can't even get started!

8ace · Post by **8ace** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:14 am

hello everyone, I hope you can point me in the right direction. Apologies for this embarrasing post!

I popped in the latest LiveCD installed everything, confiured for DHCP - but cannot for the life of me, get it connecting to the network.

I have a 1pointsomething GHz AMD w/Phoenix and 512MB with a built in VIA OnChip LAN .... I get
"bring up interface eth0 [failed]"

So no luck, but router shows 100Mbps lamp glowing, but eth0 is down...

So for fun I drop in a Linksys 10/100 PCI card. Try it with onboard LAN enabled and disabled. Same deal - lamps are glowing on the card and on the router but nobody home. Tried 3 different cables. I have no other cards in the system.

thanks in advance for any clues!

Post by **cordel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:25 am

You might want to remove the network card you added, then go into your BIOS and set the network boot rom. This loads the drivers for the nic in ram and linux can pick it up from there.

Regards,
Corey

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:00 am

and your dhcp server is setup correctly?

8ace · Post by **8ace** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:49 am

hey guys. This is what I tried:

1. Corey - Removed the spare NIC, went into BIOS and enabled the network boot rom .... when I rebooted it sat there for a while searching for a DHCP server ... then after a minute or so it said something about Exiting Intel PXE ROM and went on to boot linux and got the usual "bring up interface eth0 [failed]"

2. James - DHCP OK? I thought so, so tried disabling DHCP on router and hard coding in linux 10.10.10.99, 255.255.255.0 and default g/w 10.10.10.1.

Thanks for your suggestions, got anymore?!

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:54 am

i think if your using a subnet of 255.255.255.0 it limits you to just 255 address which is usually adequate lol but i think the reason its failing is cos its not matching your other networked items

Assuming you are using windows elsewhere open a commandprompt (ill assume your using nt based windows) and type ipconfig <enter>

This should/will give you the current ip info for your windows machine
Using this info (gateway, subnet and ip modify the last set of digits to be unique and enter these into you live cd machine. Now you wont be on the internet at this point as you will need to tell the live cd what the address of your dns servers are i think you can put your routers ip as a dns server but i always use my isp's dns address. Once you have the ip,subnet and gw entered check you bing the live cd from your windows machine. I would say ping the windows machine but if you have sp2 i think pings are blocked. Live cd definetly works and we will get you running matey

Post by **cordel** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:14 am

Sounds like you may have set the wrong setting in BIOS as you should not see PXE ROM which is the system tring to do a network boot. On my next reboot I'll take a peek at my bios as I had to do the same thing here on one of my machines.

Regards,
Corey

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:16 am

corey if you enable boot rom it will try to network boot, i assumed you meant just check the onboard network was enabled which is a seperate option to boot rom

Post by **cordel** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:31 am

Most likely, I know I enabled something that I can see the drivers load at post

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:38 am

i do that if i have an problem i randomly turn things on and off in the bios. I really should find out what fast boot does lol

8ace · Post by **8ace** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:03 am

hey guys, checked ipconfig:

Windows 2000 IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : localdomain
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.10.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.10.1

And here's my router:

IP Address . . .10.10.10.1
IP Subnet Mask . . .255.255.255.1
Use Router As DHCP Server
Starting IP Address 10.10.10.2
Ending IP Address 10.10.10.10

Got nothing to ping from my w2k PC because in Mandrakelinux control center it is reporting.....

IP Configuration
Protocol: DCHP
IP Address: No IP (grayed out)
Netwmask: No Mask (grayed out)
Gateway: 10.10.10.1 (grayed out)

I think I have reached the absolute end of my knowledge now!

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:14 am

Can you use the mandrake thing to enter the following details

ip address 10.10.10.10
subnet 255.255.255.0
gw 10.10.10.1

and restart the linux machine

8ace · Post by **8ace** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:44 am

hey James - did that, same problem... One thing I did notice was a message that flashed across the screen

Bring up interface eth0 [failed]
SIOCSFFLAGS Function not implemented

I may have spelt it a little wrong - does that help?

Also I changed the UTP cable, 4th time!

I also plugged it in the back of my cable modem directly, just in case that would work (probably expects a crossover cable which I don;t have)

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:49 am

i suppose the network card is ok in this thing. Something i just thought of the kernel on the original live cd is oldish now and i have had network card issues. When i was learning with the live cd i had to plug in an old 3com card i had (a hurricane i think) and then it worked. Problem was the hardware was to new for the kernel. Just a thought and no that error means nothing to me i dont even know what it is!

8ace · Post by **8ace** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:53 am

I've got an old 3com lying around which I'll give a try right now.
(When I tried the realtek yesterday it too had it's link lights on....and mandrake was still reporting "network is down on interface eth0")

BTW isn;t it getting kinda late in dear old birmingham?

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:55 am

yep dont remind me, I have a dying zm server in front of me and im buggered if its gonna beat me. Im fairly sure its hardware but i aint got it yet