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Installed 7.3 on Asus P48SX system (p4 w/2gb intel processor) with an onboard SIS 900/7016 PCI Fast Ethernet network card. I looked on the RH HCL and it says the nic is compatible with rh 7 and 7.1, though it says nothing about 7.3. I would think it would be compatible with 7.3 but maybe not?
It installed the card, but won't activate it. On boot up, it says the device doesn't seem to be present, so it fails. IFCONFIG only shows the loopback adaptor (and I can ping the loopback adaptor just fine, so that indicates to me that the card is fine). DMESG says "sis900.c: v1.08.3 2/1/2002, eth0: error eerprom read ffff." (I doublechecked and it is eerpom, not eeprom). The IO port lists it at 9800-98ff, so it knows the card is there. It just plain flat refuses to activate it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled it a couple times. It is on the list to choose from, but that could be because it was previously installed on installation of the OS.
I have looked in various places for clues as to how to fix it. I have it on a dual boot system with win98se, so I know the nic works. It just refuses to work in linux. Is there a way to reload the driver from the installation CD? I don't know much about linux, but I noticed it didn't give me an option to search the disk when I reinstalled the NIC. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. : )
slapNUT
02-11-2003, 10:56 AM
Have you tried lsmod to see if the sis900 module is loading?
Have you tried modprobe sis900 to see if the module loads?
If it loads then put this line in /etc/modules.conf
alias eth0 sis900
Do you have networking turned on?
/sbin/chkconfig --level 2345 networking on
/etc/rc.d/init.d/networking start
I tried ismod, insmod and modprobe. None of them recognized the card as loading. They see the card, but won't load it. I get the same error message as when Linux is booting when running modprobe: Device does not seem to be present, delaying eth0 initialization. In trying to turn on networking (/sbin/chkconfig --level 2345 networking on), it said there was an error reading information on service networking-no such file or directory. It knows the card is there, it just refuses to actually acknowledge it and activate it. I can't set an IRQ for it, and when I try, I get a bugzilla error (can't send, can't network). I notice though, that when I do get that error, when I go to shut down, I get the repeated following message on shutdown which goes into a loop of sorts and I have to reset to get it out: sis900.c: v1.08.03 2/1/2002 eht0: error eerpom read ffff. I really hate to have to put in another network card just to try to get this to work, I have an onboard network card, and I would really like to get that working. Thanks for your suggestions. : )
bwkaz
02-12-2003, 10:15 AM
<stock answer>
Is "PnP OS" disabled in your BIOS?
</stock answer>
What does /proc/pci say about the card, anything?
Well this is very interesting. I ran that and it returned "permisssion denied". I was logged in as root, so that was weird. I opened the file with a text editor, and it listed my NIC with IRQ 9, and also listed all 4 of my usb controllers with IRQ 9. Can Linux share IRQs? I'm guessing yes. As an FYI, vga, bus controller and the ide interface is 11, firewire is 10, audio is 5.
bwkaz
02-13-2003, 10:32 AM
Originally posted by pch
Well this is very interesting. I ran that and it returned "permisssion denied". Err, oops, should have been a little more specific. You got "permission denied" because the file isn't executable, and you were trying to execute it by typing /proc/pci into a shell. I should have said cat /proc/pci, as that will just dump the file contents to the screen.
But anyway, opening it in a text editor works as well. The IRQ sharing thing might be it. My machine has a bunch of things on IRQ 10, but all of my NICs are on their own IRQ.
Maybe if you move the PCI slot that it's in? Or maybe if you disable one of the USB ports in your BIOS (assuming, of course, that you aren't using them...)?
It's a brand new board, and everything is on board with the exception of the video card, so unfortunately that is not an option.
bwkaz
02-14-2003, 10:18 AM
Disable one of the USB ports then, maybe? Are you using the firewire port? Because disabling that will create some more IRQs as well...
IDE is on 11? That's strange, IDE is usually on 14 and 15. Hmm... well, whatever.
I already disabled all the usb ports and updated the tulip driver, all to no avail. I will try disabling the firewire card, also, but I am just about ready to say let's try version 8. Unfortunately, I have heard that some folks have the same problem with that version, as well.
Originally posted by bwkaz
IDE is on 11? That's strange, IDE is usually on 14 and 15. Er, yeah- I thought 14 and 15 were actually reserved for IDE0 and IDE1...
pch,
Did you disable PNP in your BIOS as bwkaz suggested? If not, do so now.
Also, you mentioned the tulip driver- you should be using the SiS 900 or SiS 7016 driver I believe. Run lsmod to list your loaded drivers; what's there?
I have done everything you suggested several times. I finally got desperate last night and disabled my on board nic and installed a crappy little realtek 10 mps card. It works just great with that card, so it just doesn't like the newer sis900. I went back and forth a couple times, and it is definitely the card. Versions 7.0 and 7.1 support it, so I am surprised 7.3 doesn't. Any idea if version 8 supports it? Thanks for your help. : )
I've no idea about 8.0's support for the SiS chipset, but I do know that many other people have had trouble with onboard SiS NICs as well.
BTW, the Realtek choice was a good one- Realtek cards are one of the least problematic NICs I've found when used with Linux.
:)
I agree. Realtek cards seem to do the job. 3com work pretty well, also. As far as the sis900 working in linux rh 8, I can officially tell you I had the EXACT same problem. In fact, I am sending this from rh8 right now, but am using the realtek card for rh8, and am still using sis900 for my other OS (in case one of my husband's friends decides to play a resource intensive video game from this box). Anyway, for what it's worth, SIS just doesn't work on Linux, which is a same (at least not for 7.3 and newer anyway). Thanks again! : )