Cannot change to left-handed mouse. Cannot connect to network.

[KingBongo]

Hi. I am new to TinyCore and loving it already! This is what I call "trimming off the fat" I am having some problems though. Hope this is the right forum.

Background -

The computer I am playing with is an old Pentium 1 (i586), 200MHz, 128Mb RAM. It works great, despite the fact that barely nothing can be installed or booted on it. When you finally manage to install something on it, it runs slooooooow for the most part. That is why I tried TinyCore in the first place. TC seems to make this thing totally fly!

I am running TinyCore 3.5.

Problems -

1. I managed to figure out how to configure the serial mouse during boot. That was not very hard, "tinycore xsetup" at the boot prompt does the trick. But when I try to set the mouse to a left-handed one (Control Panel -> Mouse Tool -> Left Button - Apply) it doesn't work. The mouse remains right-handed. How to fix that?

2. I cannot connect to the network. When I want to install apps and connect (Apps -> Connect) it says "Connection error, check network or mirror.". Then, when trying to configure the network (Control Panel -> Network -> Use DHCP Broadcast "yes" -> Apply) nothing happens. I still get the same error message when I try to install apps. Am I doing something wrong or do I have incompatible hardware?

Please help me with the problems mentioned above. I plan to install TC to hard drive later together with a music player.

[Juanito]

I cannot connect to the network. When I want to install apps and connect (Apps -> Connect) it says "Connection error, check network or mirror.". Then, when trying to configure the network (Control Panel -> Network -> Use DHCP Broadcast "yes" -> Apply) nothing happens. I still get the same error message when I try to install apps. Am I doing something wrong or do I have incompatible hardware?

Is your network hardware wired or wireless?

What specific hardware do you have (manufacturer, model, etc)?

[KingBongo]

Juanito:
Thank you! It is a wired card, Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+. Will it work? I have another one I could try, model unknown at this point.

[Juanito]

After searching these forums, it seems several uses have had problems with realtek harware..

Does "lsmod" show that the realtek driver is loaded? Does "dmesg | grep realtek" show anything?

If the driver is not loaded, you could try "sudo modprobe realtek"

[KingBongo]

Juanito:

- "lsmod" gives (among others)

8139too (used by 0)
8139cp (used by 0)

so I guess they are loaded then, or?

- "dmesg | grep realtek" doesn't give anything.

- "sudo modprobe realtek" and then again "lsmod" gives (among others)

libphy (used by 1 realtek)
8139too (used by 0)
8139cp (used by 0)

I don't know what it all means, but there seem to be some stuff related to realtek.

Edit: I tried my other network card as well. It seems to work even less But I knew that before I even tried. It is some kind of 3Com card that is much bigger and (judging by the looks of it) much older than the Realtek card.

[curaga]

Please post last ~15 lines of dmesg, once for both cards.

[KingBongo]

curaga:
Are you crazy? I will have to write everything manually Ok, here goes

Realtek card -

hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }
hdc: possibly failed opcode: 0xa0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdc logical block 5570
Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 5570
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
eth0: link down

I don't know, but the last line says "eth0 : link down". I already knew that Just kidding. The rest seems related to the hard drives only, and (maybe more important) hdc which you already know is the CD drive

I have to go now. I will post for the other card later.

Edit: The posting for "dmesg" above is incorrect since network cable wasn't plugged in.

[gerald_clark]

Output to a file, copy to a USB drive, and send it from the machine you are typing on.

[curaga]

With the cable connected, of course

[KingBongo]

gerald_clark:
USB? You gotta be kidding me Do you think I am on something modern here, lol? All I can write to is a floppy, but I don't have a floppy drive on anything else so...

curaga:
Hahaha. Please don't tell anyone about this Ok, here it comes, this time with the cable connected!

Realtek card -

hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }
hdc: possibly failed opcode: 0xa0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 22280
Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 5570
Adding 489972k swap on /dev/hdb3. Priority:-2 extents:1 across:489972k
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb1): warning: mounting fs with errors, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hdb1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
EXT4-fs (hda1): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb1): warning: mounting fs with errors, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hdb1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xC5E1

3Com card -

hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }
hdc: possibly failed opcode: 0xa0
end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 22280
Buffer I/O error on device hdc, logical block 5570
Adding 489972k swap on /dev/hdb3. Priority:-2 extents:1 across:489972k
EXT4-fs (hda1): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb1): warning: mounting fs with errors, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hdb1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
EXT4-fs (hda1): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hda2): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb1): warning: mounting fs with errors, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT4-fs (hdb1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
EXT4-fs (hdb2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
eth0: setting full-duplex.

Pretty much the same as for the Realtek card, except the last line. The problems with hdc cannot be good, or?

[curaga]

Yes, your cd drive is clearly failing. Should also fsck the partitions

Both of your network cards appear to work perfectly, so the issue is in the network.

Please post the output of "ifconfig eth0" "cat /etc/resolv.conf", and "ping -c3 google.com".

[KingBongo]

The CD drive is still loading stuff so it will stay until it dies After that I have another one. Doesn't TC perform "fsck" automatically now and then or is that something only more bloated distros do?

Ok, will do. But no other distro I have tried has had any problems with the network before, so something must be fishy here. Here it comes, but (for now) only for the Realtek card,

Realtek card -

"ifconfig eth0" -

eth0        Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:BF:E4:43:AC
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
              RX packets:77 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:18144 (17.7 KiB) TX bytes:16023 (15.6 KiB)
              Interrupt:9 Base address:0xcf00

"cat /etc/resolv.conf" - no output

"ping -c3 google.com" - ping: bad address 'google.com'

"ping -c3 http://www.google.com" - ping: bad port spec 'http://www.google.com'

"ping -c3 http://www.google.com/" - ping: bad port spec 'http://www.google.com/'

The first "ping" yielded a result that didn't seem right so I tried two more Hmmm, "bad port spec" seems suspect. Something port related? I have to mention that this computer is directly hard-wired to a Mac Mini via the Ethernet port. And yes, the ports in Mac/OS X are open. This has been working out of the box on other distros so.

EDIT: I don't know if it is of any use but here are the results for the 3Com card,

3Com card -

"ifconfig eth0" -

eth0        Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:04:4F:36:68
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
              RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:2213 (2.1 KiB) TX bytes:2943 (2.8 KiB)
              Interrupt:9 Base address:0x2f80

"ping -c3 google.com" - ping: bad address 'google.com'

"ping -c3 http://www.google.com" - ping: bad port spec 'http://www.google.com'

"ping -c3 http://www.google.com/" - ping: bad port spec 'http://www.google.com/'

It seems to have the same issues as the Realtek card.

[curaga]

No, TC doesn't fsck automatically. Looks like you're not getting an IP nor a DNS server, are you sure there's a DHCP server properly running on the Mac?

[KingBongo]

curaga:
There should be a DHCP server properly running on the Mac. How do I check?

What I know is that I get a proper connection at once if I put Debian 5, Ubuntu 8.04, Knoppix, and a few Puppy versions in there. At least they claim (Debian, Ubuntu, Puppy) they are connecting automatically via DHCP. I am sure Knoppix does too but I don't remember how that was done. That has to imply a proper DHCP server, doesn't it?

PS. Thank you soooo much for helping me out! This issue is all that is keeping me from getting something useful out of this ages old computer again

[curaga]

Maybe there's some incompatibility with busybox udhcpc and the mac dhcp server. You could check what IP settings and DNS servers are given in other distros, and set those manually in TC. ("ifconfig eth0" output, and the /etc/resolv.conf file).