Ethernet Works During Install; Broken Afterward

I have a most annoying problem. While doing the installation of 10.3, everything went swimmingly, the installer recognized my ethernet cards (along with everything else), and even successfully used them to download patches, and the like.

But once the installation had completed, and I booted into the system for first use, I got "No interface found" for eth0 and eth1. It sets up the loopback interface just fine, but the "real" cards are not working. I can see them in YaST, and it shows eth0 as being configured, but it doesn't work.

If this is useful, my /etc/sysconfig/network/ directory contains a file "ifcfg-eth0", which is a fundamentally different name than it used on SuSE 9.1 (which had the MAC address in the file name, instead of eth0).

Help?

--Dave

Always tacky to reply to yourself, but I have additional info (and I haven't had a response in 4-ish days).

I tried a complete re-install, with the same behavior -- eth0 worked great during the install, and failed after the kernel was rebuilt forcing a reboot. After that, I get "No interface found" while booting, and have no working network when booted. "ifconfig" only showed the "lo" device -- eth0 was not listed. eth0 *was* listed in YaST, and was apparently configured correctly, but running through re-configuration didn't help.

On another forum, I saw mention of "ifup eth0", but that says that the interface wasn't found. I also saw "modprobe sis900" (the correct driver, as far as I can tell, since SiS900 is part of the device name) suggested, and that produced a useful failure -- it couldn't find the modules.dep file. Hmm, interesting! A "uname -a" showed a mismatch between the version of the kernel, and the directory name in /lib/modules. Booting off the original installation kernel works fine (whose name/version matches the /lib/modules directory name) and has working eth0 device. So I've worked around the original problem, but I'm guessing that I"m running some sub-optimal (maybe unpatched?) kernel. Here are the details so maybe I can get some clarity as to whether my workaround is dangerous, and/or what I should do long-term.

My generic clone desktop PC has 1 disk with 4 partitions: hda1 for /boot, hda2 for swap, hda3 for Suse10.3 (the new installation, and the source of my issues), and hda4 for Suse9.1 (happily running for years). I am (still) using LiLo for booting. At this point, my /boot directory has accumulated quite a bit of stuff:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 May 22 15:36 .volume.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 119132 Feb 14 2006 Kerntypes-2.6.5-7.252-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 843401 Feb 10 19:02 System.map-2.6.22.17-0.1-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 859602 Sep 24 2007 System.map-2.6.22.5-31-debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 842825 Sep 24 2007 System.map-2.6.22.5-31-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 774520 Feb 14 2006 System.map-2.6.5-7.252-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 May 24 13:04 backup_mbr
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 May 24 12:52 boot -> .
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7772 Oct 29 2003 boot-bmp.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5988 Oct 29 2003 boot-compat.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7748 Oct 29 2003 boot-menu.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8653 Oct 29 2003 boot-splash.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5988 Oct 29 2003 boot-text.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Dec 31 2002 boot.0300
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 May 21 23:50 boot.b -> boot-splash.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 May 21 23:50 cboot.b -> boot-splash.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 316 Oct 29 2003 chain.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80417 Feb 10 19:14 config-2.6.22.17-0.1-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80394 Sep 24 2007 config-2.6.22.5-31-debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 80445 Sep 24 2007 config-2.6.22.5-31-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57001 Feb 14 2006 config-2.6.5-7.252-default
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 600 May 24 14:42 grub
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 May 24 14:42 initrd -> initrd-2.6.22.5-31-debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4030520 May 23 16:57 initrd-2.6.22.17-0.1-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4029477 May 24 14:42 initrd-2.6.22.5-31-debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4012003 May 24 13:04 initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1210310 Apr 27 2006 initrd-2.6.5-7.252-default
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 May 22 21:17 initrd-9.1 -> initrd-2.6.5-7.252-default
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 May 22 17:32 inst-initrd -> inst-initrd.real
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15038626 May 21 22:25 inst-initrd.real
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1593816 May 21 22:25 inst-linux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45611 Apr 13 2004 lindows.resume.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37316 Apr 8 2004 lindows.splash.b
-rw------- 1 root root 771584 May 24 13:14 map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 389120 May 24 13:04 message
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 344 Oct 29 2003 os2_d.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 May 21 23:50 splash.lilo -> lindows.splash.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 100315 Feb 10 19:15 symsets-2.6.22.17-0.1-default.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99234 Sep 24 2007 symsets-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 100873 Sep 24 2007 symsets-2.6.22.5-31-debug.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 100432 Sep 24 2007 symsets-2.6.22.5-31-default.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98541 Sep 24 2007 symsets-2.6.22.5-31-xen.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 98492 Sep 24 2007 symsets-2.6.22.5-31-xenpae.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 400576 Feb 10 19:16 symtypes-2.6.22.17-0.1-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 402755 Sep 24 2007 symtypes-2.6.22.5-31-debug.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 400484 Sep 24 2007 symtypes-2.6.22.5-31-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116297 Feb 10 19:15 symvers-2.6.22.17-0.1-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116941 Sep 24 2007 symvers-2.6.22.5-31-debug.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116270 Sep 24 2007 symvers-2.6.22.5-31-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83230 Feb 14 2006 symvers-2.6.5-7.252-i386-default.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2147048 Feb 10 19:13 vmlinux-2.6.22.17-0.1-default.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2390457 Sep 24 2007 vmlinux-2.6.22.5-31-debug.gz
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2146825 Sep 24 2007 vmlinux-2.6.22.5-31-default.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1827166 Feb 14 2006 vmlinux-2.6.5-7.252-default.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 May 24 16:16 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1593936 Feb 10 19:02 vmlinuz-2.6.22.17-0.1-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1812492 Sep 24 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1593816 Sep 24 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1544583 Feb 14 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.5-7.252-default
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 May 22 21:16 vmlinuz-9.1 -> vmlinuz-2.6.5-7.252-default


The 2.6.5 stuff is the Suse9.1 stuff, and boots with root=hda4. The inst-{initrd,vmlinux} is the 10.3 installation kernel from the boot.iso (I am using the CD-less installation method since I have no burner) and boots with root=hda3. The 2.6.22.5 stuff is (I think) the first 10.3 kernel built during installation, and is the kernel which matches the /lib/modules/ directory, and is the kernel which has a working eth0 (with root=hda3). The 2.6.22.17 stuff (I think) is patched/updated/whatever 10.3 kernel, and what I think I "should" be running, but it doesn't have a working eth0 with root=hda3 (and I wouldn't be surprised if lots of other stuff was broken that I didn't notice in the first, say, 15 minutes of use). The -debug stuff is because I installed debugging versions of the kernel during installation.

So the question reduces to: am I running an obsolete, unpatched kernel? Will I be back in the toilet the next time I update/patch my kernel? Or do I have things backwards, and the version numbers and dates are misleading?

Also, while booting, the system spends a bunch of time waiting for /dev/root to be created, and eventually gives up and
requires me to hit return to accept the default 50-character /dev entry for hda3. I tried creating a symlink from /dev/root to that device, but it got blown away by re-booting apparently. What is the correct solution to this problem? I certainly don't want to have to hit "return" during boot for the next umpteen years. nor do I enjoy an extra (unnecessary) 20 second delay in booting.

I'll be happy to supply any other info needed to help. Thanks in advance.

--Dave

Was your 10.3 install from a Live CD or were you able to use the DVD? The only issues I have ever had with installing have been from a 10.3 Live CD. The 10.3 DVD installs have completed flawlessly every time. While probably not a solution to your problem, I just wanted to share one of my observations. Good luck!

I followed the instructions for installing without burning any CD's or DVD's from the URLhttp://en.opensuse.org/Installation_without_CD It uses the CD iso files, so it's roughly equivalent
to installing from CD. I did not use the Live iso files; I used the regular non-Live KDE for the basic install.

--Dave

I recently installed suse 10.3 from a DVD ISO and my ethernet network connection failed as well. It was working for about 3 weeks, then mysteriously stopped working. I didn't change anything. I do have partitioned drives with Windows on the other side. Interestingly, when internet connection broke down in suse, it also broke down in Windows. Then, I deleted the ethernet driver in Suse and the Windows connection started working again. I've tried multiple times to re-configure the network connection in Suse unsuccessfully. Does anyone know of some sort of help document for configuring internet in Suse?

Thanks,

Jason

I don't have any useful suggestions for the immediately prior post, but I have an update on my /dev/root problem.

I noticed that the wait for /dev/root changed to a wait for /dev/hda3 to appear when I made the 10.3 boot alternative the default option. I then tried changing the relevant "root=/dev/hda3" line in my lilo.conf to "root=/dev/sda3", and the system now boots to multi-user without any delays or keyboard input. So my problems appear to be solved. (knock on wood)

--Dave