RTL8139 Card and forcedeth : Network Card all confused ..Help !

I posted the following message on ubuntu forums but got no response,
plz help ! :

Hi,

I am trying to connect to my BroadBand ADSL connection using my
Ethernet card ( Intex technologies RTL 8139 D ). I tried most of the
things that were mentioned in many threads that .I read in the
Forums :

* Configured Static IP Address, Gateway, Mask etc

* Tried Unloading forcedeth module ( using sudo modprobe -r forcedeth)
and then loading the drivers 8139cp.o and 8139too.o ( using sudo
modprobe 8139cp and sudo modprobe 8139too)

* Tried the nvnet module too, but does not work

* Tried with Breezy, Dapper and Edgy still does not work

I suspect there is something is messed up with PCI bus, nVidia chipset
and Network Driver mismatch.

First of all, ifconfig shows TX and RX of eth0 to be 0 :

$ ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:2F:35:0A7
inet addr:192.168.1.8 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::211:2fff:fe35:ad7/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:22

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:13143 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13143 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1197852 (1.1 MiB) TX bytes:1197852 (1.1 MiB)


The output of lspci :

$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different
version?) (rev a2)
0000:00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller
1 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller
4 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller
3 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller
2 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller
5 (rev a2)
0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev
a4)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller
(rev a4)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller
(rev a4)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller
(rev a4)
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet
Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2
AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
0000:00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI
Bridge (rev a3)
0000:00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev a2)
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 1904:2031 (rev 01)
0000:02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18
[GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] (rev a3)

The output of dmesg ( cut out the irrelevant stuff ) :

[4295102.495000] forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet
driver. Version 0.41.
[4295102.497000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A] -> Link [LKLN] ->
GSI 22 (level, high) -> IRQ 22
[4295102.497000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:04.0 to
64
[4295103.010000] eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01043:80a7 bound to
0000:00:04.0
[4295103.156000] eth0: no link during initialization.
[4295113.903000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

This is when the system is first booted. After i unload forcedeth and
insert 8139too and 8139cp, dmesg shows :

[4297822.345000] ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:04.0 disabled
[4297831.077000] 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22,
2004)
[4297832.941000] 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27

Last the output of lshw :

-----
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: nForce2 Ethernet Controller
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 4
bus info: pci@00:04.0
version: a1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: cap_list
resources: iomemory:fe800000-fe800fff ioport:eff0-eff7 irq:22

------
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: nForce2 External PCI Bridge
vendor: nVidia Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@00:08.0
version: a3
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@01:08.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
resources: iomemory:fbe00000-fbe000ff ioport:d800-d8ff irq:10

Still I am not able to ping my gateway 192.168.1.1. What could be
going wrong ?
I am at my wit's end having run out of ideas .
Any pointers would be of great help !

Thanks !

On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:23:45 -0800, Vidyut rearranged some electrons to
form:

> I posted the following message on ubuntu forums but got no response,
> plz help ! :
>
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to connect to my BroadBand ADSL connection using my
> Ethernet card ( Intex technologies RTL 8139 D ). I tried most of the
> things that were mentioned in many threads that .I read in the
> Forums :

Are you sure your cable is good?


--
David M (dmacchiarolo)
http://home.triad.rr.com/redsled
T/S 53
sled351 Linux 2.4.18-14 has been up 3 days 7:47

Thanks for your reply.
My cable is good because I have used the same cable and same
configuration to access the net through Windows.
I even tried putting the card in a different PCI slot and still did
not help :-( i am getting quite desperate now because i was hoping to
do many things
hoping that the ethernet card would work..i can buy another card, but
am not sure whether that will not face the situation :-(

my hunch is that the right driver for the card is 8138too/8139cp but
some how the nvidia driver forcedeth has screwed up things ..although
it detects the card & interface eth0 it says link down (i am able
access the net in the same state in win xp ) while 8139too and 8139cp
get loaded but dont detect the card

i may be totally wrong but i would really thankful if anyone could get
this thing working for me :-)

thanks !

On Feb 7, 4:03 pm, David M <NOS...@nospam.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:23:45 -0800, Vidyut rearranged some electrons to
> form:
>
> > I posted the following message on ubuntu forums but got no response,
> > plz help ! :
>
> > Hi,
>
> > I am trying to connect to my BroadBand ADSL connection using my
> > Ethernet card ( Intex technologies RTL 8139 D ). I tried most of the
> > things that were mentioned in many threads that .I read in the
> > Forums :
>
> Are you sure your cable is good?
>
> --
> David M (dmacchiarolo)http://home.triad.rr.com/redsled
> T/S 53
> sled351 Linux 2.4.18-14 has been up 3 days 7:47

Hello,

Vidyut a écrit :
>
> I am trying to connect to my BroadBand ADSL connection using my
> Ethernet card ( Intex technologies RTL 8139 D ). I tried most of the
> things that were mentioned in many threads that .I read in the
> Forums :
>
> * Configured Static IP Address, Gateway, Mask etc

On which network interface ? The nVidia one or the Intex one ?

> * Tried Unloading forcedeth module ( using sudo modprobe -r forcedeth)

Why would you do such a thing ?

> and then loading the drivers 8139cp.o and 8139too.o ( using sudo
> modprobe 8139cp and sudo modprobe 8139too)

And what were the resulting kernel messages ?

> $ ifconfig
>
> eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:2F:35:0A7
[...]
> Interrupt:22

This MAC address is allocated to Asustek, so I guess it belongs to the
built-in nVidia ethernet interface on the motherboard.

> The output of lspci :
>
> $ lspci
[...]
> 0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet
> Controller (rev a1)

If you check with lspci -v, you'll see that interrupt 22 has been
allocated to this card.

> 0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 1904:2031 (rev 01)

I've already seen these PCI ID numbers once. This is an Intex/Silan card
based on a RTL8139 chip but with non standard PCI ID, I/O and memory
layout. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the standard RTL 8139
driver 8139too at all. When I ckeched on their website (not so long
ago), the manufacturer provided only a driver source code for 2.4
kernel. I tried to hack the 2.6 kernel 8139too code to adapt it to the
non standard PCI ID and PCI I/O and memory regions, but had no luck. The
modified driver recognized the card but failed to use it, so differences
with a standard RTL8139 card must be deeper.

If you want to use this card with a 2.6 kernel you may use the Windows
NDIS driver with ndiswrapper.

> The output of dmesg ( cut out the irrelevant stuff ) :
>
> [4295102.495000] forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet
> driver. Version 0.41.
> [4295102.497000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A] -> Link [LKLN] ->
> GSI 22 (level, high) -> IRQ 22
> [4295102.497000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:04.0 to
> 64
> [4295103.010000] eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01043:80a7 bound to
> 0000:00:04.0
> [4295103.156000] eth0: no link during initialization.
> [4295113.903000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

That's only related to the built-in nVidia ethernet interface.

> This is when the system is first booted. After i unload forcedeth and
> insert 8139too and 8139cp, dmesg shows :
>
> [4297822.345000] ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:04.0 disabled
> [4297831.077000] 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22,
> 2004)
> [4297832.941000] 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27

If a supported RTL8139 card had been found, a message would have been
printed out.

Anyway, why don't you just use the built-in nVidia ethernet interface
instead ?

Thanks a gazzzzzzziiiiiilllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiionnnnn, Pascal !!!!!
I was such a dumbo..actually I never knew that there is an built-in
nVidia ethernet interface...I always kept wondering how is the output
of lspci and lshw showing 2 ethernet controllers ...it never struck me
to look at the rear of the computer to find the built-in Ethernet
interface...being pretty new to linux and network access on linux, I
misinterpreted almost everything from the output of lspci and lshw.
Now after plugging the cable into the built in nvidia interface it
works !!

Thanks again !

On Feb 7, 7:41 pm, Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-s...@plouf.fr.eu.org>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Vidyut a écrit :
>
>
>
> > I am trying to connect to my BroadBand ADSL connection using my
> > Ethernet card ( Intex technologies RTL 8139 D ). I tried most of the
> > things that were mentioned in many threads that .I read in the
> > Forums :
>
> > * Configured Static IP Address, Gateway, Mask etc
>
> On which network interface ? The nVidia one or the Intex one ?
>
> > * Tried Unloading forcedeth module ( using sudo modprobe -r forcedeth)
>
> Why would you do such a thing ?
>
> > and then loading the drivers 8139cp.o and 8139too.o ( using sudo
> > modprobe 8139cp and sudo modprobe 8139too)
>
> And what were the resulting kernel messages ?
>
>
>
> > $ ifconfig
>
> > eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:2F:35:0A7
> [...]
> > Interrupt:22
>
> This MAC address is allocated to Asustek, so I guess it belongs to the
> built-in nVidia ethernet interface on the motherboard.
>
>
>
> > The output of lspci :
>
> > $ lspci
> [...]
> > 0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet
> > Controller (rev a1)
>
> If you check with lspci -v, you'll see that interrupt 22 has been
> allocated to this card.
>
> > 0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 1904:2031 (rev 01)
>
> I've already seen these PCI ID numbers once. This is an Intex/Silan card
> based on a RTL8139 chip but with non standard PCI ID, I/O and memory
> layout. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the standard RTL 8139
> driver 8139too at all. When I ckeched on their website (not so long
> ago), the manufacturer provided only a driver source code for 2.4
> kernel. I tried to hack the 2.6 kernel 8139too code to adapt it to the
> non standard PCI ID and PCI I/O and memory regions, but had no luck. The
> modified driver recognized the card but failed to use it, so differences
> with a standard RTL8139 card must be deeper.
>
> If you want to use this card with a 2.6 kernel you may use the Windows
> NDIS driver with ndiswrapper.
>
> > The output of dmesg ( cut out the irrelevant stuff ) :
>
> > [4295102.495000] forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet
> > driver. Version 0.41.
> > [4295102.497000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A] -> Link [LKLN] ->
> > GSI 22 (level, high) -> IRQ 22
> > [4295102.497000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:04.0 to
> > 64
> > [4295103.010000] eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01043:80a7 bound to
> > 0000:00:04.0
> > [4295103.156000] eth0: no link during initialization.
> > [4295113.903000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
>
> That's only related to the built-in nVidia ethernet interface.
>
> > This is when the system is first booted. After i unload forcedeth and
> > insert 8139too and 8139cp, dmesg shows :
>
> > [4297822.345000] ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:04.0 disabled
> > [4297831.077000] 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22,
> > 2004)
> > [4297832.941000] 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
>
> If a supported RTL8139 card had been found, a message would have been
> printed out.
>
> Anyway, why don't you just use the built-in nVidia ethernet interface
> instead ?