Installing e1000 on Red Hat Linux 9

I have a new system with a Supermicro X6DAL-XG motherboard. I am
trying to get the NIC to work. Their web page inidicates that this
motherboard includes an Intel 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...5/X6DAL-XG.cfm

I have installed RedHat Linux 9 from the Red Hat Linux 9 Bible CDs
with kernel source. I boot with 2.4.20-8smp.

I have downloaded the latest Linux driver from Intel (e1000-5.6.10.1).
I untared the driver and did "make install". Everything seemed to work
OK.

[root@localhost src]# make install
make
make[1]: Entering directory `/root/e1000/e1000-5.6.10.1/src'
gcc -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -O2 -pipe -Wall
-I/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include -I. -DMODVERSIONS
-DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include/linux/modversions.h -D__SMP__
-c -o e1000_main.o e1000_main.c
gcc -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -O2 -pipe -Wall
-I/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include -I. -DMODVERSIONS
-DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include/linux/modversions.h -D__SMP__
-c -o e1000_hw.o e1000_hw.c
gcc -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -O2 -pipe -Wall
-I/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include -I. -DMODVERSIONS
-DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include/linux/modversions.h -D__SMP__
-c -o e1000_param.o e1000_param.c
gcc -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -O2 -pipe -Wall
-I/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include -I. -DMODVERSIONS
-DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include/linux/modversions.h -D__SMP__
-c -o e1000_ethtool.o e1000_ethtool.c
gcc -DLINUX -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -O2 -pipe -Wall
-I/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include -I. -DMODVERSIONS
-DEXPORT_SYMTAB -include
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/build/include/linux/modversions.h -D__SMP__
-c -o kcompat.o kcompat.c


**************************************************
** e1000.o built for 2.4.20-8smp
** SMP Enabled
**************************************************

make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/e1000/e1000-5.6.10.1/src'
gzip -c ../e1000.7 > e1000.7.gz
# remove all old versions of the driver
find /lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp -name e1000.o -exec rm -f {} \; || true
find /lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp -name e1000.o.gz -exec rm -f {} \; ||
true
install -D -m 644 e1000.o
/lib/modules/2.4.20-8smp/kernel/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.o
/sbin/depmod -a || true
install -D -m 644 e1000.7.gz /usr/share/man/man7/e1000.7.gz
man -c -P'cat > /dev/null' e1000 || true
[root@localhost src]#

I rebooted and kudzu detected the new hardware. I set the IP address.
When I got into Redhat, Network Device Control indicated that eth0 was
active, and I confirmed the IP address setting, but I noticed that the
Link/Act/Speed indicator lights on my Netgear Gigabit Ethernet Switch
were not on. I can't ping to or from other computers on the LAN, but I
can ping myself.

When I shutdown the system, it displayed an error message "Shuting
down interface eth0:e1000: eth0:e1000_reset: Hardware Error".

When I rebooted, kudzu detected that the Ethernet board e1000 had been
removed and Network Device Control indicated that eth0 was now
inactive.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

In comp.os.linux.networking Ken Sutherland <(E-Mail Removed)>:
> I have a new system with a Supermicro X6DAL-XG motherboard. I am
^^^^^^^^^^
> trying to get the NIC to work. Their web page inidicates that this
> motherboard includes an Intel 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller.

> http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...5/X6DAL-XG.cfm

> I have installed RedHat Linux 9 from the Red Hat Linux 9 Bible CDs
> with kernel source. I boot with 2.4.20-8smp.

Again, it's beyond me why you install a EOL distro on a recent
mobo and wonder why you have problems. Please install a recent
distro with patches available, apply them all and it's likely
thing should work out of the box. Probably without even compiling
anything.

Good luck

[..]

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo (E-Mail Removed) | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 279: The static electricity routing is acting up...

On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 21:20:18 -0800, Ken Sutherland wrote:

> I have a new system with a Supermicro X6DAL-XG motherboard. I am
> trying to get the NIC to work. Their web page inidicates that this
> motherboard includes an Intel 82541GI Gigabit Ethernet Controller.
>
cut
>
> Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

1) Are there any error messages in your log files related to the NIC?

2) Is the driver module actually loaded? Use lsmod to find out.

3) If the module isn't loaded, use modprobe to manually load the driver
module. See if there are any error messages.

4) If it seems to load succesfully, use the ifconfig and route commands to
setup your eth0 interface.

(E-Mail Removed) (Ken Sutherland) wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed) om:

> Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

I had the same problem, you can download the drivers from the intel site,
you'll need to compile them.
It's obviously better if you get a more recent distro: for instance, RH9 did
not supported my SATA controller properly and thrashed from time to time my
root partition. FC2 runs smoothly, thou.

MatB

Thank you for your help.

lsmod indicates that the module is loaded, but ifconfig returns an
error.

[root@localhost root]# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
parport_pc 19204 1 (autoclean)
lp 9188 0 (autoclean)
parport 39072 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs 13684 0 (autoclean) (unused)
e1000 81256 1
ipt_REJECT 3928 6 (autoclean)
iptable_filter 2412 1 (autoclean)
ip_tables 15864 2 [ipt_REJECT iptable_filter]
sg 37548 0 (autoclean)
sr_mod 18168 0 (autoclean)
ide-scsi 12432 0
scsi_mod 110520 3 [sg sr_mod ide-scsi]
ide-cd 35772 0
cdrom 34176 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
keybdev 2976 0 (unused)
mousedev 5656 1
hid 22308 0 (unused)
input 6208 0 [keybdev mousedev hid]
usb-uhci 27404 0 (unused)
ehci-hcd 20456 0 (unused)
usbcore 82592 1 [hid usb-uhci ehci-hcd]
ext3 73376 2
jbd 56336 2 [ext3]
[root@localhost root]# ifconfig e1000
e1000: error fetching interface information: Device not found
[root@localhost root]#

I've downloaded kernel version 2.4.29. I found an option for e1000
(also present in 2.4.20) which I changed from 'n' to 'y'. I compiled
and installed the new kernel, but while booting it hangs saying:

VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

Searching on Google the error seems to indicate a problem with the SCSI
board setting. I don't have a SCSI board, I should be booting off the
IDE hard disk.

Thank you again for any suggestions.

Oops! I see I should have used "eth0" instead of "e1000" as the
argument for ifconfig.

[root@localhost root]# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:48:53:9D:55
inet addr:10.0.0.21 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:256 (256.0 b)
Base address:0xdc00 Memory:feac0000-feae0000

[root@localhost root]# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref
Use Iface
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0
0 eth0
10.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0
0 eth0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0
0 lo

[root@localhost grub]# netstat -i
Kernel Interface table
Iface MTU Met RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP
TX-OVR Flg
eth0 1500 0 4 0 0 0 17 0 0
0 BMU
lo 16436 0 121366 0 0 0 121366 0 0
0 LRU

[root@localhost grub]# dmesg
e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex
e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Down

The two dmesg lines are repeated hundreds of times. The Link/Act/Speed
lights come on for about a second, then go off for about 10 seconds,
then come on for another second.

Thank you for any ideas.

> [root@localhost root]# ifconfig eth0
> eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:48:53:9D:55
> inet addr:10.0.0.21 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
The broadcast address and netmask are probably wrong. That's not the
cause of your immediate problem, but it will likely bite you eventually.

> Kernel IP routing table
> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref
> Use Iface
> 169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0
> 0 eth0
> 10.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0
> 0 eth0
> 127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0
> 0 lo
You are missing a default gateway. Again, not the cause of the
immediate problem.

> [root@localhost grub]# dmesg
> e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Up 1000 Mbps Full Duplex
> e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Down
>
> The two dmesg lines are repeated hundreds of times. The Link/Act/Speed
> lights come on for about a second, then go off for about 10 seconds,
> then come on for another second.

This sounds like hardware (or something stupid in your version of the
driver). You might want to try tricks like swapping cables (you are
using cat 5e, right?) or interposing a 10/100 only hub to rule out a
problem negotiating a gigabit connection.

> VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
> Please append a correct "root=" boot option
> Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

The kernel doesn't know where to find your root filesystem. There are
lots of ways this can happen. Not having the right driver available is
just one of them (and in that case 00:00 would be something meaningful).
You need to supply this information to the boot loader. Something like
root=/dev/hda1
should do the trick.