Partial Communication Problems

Hi all;

I recently helped a friend set up his new box: it's one of those new
shuttles. I can't remember the model number for the machine, but I
had to download and install the nvidia module to get the onboard
ethernet working. After insmodding, we have limited communication
with the box.

Essentially he has two machines: the older one (redhat), the newer one
(slackware), and a switch between them. Slackware has (lets say)
x.x.x.224 and redhat has x.x.x.228 . The switch is also plugged up to
his DSL connection. Both IPs are public and routable. (NOTE: the
'x.x.x' will always stand for the same IP quads.)

I can ping slackware from redhat, and redhat from slackware, but I
cannot ping slackware from slakcware! Neither x.x.x.224, localhost,
nor 127.0.0.1 works. I cannot ssh to slackware from anywhere but
redhat; slackware's web page is only visible from redhat; etc etc.
Furthermore, cannot get to anywhere but redhat from slackware, using
hostnames or IPs. I even tried taking down the interface and removing
the ethernet module; still cannot ping localhost or 127.0.0.1 .

Posted below are the relevent files; let me know if you need more
info:

-------------- slackware ---------------
/etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost
x.x.x.224 slackware.dummy.net slackware
x.x.x.228 redhat.dummy.net redhat

/sbin/ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <snip>
inet addr:x.x.x.224 Bcast:x.x.x.255 Mask:255.255.255.128
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2605 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1121 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:236790 (231.2 Kb) TX bytes:176885 (172.7 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x1000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:176 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:176 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:19131 (18.6 Kb) TX bytes:19131 (18.6 Kb)

netstat -nr:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt
Iface
x.x.x.128 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.128 U 40 0 0 eth0
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 40 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 x.x.x.129 0.0.0.0 UG 40 0 0 eth0

command to bring the interfaces up:

/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 lo

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 x.x.x.224 broadcast x.x.x.255 netmask x.x.x.128
/sbin/route add default gw x.x.x.129


-------------- redhat ---------------
/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
x.x.x.228 redhat
x.x.x.224 slackware

/sbin/ifconfig:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <snip>
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:932893 errors:908 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:373510 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:2468
RX bytes:777917530 (741.8 Mb) TX bytes:29568376 (28.1 Mb)

eth0:1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <snip>
inet addr:x.x.x.228 Bcast:x.x.x.255 Mask:255.255.255.128
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:932893 errors:908 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:373510 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:2468
RX bytes:777917530 (741.8 Mb) TX bytes:29568376 (28.1 Mb)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:688204 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:688204 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0
RX bytes:41563739 (39.6 Mb) TX bytes:41563739 (39.6 Mb)

netstat -nr:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags MSS Window irtt
Iface
x.x.x.128 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.128 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
0.0.0.0 x.x.x.129 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

commands to bring interfaces up:
ifup ifcfg-lo
ifup ifcfg-eth0 boot

network files: /etc/sysconfig/networking/
../ifcfg-lo:
DEVICE=lo
IPADDR=127.0.0.1
NETMASK=255.0.0.0
NETWORK=127.0.0.0
# If you're having problems with gated making 127.0.0.0/8 a martian,
# you can change this to something else (255.255.255.255, for example)
BROADCAST=127.255.255.255
ONBOOT=yes
NAME=loopback

../devices/ifcfg-eth0:
DEVICE=eth0:1
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no
TYPE=Ethernet
IPADDR=x.x.x.228
NETMASK=255.255.255.128
HWADDR=<snip>
GATEWAY=x.x.x.129
NETWORK=x.x.x.128
BROADCAST=x.x.x.255

------ end files -----
any Ideas?

PS: I'm not a redhat user, so I'm not sure what else would be
relevent.

Also: the nvidia ethernet driver gave me a little trouble compiling
(the video wouldn't compile at all);
i found it as: NVIDIA_nforce-1.0-0248.tar.gz

One More Thing: all this info was grabbed via ssh from my own
computer, but I have to ssh to redhat before I can ssh to slackware,
so the ethernet kinda works....

One more thing: redhat used to hold the ip x.x.x.224 before he bought
the slackware box, so I know he has that IP in his leased range.

-t.