Still can't bring up eth0 (been trying for a week now)

[EatYourGreens]

Please can you help a noob who has run out of ideas?

I have installed Gentoo on my AthlonXP using the stage 3, and everything went great until the reboot. The machine boots normally (at least it looks normal to me) until it gets to the line 'bringing up eth0', where it waits for about a minute before saying that it failed.

Please don't tell me to search and rtfm, as I have been doing that for nearly a week now without any progress. I had hoped I could fix this problem without posting a message, but I cannot.

OK, here is what I have learned from my searching:-
1. The driver for my NIC is compiled directly into the kernel. I am using 8139too, which is what the install CD uses (and also what SUSE used when I had the same card in a different machine)
2. I tried installing it as a module since this seems to have helped some people, but it didn't help me.
3. /boot was mounted when I copied my bzImage across (I learned that one three weeks ago when I first installed Gentoo, and got GRUB GRUB...)
4. AFAICT, I followed the install instructions correctly, and have set the scripts.

Actually, point 4 needs some clarification. I was unable to follow the install directions exactly. I have DSL (German TDSL, with an external modem connected to eth0), and the install guide says to install ppp immediately after running pci-setup. However, the ppp guide begins with the request to chroot into the gentoo, but this early on there is no gentoo. So I installed in the following order
1. cfdisk and format and mount partitions
2. chroot and follow the ppp install guide
3. emerge sync, build a kernel etc.

If you can help me, I will swear to follow the penguin forever (or the cow if you prefer).
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Microsoft, the Gates of Hell

[mooman]

Hmmm.. "follow the cow"... I like that.

No genius ideas here but just some things to try and request for other details that will help the actual geniuses here figure the problem out.

First of all, I'm pretty sure that you don't need ppp just to get eth0 working. You will need it to connect to anything perhaps, but the adapter itself shouldn't need it at boot time.

Can you tell us the exact model of NIC you have? I'll assume you have the right driver, but just wanted to check since some NICs are known to be "temperamental" It's a PCI one, right?

Can you snag the output of cat /proc/pci and post it here?

Anyone else have other questions?
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Linux user off and on since circa 1995

[EatYourGreens]

Thanks for the really quick reply. Actually, now I come to think about it, I will promise to follow the cow no closer than 10 meters behind. It is dangerous to stand too close behind a cow.

OK, here is the NIC part of my /proc/pci

[EzInKy]

If you were able to download the tarball during the install and are sure you compiled support into your kernel and have your resolv.conf setup proper, then you may want to check this great link out for more help. My provider uses dhcp, so I can't help you much if yours is pppoe, but this great document might help:

http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/DSL-HOWTO/

[EatYourGreens]

Thanks for the link, EzInKy. It gave me some ideas for things to check.

After startup, 'ifconfig -a' returns information about lo only. However, after I type 'ifconfig eth0 up', then 'ifconfig -a' says that eth0 is up and running. One useful tip I got from the Ethernet howto was to use 'cat /proc/interrupts', and this shows IRQ 3 in use for the ethernet card, but only after I have typed 'ifconfig eth0 up'.

I believe that I can now say that I have installed the correct driver for my NIC and it is running correctly.

If I type '/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start', then it says that it failed to bring up eth0, and eth0 is no longer shown by ifconfig. I presume that this is why ifconfig does not show the card after startup.

So I now think I am looking at a problem with my ISP configuration. During install I followed the pppoe install guide, which installs pppoe as separate package. However, I now have ppp and pppoe compiled as part of the kernel.

My question is, do I have to configure the kernel pppoe separately, or will it use the configuration I made during the install?

Once again, thank you all for your help. They said that Gentoo was a great way to learn Linux.....
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Microsoft, the Gates of Hell

[kashani]

Rather then working on the pppoe problems it might be a good idea to do some simple tests between this machine and another on the local network if at all possible. Use some static IP's, do some pings, ssh to each other. Then you can troubleshoot the ISP settings knowing it not your cards drivers.

kashani
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Will personally fix your server in exchange for motorcycle related shop tools in good shape.

[steelrose]

did u try this?
nano -w /etc/conf.d/net
rc-update add net.eth0 default
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Hey.I am new to Linux and i will ask some stupid questions sometimes so please don't get angry with me and help

[EatYourGreens]

Progress

Thanks for the suggestions. Gentoo forum users are the best people in the world.

I spent some time today looking through the German forums (kindof makes sense since I live in Germany and use a German ISP) and that gave me an idea. I had thought that pppoe implied dhcp, and so I had put eth0="dhcp" (or whatever the line is) into /etc/conf.d/net, but if I don't have that line and just use the default, then eth0 comes up very quickly.

adsl-start still doesn't work, but that is a topic for another thread, if I can't get it to work.

Now, where's that cow I promised to follow....
_________________
Microsoft, the Gates of Hell

[wibblefrog]

I had a problem with my Dlink DFE 530TX it was starting but not picking up the TCP/IP settings. The rc-update line added the card to the run level and its work great ever since.

Thanks for the tip!
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