Changed from Ubuntu to SUSE Newtork no worky.

When using Ubuntu my network worked great with no input form me at all. I switched to SUSE as I thought using RPMs might be a simpler and better way to load programs, but now I can’t get my network working.

When I click on the “Network:none, click to configure” I see my card detected as 21x4xDEC Tulip Compatible (not connected) I tried changing a few settings and switched back and forth from netowrk manager to yast and had no luck.

It’s an older Dell 4400 P4. I actually went back to ubuntu to make sure the card hadn’t gone bad, it hadn’t. I now have SUSE reinstalled from the full DVD installer and have the same situation.

Any help would be appreciated. As I’m sure you can tell from the post Linux is very new to me.

First of all, switch from the “Network Manager” mode to “Traditional” mode in the Yast.

If you do not have a DHCP environment, just make sure that you configured IP address, netmask and default gateway through the Yast interface.

Go to the command line (terminal) and see if you can see the status of the network card:


/sbin/ifconfig

Sounds like a known problem, to be sure, give the output of

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --netcard

(And if it is the problem I think it is, then switching to ifup will not help, because it’s driver-related)

jeff@linux-e1u1:~> /sbin/ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:A1:00:EC:85
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:422 errors:5152 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:26 errors:4 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:4
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:50379 (49.1 Kb) TX bytes:5648 (5.5 Kb)
Interrupt:23 Base address:0xd800

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:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1028 (1.0 Kb) TX bytes:1028 (1.0 Kb)

pan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr EE:F7:03:10:CE:5A
inet6 addr: fe80::ecf7:3ff:fe10:ce5a/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:1404 (1.3 Kb)

jeff@linux-e1u1:~>

jeff@linux-e1u1:~> /usr/sbin/hwinfo --netcard
21: PCI 20b.0: 0200 Ethernet controller
[Created at pci.318]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1282_9102
Unique ID: rBUF.0NgK5ZS9c0D
Parent ID: 6NW+.92zbjSp4ZgF
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:0b.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:0b.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Davicom 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet”
Vendor: pci 0x1282 “Davicom Semiconductor, Inc.”
Device: pci 0x9102 “21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet”
SubVendor: pci 0x4554
SubDevice: pci 0x434e
Revision: 0x31
Driver: “tulip”
Driver Modules: “tulip”
Device File: eth0
I/O Ports: 0xd800-0xd8ff (rw)
Memory Range: 0xfeaefc00-0xfeaefcff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xf4700000-0xf473ffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
IRQ: 23 (5748 events)
HW Address: 00:08:a1:00:ec:85
Link detected: no
Module Alias: “pci:v00001282d00009102sv00004554sd0000434Ebc02sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: dmfe is not active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe dmfe”
Driver Info #1:
Driver Status: tulip is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe tulip”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #11 (PCI bridge)
jeff@linux-e1u1:~>

If I unplug and reconnect the network cable it will briefly show connected, wired. It is a DHCP btw, it’s plugged into a netgear wireless router. I can try a different network card if needed.

Again thanks for any help. My goal is to get comfortable with Linux enough to switch all my home computers over.

Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: dmfe is not active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe dmfe"
Driver Info #1:
Driver Status: tulip is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe tulip"

As expected, the problem is well known.

There are some tulip-compatible devices which -at least officially- are compatible with two different kernel modules, but one of them fails.

The solution is simple, you have to explicitly advise udev to use the other driver “dmfe” and to be sure blacklist the “wrong” module “tulip”.

Use

YaST => Network Devices => Network Settings

Choose the card, choose Edit and got to

=> Hardware => Module Name

Choose dmfe instead of tulip and save.

Unloading of all modules involved and loading dmfe exclusively (has to be done only once).


su

password

modprobe -rv tulip

modprobe -rv dmfe

modprobe  -v dmfe

Blacklisting the wrong module.


su 

password

echo "blacklist tulip" >> /etc/modprobe.d/tulip

You’re done.

Missed one command in the end.


su

password 

rcnetwork restart

(Rebooting the machine would also help, but this is linux and not … you know …)

jeff@linux-e1u1:~> su
Password:
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff # modprobe -rv tulip
rmmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-pae/kernel/drivers/net/tulip/tulip.ko
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff # modprobe -rv dmfe
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff # modprobe -v dmfe
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-pae/kernel/drivers/net/tulip/dmfe.ko
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff # echo “blacklist tulip” >> /etc/modprobe.d/tulip
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff # rcnetwork restart
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 device: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31) done
pan0
No configuration found for pan0
Nevertheless the interface will be shut down.
bridge-utils not installed done
Shutting down service network . . . . . . . . . done
Hint: you may set mandatory devices in /etc/sysconfig/network/config
Setting up network interfaces:
eth0 device: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31)
eth0 Starting DHCP4 client.
eth0 IP address: 192.168.1.2/24 done
pan0
No configuration found for pan0 unused
Setting up service network . . . . . . . . . . done
linux-e1u1:/home/jeff #

Worked on restart! Posting from SUSE machine now. Thanks a million. I’m trying to learn, I have light command line experience from DOS days and limited programming experience from way back. If I can find some good resources I’ll try to get up to speed. Thanks a million for the help, and sorry that I wasn’t able to find this myself as it was apparently a common and known issue.

Hi, I ran through these steps also since I have been having the same issue. I return a slightly different response. Can someone help me with this? I still can’t get on the internet:

jpw@linux-ricq:~> su
Password:
linux-ricq:/home/jpw # rcnetwork restart
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 device: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31) done
Shutting down service network . . . . . . . . . . . . . done.
Hint: you may set mandatory devices in /etc/sysconfig/network/config
Setting up network interfaces:
lo
lo IP address: 127.0.0.1/8
IP address: 127.0.0.2/8 done
eth0 device: Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 31)
eth0 (DHCP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . no IP address yet… backgrounding.
eth0 IP address: 192.168.1.2/24
eth0:2 IP address: 192.168.1.2/24
eth0:4ZVG0 IP address: 192.168.1.1/24
eth0:JP IP address: 192.168.1.2/24
eth0:_ IP address: 192.168.1.2/24 waiting
Setting up service network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . done.
SuSEfirewall2: Setting up rules from /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 …
SuSEfirewall2: batch committing…
SuSEfirewall2: Firewall rules successfully set