Topic: SME Server woes

[evansgo]

Well I have downloaded the iso, burnt it and installed it onto a clean HDD in a Compaq 1Ghz Pentium box. All went very smoothly and no issues with the install. BUT I simply cannot connect to the server via the network, locally the login all looks OK. I've tried giving it a static IP, tried using DHCP and nothing I do can even get a ping from it. I have now stripped everything down to just connecting a laptop directly to the server with a crossover cable and still nothing. The install seems to detect the built-in Intel Lan adapter ok, but as I can't even ping it I'm wondering if the drivers are correct...
Unfortunatly, although my PC networking knowledge is pretty good, my Linux experiance is 0.
Any help welcome.....

[briank]

Hi - if you can get to a command line - Alt F2 and login as root on the server, ipconfig and check the ip of eth0 (internal) and eth1 (external). Do you have 2 n/w cards?
Try pinging localhost to confirm n/w OK. Internal ip on same subnet as your laptop?
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Regards
Brian

[shanen]

You mean "ifconfig" LOL

[briank]

Gets me all the time. Cheers
Brian

[MSmith]

Disable the onboard LAN, throw in a cheapie NIC and go on your way.  It's not worth spending a lot of time on getting the onboard to work IMHO, unless it's gigabit and you're really going to USE it as such.

[evansgo]

OK thanks for the suggestions they helped me get a few steps further. I logged in as root, ifconfig showed me the 2 cards, both IP's look correct and I can ping et0, which is set up as 192.168.2.1. However the laptop cannot be pinged or cannot get an IP from SME via DHCP. Even if I manually set laptop to 192.168.2.5 & same subnet, I still cannot get either to ping the other. I've now swapped the crossover for a hub and no difference. Any suggestions what else to try? Will try disabling the internal LAN card next anyway.

[dmac]

Are you connected to the correct card on the server?  I had a similar problem with two identical network cards.

[evansgo]

Yes, now stripped it down to 1 card (and tried a second card) still no luck

[evansgo]

 Ok, now I've tried removing the HDD popping it into an old (had to wind the handle to get it going) PC but with the same network card fitted and it worked first time!
So I then stripped out the ATI all in Wonder graphics card from the Compaq and switched back to the on board graphics (was going to do this at some point anyway) and now it all works happily. Confused.....

[smeghead]

.. your resolution pre-empts me somewhat but the problem is related to the IRQ (Interrupt) assignment on the mobo.  I guess that the AIW card hijacked the PCI/AGP 'bus' and wouldn't let anything else work properly.

I had a system I built for an audio guy a few years ago that used every slot in the mobo - it took a whole w/e to get the card order right so everthing was recognised, initialased properly, and its software function; badly designed h/w can be a bitch!

ciao for now