Topic: New to e-smith

[Tim Hogan]

I am just installed the e-smith server and gateway on a new computer (PIII, 1GHz with dual 40 G drives set up with software mirroring).  I have no experience with Linux (although if this works I am going to become very interested).  The installation went fine and found my two SIS900 ethernet cards (one on the mother board and the second a PCI card).  None of the computers on the network (10BT hub) can 'see' the server and I cannot get into the e-smith manager from the workstations.  I have checked and double check all my cables and they all work fine.  I found 1 irq conflict and resolved it (the onboard ethernet card used the same irq - 11 - as the onboard modem - I disabled it with a jumper on the main board).  The PCI card uses irq 9 and nothing else appears to use that irq.  This did not resolve the problem.

I noticed the following messages when I shut down the server and expect they have something to do with the problem:

SIS900.c v1.06.03 12/23/99
eth4: ERROR EEPROM READ:0
INSMOD:  HINT: INSIMOD ERRORS CAN BE CAUSED BY INCORRECT MODULE PARAMETERS INCLUDING INVALID IO OR IRQ PARAMETERS

There other message is an identical message for eth5

In installing the system it seemed to want ethernet cards eth0 and eth1.  Can the problem be that my cards are named eth4 and eth5 instead?  If so how can I get them named properly - I tried the setup utilities for the cards and it allows you to change the ethernet address but I don't see anything about changing the card name to eth0 or eth1.  Is the name set as part of the address, and if so, what address should be used?  Or do I need to edit a config file to tell it my cards are named eth4 and eth5?  If so, how do I accomplish that.

I noticed some commands on Linux setup sites which look like they might be helpful in double checking irq conflicts - cat /proc/interupts - but I can't even figure out how to get to anything that looks like a command prompt - the best I have been able to do is get into the e-smith console and set up some user accounts and an ibay folder.

I would appreciate any admise

[Tyrone Miles]

To get the command prompt you need to change the inital confuguration where it asks you to select console mode from auto to login.  

You need to go back through the configuration option in the e-smith server and gateway control console to do this.  

Once you do that then you will get a command prompt at the machine.

To access the command line you type in root and the admin password you made then can make any changes to your server you want.

Your problem sounds like an IRQ issue. Using the on-board ethernet cards don't work as well as PCI. But your cards should not be higher then eth0 and eth1 unless there is a conflict.  

I would look at getting another PCI card or like you said you can run some test commands to check your config. But I don't know the best ones to use. If I found out anything (Like good commands to use) I will post it here for you.

[Ross Laver]

> To get the command prompt you need to change the inital confuguration where it asks you to select console mode from auto to login.

No, it's much simpler than that. Please see the user's manual:

http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/4.1/admin-misc.html

The console mode option is a security feature and is explained elsewhere in the manual:

http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/4.1/configmisc.html

Ross