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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running

Offline ameier

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« on: January 27, 2007, 01:42:35 PM »
hallo to all SME freaks out there......

i´ve just get a new jetway mini-itx board with dual realtek 8169sc lan
onboard. my problem is that the sme release 7.0 and 7.1 could not
detect the lan devices. only under knoppix 5.1 everything works fine.
who could help me out.........pls notice i´m a bloody linux beginner
and my english is not the best !

thx

andreas

Offline gordonr

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Re: need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2007, 10:12:53 PM »
Quote from: "ameier"
hallo to all SME freaks out there......

i´ve just get a new jetway mini-itx board with dual realtek 8169sc lan
onboard. my problem is that the sme release 7.0 and 7.1 could not
detect the lan devices. only under knoppix 5.1 everything works fine.
who could help me out


Hi Andreas,

We use the unmodified CentOS 4.4 kernel. If the hardware isn't detected by the kernel, it isn't supported. It is possible to install additional drivers, but I strongly recommend against that as it will cause pain with each kernel upgrade, and you can expect a few of those each year.

Quote from: "ameier"

........pls notice i´m a bloody linux beginner
and my english is not the best !


Your English is excellent. Oh how I wish my German were that poor :-)
............

Offline ameier

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does a updated driver fit the problem.......?
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2007, 03:30:52 PM »
hallo to all out there again.......  :)

after many hours surfing the web i found some tipps that should fit the problem. some freaks wrote that the 8169sc that is included in the sme
is very outdatet and buggy. so what think you about to compile this module again ?  and there´s the next problem.  where could i get the
right kernel sources and all the compiler stuff.....?  my first try failed :(

thx

Andreas

Offline pfloor

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2007, 04:57:44 PM »
SME gets it's kernels directly from CentOS which in turn gets them from RedHat.  We do not compile our own kernels.

If there is a problem with the kernel, it needs to be fixed upstream at RedHat.

SME does not include compiling tools as they can be a security risk.  If you want to try to compile a new kernel it is recommended that you install CentOS on a development machine and do it there.
In life, you must either "Push, Pull or Get out of the way!"

Offline ameier

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CentOS Download ist just running.....
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2007, 08:07:57 PM »
well, i´ll try it. the huge download ist just running. witch CD should be taken for any kernel tests.........the workstation with 4 cd´s or the server version that comes only with 1 cd ? i download them all  :)

thx

andreas

Offline Confucius

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Jetway & RTL8169SC running
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2007, 01:07:49 PM »
After buying myself 1 of the most appealing MB's for me I stumbled into a problem that seems to be present for more people then only myself.. Hence the fact that I'm placing a reply here..

I solved the problem tho, and I can say... it wasn't even that hard.

First I have to say that the problem is partly created by the fact that the kernel isn't able to detect what VIA processor this mainboard is using and will be fixed in the 2.6.20 (at least, that's what Dave Jones from RH assured me)
Due to the fact that the current kernel doesn't recognize the processor it goes , weird enough, into SMP mode and from what I know it shouldn't.

So.. Before you start doing anything... Place an extra network card. (please use 1 that SME DOES recognize, RTL8139 for example) This will be obsolete later but you need it for updating and installing the proper updates & driver.

Install from the CD as a server-only (all can be changed later) and use the RTL8139.

After the reboot; start in the correct kernel and NOT the SMP, you can do that when the system boots, you have 3 seconds for it.

Once in the proper kernel it becomes easy.

You want your system up2date ofcourse so you run a "yum -y update" and let it take control for now.
After the updates you follow instructions and the system shoull reboot again. Make sure it starts in the correct kernel mode and NOT SMP.

Now you are ready to install the driver.. but you have to compile it. So you need extra libs to do so... easy too

type "yum -y install kernel-devel gcc gcc-c++"

That will install all things needed including the dependencies.

I did a reboot after all this.. but I don't think it's really needed (try for yourself)

now you have to download the driver for the RTL8169SC...there are 2 options.
1 - use the latest from realtek
2 - use a slightly older version that DOES work

because the driver 1.04 is not available anymore from realtek and I wasn't sure the link where I have found it will stay I decided to offer it from my own server. http://www.vexins.com/r1000_v1.04.tgz
The 1.05 is there too.. if you wanne try.

download the driver like so:

"wget http://www.vexins.com/r1000_v1.04.tgz"

unpack the driver

"tar -vzxf r1000_v1.04.tgz"

go into the map

"cd r1000_v1.04"

and start compiling from here with :

"make clean modules"
"make install"

and to make sure all is detected

"depmod -a"

You have a working driver now.

Shutdown your server & take the power off. Take the extra networkcard out. And start your server again.

There are 2 options now.

1 - use kudzu (and stumble into weird responses)
2 - edit manually

I did the 1st and decided the last is safest option

"mcedit /etc/modprobe.conf"

place at the end of the file the lines :

"alias eth0 r1000"
"alias eth1 r1000"

and remove the other line that is an alias to eth0 (the other nic you just took out).

Reboot the server again, wait patiently and see if all worked for you.
For me it did.

BTW: why not the 1.05 ?? Well.. it works.. but less then 5% coming thru is not good enough for me.

Regards,

Harro

Offline Confucius

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2007, 01:12:53 PM »
Additional to my former story, when all works. You can remove the compiling libs to bring your system back into the same security level that you started with.

simply do :

"yum -y remove libstdc++-devel cpp glibc-kernheaders glibc-headers glibc-devel gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel"

After that your system is restored and still running with the r1000 driver.

Harro

Offline CharlieBrady

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Re: Jetway & RTL8169SC running
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2007, 04:33:23 PM »
Quote from: "Confucius"

There are 2 options now.

1 - use kudzu (and stumble into weird responses)
2 - edit manually

I did the 1st and decided the last is safest option

"mcedit /etc/modprobe.conf"

place at the end of the file the lines :

"alias eth0 r1000"
"alias eth1 r1000"

and remove the other line that is an alias to eth0 (the other nic you just took out).


No, don't do that. Your changes will be removed the next time you do any system updates.

Instead, do:

config set EthernetDriver1 r1000
config set EthernetDriver2 r1000
signal-event post-upgrade
signal-event reboot

Note also that you will need to recompile your kernel module any time an updated kernel arrives with system updates.

Offline Confucius

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2007, 10:07:52 PM »
Thanx Charly,

It does make sense to do it that way. Haven't thought about it at all.

And good u mentioned that the next kernel-update is installed you loose connectivity (or at least it seems most likely the driver will need a rebuild)
Had this in mind but forgot to add it to my small HowTo.

Harro

Offline bpivk

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2007, 10:24:27 PM »
Confucious I would add something. Add the line install for external nic only. That way you'll avoid constant opening of your server and swaping NIC's. Just use one of theese cards as external nic and one that works stoc as internal nic. This way you can rebuild and work faster when you update your sistem.
"It should just work" if it doesn't report it. Thanks!

Offline Confucius

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2007, 01:30:57 AM »
I leave that option open to who wants to do it that way.

Keeping the driver-src on your system and for that matter all libs needed to compile the driver (all nicely tucked away in a corner on your harddisk) you can always rebuild the driver to your needs.

I have been reading that in kernel version 2.6.15 there is already success with loading the correct driver (or I'm mixing it up with other driver issues now, my poor memory these days  :roll: )
Fact is that this matter won't always stay this way. Till the kernel has the correct information people will have to do it the way they think suits them best.

Harro

Offline bpivk

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2007, 02:07:37 PM »
Said in a true Confucius manner.   :D
"It should just work" if it doesn't report it. Thanks!

Offline ameier

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nice work
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2007, 12:43:53 AM »
many thx for the huge postings.........i´ll try all the few steps.

thx

andreas

Offline CharlieBrady

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need help to get dual 8169sc onboard lan running
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2007, 01:42:27 AM »
Quote from: "Confucius"

And good u mentioned that the next kernel-update is installed you loose connectivity (or at least it seems most likely the driver will need a rebuild)


The driver will certainly need a rebuild, and you will indeed lose connectivity until that occurs.

Offline ameier

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it works........
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2007, 08:50:54 PM »
now the 2 nics are still up and running. my big mistake during the first few tryouts was to forget the first step. without that man errors comes up during compile the thr r1000 driver !

here are the the complete steps for fast copy and paste with putty. let
me they thanks for all help and helpfull comments.....  :)


01.) yum -y update

02.) reboot

03.) yum -y install kernel-devel gcc gcc-c++

04.) reboot

05.) wget http://www.vexins.com/r1000_v1.04.tgz

06.) tar -vzxf r1000_v1.04.tgz

07.) cd r1000_v1.04

08.) make clean modules

09.) make install

10.) depmod -a

11.) mcedit /etc/modprobe.conf

alias eth0 r1000
alias eth1 r1000

12.) config set EthernetDriver1 r1000
13.) config set EthernetDriver2 r1000
14.) signal-event post-upgrade
15.) signal-event reboot
16.) reboot

mfg

andreas