network not working: netgear FA311

[cbare]

I'm not able to get networking going using live-CD 3.2.

I have a netgear F311. using /usr/sbin/netcardconfig I get "no supported netwrok cards found.", which, I suppose, must mean either that the F311 is unsupported or can't be found.

The card does show up in the output of lspci -v.

ifconfig shows local loopback running OK. I can ping 127.0.0.1, but no other addresses.

Any help? Is this card just not supported in knoppix? It does work under windoze and Mandrake.

Thanks,

[rickenbacherus]

"No supported network cards" just means that the tool netcardconfig won't work with your NIC not that it isn't supported by Knoppix. What does lsmod tell you? I think that card uses the natsemi driver. If you don't see that driver when you do lsmod then try this:
# modprobe natsemi
ifdown -a
ifup -a
ifconofig -a

I'm unsure if that module is already present or not (sorry not at my Linux box). If not you can get it here:

natsemi

Try all the above-Do you have an ip address on eth0? If so try some pings.

[cbare]

Thanks for the reply. I was able to use modprobe to load the natsemi module, which --you are correct-- is the chipset for this NIC.

I was able to get networking going, by bumbling around blindly for a bit. This is probably rudamentary, but here's what I did and found out:

Typing ifdown -a, ifup -a, ifconfig -a didn't quite work because the NIC still had no IP address. So, I did ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.101, which worked OK, and allowed me to get around on my local network, but not outside. I assume it still needed netmask and gateway settings.

Just for laughs, I tried netcardconfig again. It asked me if I wanted to use DHCP, it got the settings (from my dsl router) and now I'm surfing away.

Now, ifconfig lists eth0, with an IP of 192.168.0.2, Bcast of 192.168.0.255, and Mask of 255.255.255.0, which it got via DHCP.

I dug around and found out I can set these manually by typing:
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast
192.168.0.255

I'm still a little puzzled about the difference between broadcast and gateway. Are these different terms for the same thing? Or two different things entirely?

Thanks a lot!!

[Stephen]

I dug around and found out I can set these manually by typing:
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast
192.168.0.255

I'm still a little puzzled about the difference between broadcast and gateway. Are these different terms for the same thing? Or two different things entirely?

Thanks a lot!!

Broadcast is for network communications and the gateway is where you access the network eg. the IP address of your router.
The settings are contained in the file /etc/network/interfaces and you can re-start you network after making changes by /etc/init.d/networking restart as root in a console window if you every need to know for future reference. Also the DNS settings are in /etc/resolv.conf.

[rickenbacherus]

Typing ifdown -a, ifup -a, ifconfig -a didn't quite work because the NIC still had no IP address

ifup translates literally as "bring the network interface up now" ifdown "take the network interface down now" the '-a' flag is for 'all' interfaces.

. So, I did ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.101, which worked OK, and allowed me to get around on my local network,

ifconfig -a is "tell me the configuration of all my interfaces"

If you do ifconfig -a it will always tell you how both your local (lo) network and eth0 (and any other ethernet cards) are configured as well-irregardless of whether or not you have an ip address. It is for all practical reasons not capable of failing, likewise with ifdown. ifup can certainly fail however.

[probono]

I (HD install) once had to edit /etc/networking/interfaces
in order to get ifup and ifdown to recognize my network card. I simply added the line

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

Of course, you must use your own device instead of wlan0 (which in my case is a Prism2 USB wireless adapter)