ethernet problem

[gatebias]

I just installed Kubuntu 6.06 AMD 64 from a live DVD on an MSI K9N Platinum mobo. Video and sound are perfect, but I can't seem to make the ethernet port work. I use a Linksys wireless bridge to connect to my Linksys router, mainly to avoid the pain of trying to activate WPA2-TKIP, which is the mode I've chosen for my wireless network, under Linux. The bridge connects to the LAN port on my computer, and has a fixed IP of 192.168.1.51. Every computer on my network has a fixed address, and the Kubuntu box has been assigned 192.168.1.47. I attempted to configure this port using Network Settings. No complaints from the system, except when I launch Konqueror, it is obvious that there is no connection. Even when I try to connect to the bare bridge, as in http://192.168.1.51, I do not get the login screen that I should get. I have specified the DNS and gateway as 192.168.1.1, as always for my setup (that's the Linksys router). I have tried a whole lot of enabling/disabling options, with no luck. I know the hardware is working because the same settings work fine when I boot Win XP. Gaaaaaa!
When I list network devices, I only see the loopback address.

Or, should I use a wireless card directly, and try to support WPA2-TKIP?

[sky]

Re: ethernet problem

Did you try to sudo ifup <your_interface> to see what message you would get ?
It would be a good start to debug.

Cheers

[gatebias]

Re: ethernet problem

Thanks, I get:

ifup: interface eth0 already configured

Also, I've tried pinging all the relevant addresses, and they all time out. I don't know if this makes a difference, but this mobo has 2 LAN ports. I've tried disabling eth1 to keep things simple.

[sky]

Re: ethernet problem

So you should try to type this command (in fact, it's always up on the first sight even without ip)
sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0
And also
ifconfig -a (to see if it's well recognized)

Cheers

[gatebias]

Re: ethernet problem

Okay, ran sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0. It ran and returned after 30 seconds with no output.
Tested and still nothing works.

ifconfig -a produces the following:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:16:17:77:8E:C4
inet addr:192.168.1.47 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:22 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:2682 (2.6 KiB) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:233 Base address:0x8000

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:46 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:46 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4377 (4.2 KiB) TX bytes:4377 (4.2 KiB)

I also unplugged the wireless bridge and ran a cable directly to the router, just to eliminate
another possibility, but that made no difference (can't ping the router). I also disabled the secondary
LAN port in BIOS just in case it was interfering somehow. I found a networking FAQ here and everything
I saw there agrees with what I did for network connection setup.

Interesting...

[sky]

Re: ethernet problem

I don't see what it can be...
maybe route is wrong or the device, you can see that there's transfert out but no in...
Can you give the output of route please ?
As you fixed the ip maybe it's not getting it itself...

[rpkemp]

Re: ethernet problem

I also disabled the secondary
LAN port in BIOS just in case it was interfering somehow.

Just a wild thought, but it's possible that Linux could be activating this secondary LAN port even if it's disabled in the BIOS - if it loads the module, the thing might be coming up (while the LAN port you WANT to use is - for some reason - not being recognized.)

It seems unlikely, but when you have excluded the obvious, whatever remains, however unlikely, may just be the problem (to paraphrase Sherlock).

Anyway, you might just try pulling the cable out of the primary LAN port and plugging it in the secondary one, just for fun.

Rob

[gatebias]

Re: ethernet problem

First, here is the output of "route":

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Regarding the second port, I have done some things to rule it out, such as switching the cable to the other plug.
I suppose I should really enable it again, because they are both recognized equally (poorly? ), and
configured sanely under the network manager. I was just trying to rule out things. But, there was a point
where I had the hardware enabled in BIOS, and just disabled under the network manager. So, I gave the system
a chance to behave normally (as far as co-operating with the BIOS). Anyway, yes, I tried both plugs.
At this point I feel I should enable both and try to get both working.

I went over to my Suse 10.1 machine and started comparing settings, the only thing I noticed different
was that an extra line for loopback appears in "route" output, and also the broadcast address from ifconfig is
255.255.255.255 instead of 192.168.1.255. But, I doubt that should be a problem. I also tried some
pinging from there... I see the router and wireless bridge respond but (of course? ) not the machine
in question.

I guess I could disable them both, and throw in a $20 network card, because sheesh! I am beginning to
suspect the driver for the NVidia chipset.

[rpkemp]

Re: ethernet problem

Another thought, some other of these dual ethernet motherboards have apparently required a system shutdown after using Windows and before booting Linux, presumably to allow firmware to clear or something. So if you are habitually re-booting into Linux from Windows (rather than booting Linux from cold) you might want to try turning the computer off for a few seconds instead.

And for that matter, are you sure the correct driver is being loaded for your lan ports? (Presumably they are both the same.) That's a fairly new motherboard, isn't it? If so, Linux support may not have settled down very well yet.

Rob

[gatebias]

Re: ethernet problem

Bingo! Dropped in a Linksys PCI ethernet card and it worked right away. I tried updating, but I think it may have already hit the repositories at install time. So, I keep the card and wait patiently for the mobo updates to come out. Thanks everybody for the help, I learned a few tricks. Is this problem worthy of a bug report? I'd like to put the card back where I got it eventually.

Ken

[gatebias]

Re: ethernet problem

Good news! I installed Kubuntu 6.10 64 bit and all ethernet ports worked perfectly. Thanks to all that helped. The Linksys PCI card went back where it belonged, in the P3. I gave that to a blind freind who is installing Linux on it, using a speech synthesis card. He reports using Slackware and Fedora on other machines.