Can't get online

[TheMightyNewbie]

just installed Mandrak 8.0 with no problems except I can't get on the net.
Have a Linksys card going to my cable modem. The card was autodetected and given the Tulip driver to use.

Did the connection wizard setting it up to use DHCP. That didn't work, then I tried it static, using all the info from my windows machine (winipcfg) where it used to be hooked up at...still nothing; arghh

Any ideas at all? I'm pretty much a newbie on this Linux so I'm sure it's just me being stupid.

Should I compile the tulip driver that came with my netcard or is the tulip drver that was automatically assigned to it the same?

Thanx for any help

[Lem Sip]

It's driver and/or IRQ/IO problrms on the card.

DHCP (automatically assigned IP addresses) is a standard protocol and Linux certainly upports it. So my assumption is to look at the drivers and make sure the card is active.

Lem

[TheMightyNewbie]

I added the IO and IRQ of the card in netconf and I'm still not getting anything.

I read somewhere around here that when you enter 'ifconfig' that the eth0 should show up, it didn't when I ran it so I tyuped 'ifconfig eth0 up' and it showed...still no internet though; arghh

Any other thoughts? guess I'm gonna compile the driver myself and get rid of the one that the autodetection used

Thanx again

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: TheMightyNewbie ]

[Lem Sip]

I had a similar problem with soundcaed, eth0 and my mountable drives not mounting. I didn't see too many messages relating to them except for the network card not initialising.

I compiled the kernel myself and this fixed all of the problems tho :)

Lem

[DMR]

The tulip driver is well supported by the Linux kernel; compiling the tulip source code that came with your NIC shouldn't be necessary.
Since you said that "ifconfig" doesn't return any information for your card (eth0), that means that the card isn't initailizing properly on bootup. Try "ifconfig -a", which will force ifconfig to report all devices, active or not. If eth0 shows up there, the system knows that the card exists, but can't configure it correctly. (With or without the "-a" option, ifconfig should at least give you stats for the loopback device "lo"; if not, that's another can of worms).

If you're using DHCP, and the card can't get obtain an IP from the DHCP server, it will fail to initailize, so this might be the heart of your problem. Are you connecting to your cable modem through a router (and if so, is the router doing the DHCP), or is your Linux box going directly to the modem and obtaining an address via your ISP's DHCP server?
Also- with PCI cards, forcing an IRQ and I/O address usually doesn't work. To narrow down your problems, remove those settings for now.

If, as you said, ifconfig doesn't return any stats for your NIC, check out these basic pointers which have been floating around for a while: 1. Check the screen output at bootup. If the NIC is being properly initialized, you should see a line that says: "Bringing up eth0- O.K." If you see "failed" or "delaying" instead, you've got problems (see #3).

2. Assuming the NIC comes up, you can do the configuration with the graphical configuration tools linuxconf or netconf. Click on Basic host information->Adaptor 1. From there, select eth0 as the device, choose your cards module from the drop-down list of kernel modules, and enable the device. Then either choose DHCP (if you're using it), or enter your IP information manually. After that, fill in your DNS and gateway/routing info under the appropriate sections.

3. If you get a failure on bootup, you may have a resource conflict with another device. Try turning off Plug-N-Play support in your BIOS, it can cause conflicts with some cards.

4. Log in as root, go to the command line or terminal window, and type "cat /proc/pci" and verify that your NIC is being recognized. Type "cat /proc/interrupts" and make sure your NIC's IRQ isn't conflicting with another device. Type "cat /proc/ioports" and check the address ranges for conflicts. If you have resource conflicts, you can try rearranging the slot order of your PCI cards.

5. You can also verify the IRQ/address info by typing "ifconfig". There should be stats for the loopback device (lo) and eth0.

6. If the module isn't loading, try to load it manually by typing "insmod <your_module's_name>" or "modprobe <your_module's_name>". After that, type "lsmod" to list all loaded modules; yours should show up there.

7. You can then manually bring up the NIC by typing "ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx up", where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is your IP address.

8. Last, type "alias eth0 <your_module's_name>" to associate eth0 with the proper module in /etc/modules.conf

[ 17 September 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[DMR]

Also, a little friendly advice for the "Newbie" in all of us: please don't cross-post. Your post in the Technical Support Forum is redundant.
:)

[TheMightyNewbie]

On my way to work now as I'm reading your reply so I don't have time to try all that wonderful advice right now :)

I am set up to go straight from my linux box to my modem and from there straight to my ISP's DHCP server though.

I'll have another crack at it tonight when I get home. Thanx so much for the good info and sorry for the cross post. Just kinda lost patience, won't happen again; hehe

[DMR]

Going to work...what's that? Oh yeah, it's that thing I have to do in 5 hours. Hmm, sleep sounds kind of optional at this point...

My guess is that your NIC is probably up, but isn't getting an IP from your ISP via DHCP (had enough acronyms yet?), but in any event:

-try what I've already suggested
-post the output that "ifconfig -a" gives you.
-make sure you have the right gateway address entered (type "route" and post the output).
-to use DHCP, you need to have the DHCP client daemon running. My internal network is on static IPs, so I haven't had to deal with that. There are plenty of people here who have though, and I'm sure they can give some helpful input.

[ 17 September 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[teeitup]

Are the Windows box and the Linux box the same.

If they are different boxes power down the cable modem before moving the cable from machine to machine.

Most cable modems bind to the mac address of the NIC card. Powering down the modem will clear this binding and let it bind to a new NIC.

Good Luck,

[TheMightyNewbie]

I never thought to power down my cable modem :) and yes both windows and linux are in their own box, so it could be just as easy as you suggested

Reinstalling Linux for the umpteenth time so I'll try powering down once I get Linux back up in 30 mins or so.

I'm bookmarking this forum for sure, you guys have been VERY helpful.

[Lem Sip]

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)

[TheMightyNewbie]

Just getting back so you can close this thread.

Got it working now; woot; seems I had to give mediaone.net/att my new NIC Address. Had no idea they need my NIC info, you'd think the MAC address on the cable modem would be plenty but that's all it was; lol

Guess the best thing out of all this is I got to learn a ton of stuff from you guys, so I came out ok :)

Thanx again

[ 17 September 2001: Message edited by: TheMightyNewbie ]

[DMR]

:) :)