eth0 failure

Help folks,

I am newbie but not daft. Used Unix and Linux on and off for 12
years.

Installed Mandrake V10.0 on spare hard disk on my home Win2K box.
Installed perfect first time. All but most unusual hardware (a
Guillemot stering wheel) detected and working. Internet worked as
well. I have a D-link ADSL hub/router in the attic and two nodes in
the house, one for the Win2k box (now Linux as well) which has a
DFE530TX n/w card and one for a laptop I bring home occasionally. Use
DHCP for windows and also set up Linux to do the same. Had to play
with the internet settings using the config tool but Linux worked! So
shut down the machine and went to bed.

Next morning, turned on machine and eth0 failed. Do not know why.
Have trashed and re-installed several times but still get same
problem. Only thing I can think of is the network speed in the house.

Under Win2k, I have to throttle the speed back to 10Mbps rather than
the usual 100Mbps. This due to the fact that the idiots who built our
house ran the Cat5 cables I asked them to put in close to the mains so
I reckon that this is causing interference. It is no big deal after
all the ADLS is only 512kbps so no performance penalty.

Thinking about it I can only assume that the same thing is happening
under Linux. So question is, how do I throttle back the n/w card
under Linux to run at 10Mbps by default.

Any advise welcome,

BR,
Julian

On 2004-10-14, Julian Ramsey <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> So question is, how do I throttle back the n/w card
> under Linux to run at 10Mbps by default.

Use mii-tool to force the connection speed, change the boot script
to do the forcing at boot time.

Davide

--
the best answer when anybody asks you if you're any good with
explosives is to hold up two open hands and simply say "Ten".
--Anthony DeBoer

Davide Bianchi wrote:

> Onopportunity, Julian Ramsey <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>> So question is, how do I throttle back the n/w card
>> under Linux to run at 10Mbps by default.
>
> Use mii-tool to force the connection speed, change the boot script
> to do the forcing at boot time.
>
> Davide
>
also,

Fire up iptraf (or your favourite packet sniffer to see just how much of
your traffic is reported as bad packets.

Check that they used screened cat cable, also check that their have earthed
the screen. Some sections of my cabling here is had no choice but to travel
some of the lengths with power cables, but once I'd explained to our
electricians what screening was and why it was important, they changed the
crap wire they had used to the properly screened. Then after I explained to
them what earting is and what that has to do with the screened cable,
everything worked fine.

Electricians eh, two years at college and all they learn is 'If it gives you
a belt its Live, it it don't its a earf'.

By the way, hello everyone I used to know. Been away for a bit, but back now
(for a while anyway).

--
BearItAll
Martian currently living on planet ZoggleBoggle
Someone kept throwing bits of metal at us, When
I find out who I'll have words with them.

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:16:16 GMT, Julian Ramsey wrote:
> Help folks,
>
> I am newbie but not daft. Used Unix and Linux on and off for 12
> years.
>
> Installed Mandrake V10.0 on spare hard disk on my home Win2K box.
> DHCP for windows and also set up Linux to do the same. Had to play
> with the internet settings using the config tool but Linux worked! So
> shut down the machine and went to bed.
>
> Next morning, turned on machine and eth0 failed. Do not know why.

Fixes found in the past:
Verify eth0 alias is in config file: grep eth0 /etc/modprobe.conf

If hotplugging is enabled, disable it.
In the Mandrake Control Center
click Network & Internet
click Manage Connections
click the _Options_ tab and set check boxes as follows
x Start on boot
_ Track network card
_ Network Hotplugging

Click Ok

Click up a terminal/console
su -l root

Any error info in /var/log/messages when you do a
service network restart
tail -50 /var/log/messages

in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
try toggling MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no if it is yes

Julian Ramsey wrote:

> Help folks,
>
> I am newbie but not daft. Used Unix and Linux on and off for 12
> years.
>
> Installed Mandrake V10.0 on spare hard disk on my home Win2K box.
> Installed perfect first time. All but most unusual hardware (a
> Guillemot stering wheel) detected and working. Internet worked as
> well. I have a D-link ADSL hub/router in the attic and two nodes in
> the house, one for the Win2k box (now Linux as well) which has a
> DFE530TX n/w card and one for a laptop I bring home occasionally. Use
> DHCP for windows and also set up Linux to do the same. Had to play
> with the internet settings using the config tool but Linux worked! So
> shut down the machine and went to bed.
>
> Next morning, turned on machine and eth0 failed. Do not know why.
> Have trashed and re-installed several times but still get same
> problem. Only thing I can think of is the network speed in the house.
>
> Under Win2k, I have to throttle the speed back to 10Mbps rather than
> the usual 100Mbps. This due to the fact that the idiots who built our
> house ran the Cat5 cables I asked them to put in close to the mains so
> I reckon that this is causing interference. It is no big deal after
> all the ADLS is only 512kbps so no performance penalty.
>
> Thinking about it I can only assume that the same thing is happening
> under Linux. So question is, how do I throttle back the n/w card
> under Linux to run at 10Mbps by default.
>
> Any advise welcome,
>
> BR,
> Julian


Fire up iptraf (or your favourite packet sniffer to see just how much of
your traffic is reported as bad packets. You may be able to issolate a
particular bad run, while leaving other runs at 100.

Check that they used screened cat cable, also check that their have earthed
the screen. Some sections of my cabling here is had no choice but to travel
some of the lengths with power cables, but once I'd explained to our
electricians what screening was and why it was important, they changed the
crap wire they had used to the properly screened. Then after I explained to
them what earting is and what that has to do with the screened cable,
everything worked fine.

Electricians eh, two years at college and all they learn is 'If it gives you
a belt its Live, it it don't its a earf'.

By the way, hello everyone I used to know. Been away for a bit, but back now
(for a while anyway).
--
BearItAll
Martian currently living on planet ZoggleBoggle
Someone kept throwing bits of metal at us, When
I find out who I'll have words with them.

Thanks for your advise. Have done all you suggested (and a few other
things suggested by others, i.e. use mii-tool) and to be honest was
glad for assistance from everyone. In a nutshell it is as follows:

1) Boot Windows, then Restart machine (not power off) and boot Linux
through LILO and eth0 comes up.

2) Boot linux from power off state and eth0 fails.

3) Tried the MII_NOT_SUPPORTED in both modes - no joy.

4) Had a a look at /var/log/messages. Can see that the system is
trying to bring up eth0, but fails after trying DHCPDISCOVER several
times. From same log file, could see the start sequence so tried to
start n/w manually but no joy.

5) Tried mii-tool as suggested by David Bianchi. As long as eth0
comes up at boot (ie windows booted first), then can use this tool no
bother. But if try to use this tool from cold start of Linux then it
fails with message saying "SIOCGMIIPHY on eth0 failed ; invalid
argument, no MII interfaces found".

If I could get mii-tool to work (and knew which startup script to
insert it into), then I might be OK. But it is most droll that
mii-tool only works when eth0 is up! It almosts seem to me that the
kernel can't see eth0 unless windows has booted first, as though
windows is setting something on the n/w card which is not reset by a
simple restart without powering off. It seems that when trying to get
the IP addr from the hub it only trys at 100Mbps and then gives up,
i.e. does not try at lower speed. How do I force it to try at lower
speed without using mii-tool?

So gents, am almost there, but would appreciate a few more words of
wisdom.

BR,
Julian

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:29:17 GMT, Bit Twister
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 13:16:16 GMT, Julian Ramsey wrote:
>> Help folks,
>>
>> I am newbie but not daft. Used Unix and Linux on and off for 12
>> years.
>>
>> Installed Mandrake V10.0 on spare hard disk on my home Win2K box.
>> DHCP for windows and also set up Linux to do the same. Had to play
>> with the internet settings using the config tool but Linux worked! So
>> shut down the machine and went to bed.
>>
>> Next morning, turned on machine and eth0 failed. Do not know why.
>
>Fixes found in the past:
>Verify eth0 alias is in config file: grep eth0 /etc/modprobe.conf
>
>If hotplugging is enabled, disable it.
>In the Mandrake Control Center
>click Network & Internet
>click Manage Connections
>click the _Options_ tab and set check boxes as follows
>x Start on boot
>_ Track network card
>_ Network Hotplugging
>
>Click Ok
>
>Click up a terminal/console
>su -l root
>
>Any error info in /var/log/messages when you do a
> service network restart
> tail -50 /var/log/messages
>
>in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
>try toggling MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no if it is yes
>

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 21:42:12 GMT, Julian Ramsey wrote:
> Thanks for your advise. Have done all you suggested (and a few other
> things suggested by others, i.e. use mii-tool) and to be honest was
> glad for assistance from everyone. In a nutshell it is as follows:

Curious, after boot, will the network come up if you

su -l root
service network restart
exit

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 21:42:12 +0000, Julian Ramsey wrote:

> 1) Boot Windows, then Restart machine (not power off) and boot Linux
> through LILO and eth0 comes up.

> 4) Had a a look at /var/log/messages. Can see that the system is
> trying to bring up eth0, but fails after trying DHCPDISCOVER several
> times. From same log file, could see the start sequence so tried to
> start n/w manually but no joy.

Can you give it a manual IP address, etc using ifconfig, does it work then?
If so, then I would investigate your dhcp conf file, are you using dynamic
ranges or host identifiers?

If not then I would suggest you look at cabline, patching, and other lower
level stuff.

Best of luck

Gareth Ansell

Hello again,

Tried as you suggested from a cold start (i.e. power on and boot
linux) - no joy.

It shuts down the loopback i/f OK, sets the n/w params OK,
brings up the loopback i/f OK but fails when trying to bring up eth0

Any other thoughts? Can I hack the source, force it to choose
10Mbits by default, and recompile? Which files to hack?

BR,
Julian

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:05:04 GMT, Bit Twister
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 21:42:12 GMT, Julian Ramsey wrote:
>> Thanks for your advise. Have done all you suggested (and a few other
>> things suggested by others, i.e. use mii-tool) and to be honest was
>> glad for assistance from everyone. In a nutshell it is as follows:
>
>Curious, after boot, will the network come up if you
>
>su -l root
>service network restart
>exit

Hello Gareth

Not tried manual IP yet but maybe give it a go. Only issue there may
be that it screws up the DHCP server in the combined hub/ ADSL router.
Where is the DHCP conf file on Linux? What is its name?

As far as I am aware, am not using dynamic ranges or host identifiers
in Linux. Hub in my attic is just giving out IP addresses and all the
rest of the stuff (DNS, etc) that goes with it. Makes life simpler
and would prefer to keep this method.

WinNT and 2000Server allows scope in IP range to have static IP
addresses, as well as a dynamically assigned range. Do not know if my
hub can do this, but maybe worth a shot.

However, Win200 on this machine can drop down the speed on my n/w and
find the DHCP server on the hub, so why the heck can I not force Linux
to do the same? Mii-tool would be fine, but it just wont see eth0
from a cold start. FInd if I start Linux after I restart Windows.

Any other thoughts?

BR,
Julian

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 13:33:31 +0100, Gareth Ansell
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 21:42:12 +0000, Julian Ramsey wrote:
>
>> 1) Boot Windows, then Restart machine (not power off) and boot Linux
>> through LILO and eth0 comes up.
>
>> 4) Had a a look at /var/log/messages. Can see that the system is
>> trying to bring up eth0, but fails after trying DHCPDISCOVER several
>> times. From same log file, could see the start sequence so tried to
>> start n/w manually but no joy.
>
>Can you give it a manual IP address, etc using ifconfig, does it work then?
>If so, then I would investigate your dhcp conf file, are you using dynamic
>ranges or host identifiers?
>
>If not then I would suggest you look at cabline, patching, and other lower
>level stuff.
>
>Best of luck
>
>Gareth Ansell