installation troubles - network card

[quneur]

Hi, I'm pretty much a newb concerning linux especially configuration. I have TC 3.1 LiveCD which worked on a different computer. I then salvaged the HD and RAM to this computer and booted the same LiveCD. But the bottom icons are now missing and the network card won't work even though its the same one I used before. The card (Belkin Cardbus - rtl8139) works with Windows XP so I do know the hardware is fine.

I don't have internet connection to the laptop but here is ifconfig eth0 (having to re-type everything);

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:17:3F:0A:84:79
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST 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 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0,0 B)
interrupt:11 Base address:0xe000

dmesg gives me 3-4 pages of information.

[tinypoodle]

I'd interprete that as the interface being up but not having been given any IP.

[maro]

I'm not so sure that one can already draw the conclusion that the interface is up. Luckily we don't need the whole 'dmesg' output as dmesg | grep 'eth[0-9]' should be enough.

I've now started a notebook and had no ethernet cable connected:

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eth0: Tigon3 [partno(BCM95751M) rev 4201] (PCI Express) MAC address 00:12:34:56:78:9a
eth0: attached PHY is 5750 (10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet) (WireSpeed[1])
eth0: RXcsums[1] LinkChgREG[0] MIirq[0] ASF[0] TSOcap[1]
eth0: dma_rwctrl[76180000] dma_mask[64-bit]
Only after inserting an ethernet cable I saw:

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tg3: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
tg3: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX.
(Note: 'Link is up' being the "interesting" part)

If the link is up, I'd agree that it looks to be a DHCP issue. Or do you need to provide a fixed IP address (e.g. via the network command or from the control panel)?

[tinypoodle]

I'm not so sure that one can already draw the conclusion that the interface is up.

Are there any cases an interface could show as output of 'ifconfig' without being up?
(Of course with 'ifconfig -a' all interfaces would show, irrelevant if up or down, but I don't think that's what the OP referred to)

If the link is up, I'd agree that it looks to be a DHCP issue. Or do you need to provide a fixed IP address (e.g. via the network command or from the control panel)?

Any pointers please to the 'network' command?
It does not exist at least in TC 2.10, neither have I ever noticed it in any other distro.
Due to the very generic name, I failed with any websearch, including searching online manpages.

To provide a fixed IP address I have always used 'ifconfig <interface> IP'.

[quneur]

I think I screwed everything up when I transfered over the harddrive. Since I couldn't get it to work (maybe the restore point?) I reformatted and installed XP using NTFS. So, when I load TC it looks for the larger 'd' drive and uses it for swap. I've tried tinycore boot options (noswap, hda1=tce restore=hda1) but it can't create tce drive to save settings so control panel network, DCHP won't save.

I guess I'm gonna rewipe the drive with debian inorder to cfdisk it.

[maro]

Are there any cases an interface could show as output of 'ifconfig' without being up?
(Of course with 'ifconfig -a' all interfaces would show, irrelevant if up or down, but I don't think that's what the OP referred to)

I forgot to mention that I had observed before I attached the ethernet cable the equivalent output to what the OP had reported.

Any pointers please to the 'network' command?
It does not exist at least in TC 2.10, neither have I ever noticed it in any other distro.
Due to the very generic name, I failed with any websearch, including searching online manpages.

Well, '/usr/bin/network' is a small FLTK application specific to TC. Instead of calling it from a shell one could just start if from the control panel. It certainly is included in TC 2.11.6 (and 3.x so far), and I'm pretty sure it was already present in TC 2.10.
I agree that with such a generic search phrase you don't stand a chance to find anything useful on the interweb.

To provide a fixed IP address I have always used 'ifconfig <interface> IP'.

No issue with that. I'd do the same when using MC, and I guess 'network' is just a kind of GUI wrapper for 'ifconfig'. Having that small app makes it just easier not to forget any of the parameters.

[tinypoodle]

I forgot to mention that I had observed before I attached the ethernet cable the equivalent output to what the OP had reported.

Agreed and as expected. up/down state of an interface is independent of any connection.

Well, '/usr/bin/network' is a small FLTK application specific to TC. Instead of calling it from a shell one could just start if from the control panel. It certainly is included in TC 2.11.6 (and 3.x so far), and I'm pretty sure it was already present in TC 2.10.
I agree that with such a generic search phrase you don't stand a chance to find anything useful on the interweb.

Ok, thanks, those were enough clues to search within this forum 

The answer to what had puzzled me is rather trivial:

Change log for Tiny Core v2.11
* Updated netcardconfig renamed to network.

 

[quneur]

dmesg | grep 'eth0'

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xc4964000, 00:17:3f:0a:84:79, IRQ 11
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (8139too): transmit queue 0 timed out
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
.
.
.
approximately 30 repeating eth0: link up, lines

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 4871MB, 4871301120 bytes
15 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10068 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 945 * 512 = 483840 bytes

Device   Boot     Start     End     Blocks    Id  System
/dev/hda1  *          1     9059  4280346 83 Linux
/dev/hda2          9060  10068  476752+  5 Extended
/dev/hda5          9060  10068  476721   82 Linux swap
fdisk: can't open '/dev/ramzswap0': Permission denied

[combo3]

dmesg | grep 'eth0'

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xc4964000, 00:17:3f:0a:84:79, IRQ 11
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (8139too): transmit queue 0 timed out

That error message is a kernel oops.

My advice is to get another card. The RTL8139 has known issues. Even if you do manage to get it working, it will eventually crap out once it's put under a moderate load. Ask me how I know.