Ethernet does not work

[Soe]

Hi Rich....

it sends a lot of stuff...   let me copy it out...

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ifconfig -a

dummy 0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 32:41:2a:1a:11:d2
                    BROADCAST NOARP 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)

lo     Link encap:Local Loopback
        inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask 255.0.0.0
       UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
       RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
       RX bytes: 468 (468.0 B) TX bytes: 468 (468.0 B)

tunl0         Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
                  NOARP MTU:1480 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)

and I have probably made mistakes in copying that - sorry if that confuses things.  Thankyou.

[Rich]

Hi Soe
I don't see a network card listed there.

OK, we're going to have to dig a little deeper.
Run these commands:

Code: [Select]

dmesg > dmesg.txt
lsmod > lsmod.txt
Attach the dmesg.txt and lsmod.txt files to your next post
using the "Attachments and other options" selection below
the reply box.

[Soe]

Rich,

I am going offline for at least 9 hours.  Thankyou for your time today.
The outputs are attached.

Regards,  Soe.

 

[CentralWare]

@Soe:

• Look at the attached photo.  Is your network cable plugged into AREA 4 (above the USB ports?) or is there a CARD plugged into AREA 5 that you're connecting to?
• Are there ANY cards plugged into AREA 5?  (Possible IRQ CONFLICT)
• Regardless of #1/#2 above, are the LEDs above the network cable LIT UP?
• Go into BIOS and make sure you don't have the Ethernet port disabled

[Rich]

Hi Soe
Well here's the problem:

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----- Snip -----
e1000e 0000:00:19.0: Invalid MAC Address: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
e1000e 0000:00:19.0: probe with driver e1000e failed with error -5
 ----- Snip ----- Not yet sure what the fix might be.

[Rich]

Hi Soe
It's a long shot, but you can try this on the chance it's
a timing issue:

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sudo modprobe -r e1000e
sudo modprobe e1000e
dmesg | tailThe character after dmesg is not a lowercase L.
It is a pipe character found on the \ key.

See if that dmesg output ends with the above listed error.

[CentralWare]

Go into BIOS and make sure you don't have the Ethernet port disabled

[Soe]

@Soe:

• Look at the attached photo.  Is your network cable plugged into AREA 4 (above the USB ports?) or is there a CARD plugged into AREA 5 that you're connecting to?
• Are there ANY cards plugged into AREA 5?  (Possible IRQ CONFLICT)
• Regardless of #1/#2 above, are the LEDs above the network cable LIT UP?
• Go into BIOS and make sure you don't have the Ethernet port disabled

Hello CentralWare, thank you for taking the trouble to help me. 

My cable is plugged into the slot next to the USB ports in area4, and it is lit up with a green light that occasionally flashes orange. 

I have an extra card in the area 5, which I think is a graphics card.  It has nothing connected to it.

In the BIOS the only thing I see that is related to the LAN says this:

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Onboard LAN Controller    [ENABLED]
Onboard LAN Boot ROM    [Disabled]

A quick bit of reading tells me that they are probably set the way they should be.
Thanks for the advice. 

[CentralWare]

My cable is plugged into the slot next to the USB ports in area4, and it is lit up with a green light that occasionally flashes orange. 

I cannot speak from personal experience on this specific machine, but if there are TWO lights on the network port, the orange/amber LED normally indicates speed and should not alternate - while the second LED normally indicates activity/traffic/etc.  If there's only ONE light, it's possible this alternating colors was intentional.  I'll do a little digging to see if I can find a determination, but just for sake of trying, if you have another Ethernet cable I would swap this one out and see if there's a difference.

UPDATE: According to the owner's manual, there are two LED lights.  On the RIGHT side of the cable should be a SOLID GREEN LED which indicates a solid connection to the network.  On the LEFT side of the cable should be an amber (orange) LED which flashes according to activity on the network.  This LED should not alternate colors.

Click Here for the owner's manual

I have an extra card in the area 5, which I think is a graphics card.  It has nothing connected to it.

If you're willing and able, unplug the machine and remove any unused cards from the system to free up Interrupt channels.
Also, in BIOS, disable COM/Serial ports, floppy drives/controllers...  anything you do not NEED to fire up the machine with.
There are multiple Inspiron 530 models, some had ATI video cards, Sound Blaster cards and/or Telco Modems installed at the factory.

Next, go into BIOS and see what VERSION of BIOS is installed.  Their most recent (2009) is v1.0.18

On the Dell website, there's also mention of a RealTek 81xxxx driver which based on the driver information I'm going to speculate it was their "fix" as the Intel chip caused quite a bit of grief back in those days.  If the RealTek was a plug-in card, which it probably was, this won't involve us.

Finally, I need to know what version of Tiny Core you are using for this adventure.
You noted you have WinXP running on it - does Ethernet work under Windows?