Topic: Wont boot - NIC dev not found

[jimgoode]

I needed to swap out both NICs (epic100 for encore enl932).

Shutdown, swapped the cards, booted up, and logged in as admin and did a reconfigure. I, however, chose the wrong NIC driver. Now system hangs (actually appears to be in a loop) trying to load the eth0 driver. I get 'interface devnnnnnnn not found' over and over where the nnnnnnn keeps changing numbers.

How do I get a chance to reconfigure with the correct driver?

TIA,
Jim

[janet]

jimgoode

Try booting to the install CD in Rescue mode.
Then run console and select Configure this server.

[CharlieBrady]

I needed to swap out both NICs (epic100 for encore enl932).

Why?

Shutdown, swapped the cards, booted up, and logged in as admin and did a reconfigure. I, however, chose the wrong NIC driver.

The fact that you were offered a choice of driver indicates that the new NICs are not supported.

Now system hangs (actually appears to be in a loop) trying to load the eth0 driver. I get 'interface devnnnnnnn not found' over and over where the nnnnnnn keeps changing numbers.

That sounds vaguely familiar. Do a good search for the error message in the bug tracker.

How do I get a chance to reconfigure with the correct driver?

TIA,
Jim

I'd go back to the original NICs. But I think you'll still need to do more recovery.

[jimgoode]

Mary,
Booting to the installation CD and typing 'sme rescue' would not work. I got to the point where it told me it was going to mount my root system to /????/sysimage and then failed saying there were no Linux partitions.

Charlie,
The Epic100 NICs totally lock up under certain load(?) conditions. Someone (Mary?) encouraged me to check the CentOS hardware compatibility where I found an absence of the Epic100, but found Encore listed as compatible (see http://www.centoslinuxhcl.org/browse/search). I purchased a couple of cards from that list (Encore ENL832-TX-EN). I'll search the bug-tracker for 'devnnnn' not found messages and see what I can learn.

Temporary solution -
I was able to boot up in interactive mode, answer N to network and get by the "interface 'devnnnn' not found" error loop. The NIC driver suggested for the Encore, as well as the Epic, NICs were not found. I tried manual assignment and couldn't find anything in the list that matched either card. Fortunately, I still have the old primary hard disk and I was able to copy the epic100.o driver from /mnt/tmp/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/kernel/drivers/net and finally get the original Epic100 cards working. We are up and running but will still probably have ocassional NIC lockups until I get compatible NICs installed. I found source on the ENL832-TX-EN CD that I can compile to create a linux driver. I just need to configure a linux box with a compiler (I have 2 SME boxes, but it appears that no compiler is provided).

Once I find a permanent solution, I'll post it here and also on my original upgrade post which is http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,44085.msg211467.html#msg211467

Thanks for your help,
Jim

[jimgoode]

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to compile the linux driver for the Encore ENL832-TX-EN nic. I tried with both the driver source that came on the nic CD, and also downloaded and tried to compile a newer version from their website. I think the error messages are trying to tell me that I need the entire kernel source installed in order for the compilation to work.

I have searched the SME web pages and discovered a hardware page where I found a note about certain Realtek nics that can cause a panic if two identical cards are used. I have also tested some additional cards I have and determined that they both work with SME 7.4. Also, the Epic100 (based on supplied drivers) appears to be a supported nic. I'm thinking about swapping out one of the epic100 nics with a different brand. Does anyone think that this might solve my occasional nic panic? The other nics I have are:
Linksys LNE100TX which uses the tulip driver,
Airlink 101 (ASOHORL) which uses the 8139too driver.

Thanks,
Jim Goode

[cactus]

Your best bet would be to buy two new NIC's from the list with supported NIC's and put them in place, this would save you a lot of hassle as every time a new kernel is installed you would need to rebuild the custom drivers if you keep using your current cards.

Since NIC's are not that expensive that would be the most cost effective solution as rebuilding new drivers for new kernels including maintaining a clean build system would cost you a lot more if you factor in (down)time.

[jimgoode]

I replaced the 2 epic100 NICs with a Linksys LNE100TX and an Airlink 101 (RTL8139D) and have run successfully for over 24 hours. I was also able to copy 12-15 GB of data from my desktop to the server without incident.

Thanks for the help.
Jim