Network install doesn't see NICs

This might also fall under the Networking umbrella but since I’m encountering it during install I thought I’d post here.

I’m trying to do a network install of 10.3 on a new SuperMicro server which uses a re-branded, on-board dual port Intel Pro1000. It doesn’t either find the NICs or it doesn’t know what to do with them. It errors out saying “no network device found”. It then reverts back to the ncurses based menu for installing, repairing, booting, etc. When I select install and then network as the media it tells me to select the NIC to use and provides the two NICs as options with both the brand and model number.

I’ve manually loaded the e1000 driver and when that didn’t work I tried the e1000e (unloading the previous driver as well) thinking it might be a PCI-X/-E device. That didn’t work either.

The device is a model 82563EB. Is this not a supported version of the Pro1000?

-Mathew

theillien wrote:

>
> This might also fall under the Networking umbrella but since I’m
> encountering it during install I thought I’d post here.
>
> I’m trying to do a network install of 10.3 on a new SuperMicro server
> which uses a re-branded, on-board dual port Intel Pro1000. It doesn’t
> either find the NICs or it doesn’t know what to do with them. It
> errors out saying “no network device found”. It then reverts back to
> the ncurses based menu for installing, repairing, booting, etc. When I
> select install and then network as the media it tells me to select the
> NIC to use and provides the two NICs as options with both the brand and
> model number.
>
> I’ve manually loaded the e1000 driver and when that didn’t work I tried
> the e1000e (unloading the previous driver as well) thinking it might be
> a PCI-X/-E device. That didn’t work either.
>
> The device is a model 82563EB. Is this not a supported version of the
> Pro1000?
>
> -Mathew
>
>

Based on what I could find, they ARE supported, but not ‘built-in’ to the
kernel yet. SuperMicro seems to have linux drivers available on their FTP
site, but they’ll need to be compiled and installed manually.

Ok, Chicken and The Egg problem… How to install?

As a relatively quick solution, I would suggest plugging in a supported NIC,
using that to do the install, then removing it after you’ve downloaded the
driver source from SuperMicro. Then you could compile the new driver,
install the module and have access to the lovely gigabit pipes.

A page with some more information and some rants. (FreeBSD/Debian based)

http://dpk.net/2006/08/09/intels-new-nic-82563eb/

And the link to SuperMicro’s FTP site with the driver source:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/LAN/Intel/PRO_v10.4/PRO1000/LINUX/

A caveat:

HAL and udev enumerate the network devices and remember them. If you
install another nic, it’ll be eth0… even if you remove it, your new dual
82563EB nics will likely be eth1 and eth2.

To remove this ‘memory’ of the previous card, you’ll need to remove a file
from the HAL hardware list:

In the subdir /var/lib/hardware/udi/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices

you’ll likely need to ‘grep eth0 *’ to find which file… then delete that
file.

Of course, you’ll probably need to shutdown, remove the PCI NIC, reboot,
remove the file, reboot and proceed to set up the new duals. If you set up
the new nics before removing the old, and rebooting, you’ll get eth1/2.

If you decide to use the drivers from SuperMicro to enable the shiny new
dual gigabit nics, please remember that ANY kernel update will DISABLE your
manually installed module and your network(s) will go away when you reboot
for the kernel update. And you’ll need to ‘make install’ them again,
then ‘modprobe stupidmodule’ to bring them back up. (or {shudder} reboot)

The automatic updater will not auto-update the kernel as it’s
an “interactive” update… unless you enable that ‘feature’ of the updater.
Be careful.

Hope this helps

Loni

L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

Holy detailed. Thanks.

I was also told I could repackage the initrd file on the boot media and include the module. I just need to find some reliable documentation on doing that. So far, everything I’ve found has provided slightly different instructions.

-Mathew

theillien wrote:

>
> Holy detailed. Thanks.
>
> I was also told I could repackage the initrd file on the boot media and
> include the module. I just need to find some reliable documentation on
> doing that. So far, everything I’ve found has provided slightly
> different instructions.
>
> -Mathew
>
>

{Smile} I’d rather be accused of providing too much information than not
enough… that’s just frustrating!

Once you get the system up and running, compiling and installing the driver
modules is not difficult. Adding it to the initrd is a change of one
config file, and running ‘mkinitrd’. And then it ‘just works’…

But you need to get the system up and running first. And install make, gcc,
kernel sources, download the drivers, etc.

It is not that hard to rebuild the initrd on the boot media either… but
again, you need to have compiled the driver against the particular kernel
version that’s being used during the installation… back to Chicken and
Egg issue again. You need the system up and running to compile the driver,
and you need the driver to update the boot media so the NIC’s will work
during install so you can get the system up and running.

Now, if you were to use the DVD to install the system, you can obtain a
working system without needing network access initially. Use another
machine to burn a CD with the drivers, or a flash drive to transfer it
over, compile the driver, install the driver, update the current initrd,
bring up the network systems, configure, and taa daa! you’re online!

I talk too much, don’t I? {Grin}

Loni


L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com