. I can ping myself, have good activity lights on my NIC, but cannot ping outside (or do anything on the internet).

ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:01:03:1D:7E:7C
inet addr:68.51.xxx.xx Bcast:68.51.xxx.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::201:3ff:fe1d:7e7c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1166 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:1 frame:0
TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:73636 (71.9 KiB) TX bytes:4178 (4.0 KiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x1000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1676 (1.6 KiB) TX bytes:1676 (1.6 KiB)

lspci -v
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 1.0

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 128
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: e9000000-e9ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-f80fffff

0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
I/O ports at 10c0 [size=16]

0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
I/O ports at 1080 [size=32]

0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9

0000:00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
Subsystem: 3Com Corporation 3C905C-TX Fast Etherlink for PC Management NIC
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1000 [size=128]
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

0000:00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
Subsystem: Creative Labs CT4780 SBLive! Value
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
I/O ports at 10a0 [size=32]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:00:10.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Gameport Joystick
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
I/O ports at 10d0 [size=8]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti 4200] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: CardExpert Technology: Unknown device 1603
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
Memory at e9000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0

lsmod
Module Size Used by
tsdev 9664 0
evdev 11008 0
md5 7680 1
ipv6 234912 6
lp 13448 0
snd_pcm_oss 47904 0
snd_pcm 77828 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 23684 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 11268 1 snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss 18688 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd 46308 4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
ide_floppy 18944 0
autofs4 18820 1
af_packet 20104 0
agpgart 30512 0
emu10k1 72196 0
sound 71812 1 emu10k1
soundcore 11104 3 snd,emu10k1,sound
ac97_codec 20108 1 emu10k1
3c59x 42024 0
mii 7808 1 3c59x
i2c_piix4 11408 0
i2c_core 21248 1 i2c_piix4
emu10k1_gp 6912 0
gameport 7552 1 emu10k1_gp
parport_pc 38596 1
parport 33480 2 lp,parport_pc
8250 41692 0
serial_core 21120 1 8250
unionfs 830612 0
sbp2 24456 0
usb_storage 63296 0
ehci_hcd 31752 0
ohci1394 33028 0
ieee1394 300600 2 sbp2,ohci1394
usbhid 42176 0
ohci_hcd 21896 0
uhci_hcd 31376 0
usbcore 101496 6 usb_storage,ehci_hcd,usbhid,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd
pcmcia 21776 0
yenta_socket 21896 0
rsrc_nonstatic 12160 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 42272 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
apm 22252 2
rtc 13772 0
ext3 124552 0
jbd 65060 1 ext3
reiserfs 232304 1

dmesg showed this interesting thing (is this normal that I don't have a router up?):
eth0: no IPv6 routers present

From looking at that can anyone see any problems? I appreciate the patience all of you have had so far.

Matt

I just tried to see if I could get a network connection going with Ubuntu live CD and it did not work either.

It has to be a hardward problem other than the NIC (I have tried two separate ones). I'm afraid this box I'm trying to work on, will not be able to be used for Linux.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

I'm afraid this box I'm trying to work on, will not be able to be used for Linux.

If Linux otherwise works on the box, any you've eliminated the NIC as the issue, then I don't see how it can be the box that is the problem.

Sounds much more likely that it's something "different" aout your ISP and their setup. I will be very surprised if you do attach a router and, once you have it working for a Windows system, you can't just reboot into Knoppix just fine (one thing, don't use a Belkin router, my Belkin is the only brand of router that I have forund that doesn't DHCP with Linux properly).

Ok Harry, you convinced me. :) I'm going to grab a quick bite to eat then run to Best Buy and grab a router and see what I can do.

Back a bit later with the results.

Matt

Success!

:D

First I went to lunch at a BBQ place I was meaning to try (never try to solve computer stuff on empty stomach, right?).

Then I went off to my local Best Buy. Ended up buying a Linksys WRT54G for $39. Don't need wireless atm but in the future I will.

Got it up and running on the windows box no problem. So then I hooked up a cable from my linux box to the router and turned it on. Once up I opened a root terminal and ifconfig and saw my old settings from setting it up manually. So I ran netcardconfig and it worked!

So now I'm typing this on my linux box.

That is so weird that I could not connect straight through, but had to go through a router. Oh well, mission accomplished.

Matt

Re: Success!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattr35

:D

First I went to lunch at a BBQ place I was meaning to try (never try to solve computer stuff on empty stomach, right?).

Then I went off to my local Best Buy. Ended up buying a Linksys WRT54G for $39. Don't need wireless atm but in the future I will.

Got it up and running on the windows box no problem. So then I hooked up a cable from my linux box to the router and turned it on. Once up I opened a root terminal and ifconfig and saw my old settings from setting it up manually. So I ran netcardconfig and it worked!

So now I'm typing this on my linux box.

That is so weird that I could not connect straight through, but had to go through a router. Oh well, mission accomplished.

Matt

How was the BBQ?

Gald to hear that the router did indeed resolve your problem. I posted back in 2003 "Overall I think half of all network problems posted here would go away or at least be resolved much faster if the posters were using routers" and that's still an opnion I hold strongly.

I expect you'll be pretty happy with the WRT54G. It's not the cheapest router out there, but there are a wealth of great enhancements that have been produced by the Open Source community for it (yes, it runs Linux), something (the enhancements) I don't know of for any other commercial home router. The growing number of features and enhancements would be, at least to me, a valuable feature. You got yours at the best price I've seen for that particular router.

If you do learn what the issue with connecting directly to your ISP is, please post back. Since you have multiple systems, if you have a hub you might even be able to "sniff the wire" with a packet sniffer like ethereal and watch the DHCP handshake take place (yup, it is in Knoppix, at least was the last time I looked).

Good luck with your deployment.