Topic: NIC install problems

[Jader Marasca]

Hi,

I just discovered E-Smith and tryed on 3 different computers with 3 different NIC but I got the same problem:
I do not detect my NIC!

I was able to install and get it running but I can configure a NIC!
I checked /lib/modules and was unable to find ANY NIC modules!

Have I burned a CD with DAMAGED ISO?
How can I check if my ISO contain NIC drivers?

Thanks!

Jáder

[Mark S]

What type of NIC's do you have? PCI,ISA?  Manufacturer, model? jumpers, jumperless?  You may have to add extra parameters so the driver detects your NIC.  What is the output of /sbin/ifconfig?  What is the output of "dmesg" and /sbin/lsmod?

Mark

[Jáder Marasca]

> What type of NIC's do you have? PCI,ISA?  
> Manufacturer, model? jumpers, jumperless?  
I´m just using PCI NICs! RTL 8029 / RTL 8139 / Intel 10/100 Pro

> What is the output of /sbin/ifconfig?  
Show only loopback loaded!

> What is the output of "dmesg"
Show lots of things but do not show nothing about NICs

>and  /sbin/lsmod?
Show no modules loaded!

And if I do : " lspci -v " I can see the NIC ! Right now I tried to put a Intel EtherExpress 10/100 Pro but KUDZU (it´s available?) do not detect it and I don´t know how to tell E-Smith that that NIC it´s present!
Besides that I did a ls on /lib/modules/2.2.19-7.0.8 and do not find ANY NICs
neither do I on any other dirs under /lib/modules!
Is that correct? Shouldn´t to have listed several NIC drivers like ne, rtl81xx, ne2k-pci ... ?

Thanks!

Jáder

[Jáder Marasca]

I discovered a new thing! there is a KUDZU!
I runned it : "kudzu" and it tell me that a NIC was removed! WOW! It knew about it!
Then I changed it again, and again it discovered that I had removed the previous card but NEVER say nothing about new NIC added!
In fact it´s like the MODULES are missing so it can configure NICs!

[robert]

NIC modules are in /lib/modules/2.2.19-7.0.16/net/

Are the modules you believe should be loaded listed in /home/e-smith/configuration? Did you do the initial configuration where e-smith tries to determine the NICs you have installed? The configuration sequence should have run on the first reboot after installation. Did it?

If you were able to configure your NICs, but wish to change NICs afterwards, you should log in as 'admin' and reconfigure for the new NIC.

[robert]

Oops, that's /lib/modules/2.2.19-7.0.8/net/ assuming you're running on x86 and not on Alpha.

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:
>
> Oops, that's /lib/modules/2.2.19-7.0.8/net/ assuming you're
> running on x86 and not on Alpha.

I think they should to be there... but I can find nothing there!
Where are the modules on CD? I would to like to check if my CD was burn right!

Why the modules would not to be copied from CD to HDD?

[robert]

If they're not there, something is definitely wrong with your installation. Before you burned the iso onto CD-ROM, did you check the iso's checksum to verify the integrity of the iso?
What CDR software did you use? I believe there are some issues with particular software versions and burning isos.
Sometimes problems can be caused by defective media (i.e. crappy, 'el cheapo' CDRs). Always use good CDRs.

[Jáder Marasca]

They definitely are not there!

In fact I used the cheapest CDR I could to find!
How can I verify the ISO checksum (MD5) of  my ISO? I'm a newbie on Linux...

I'm using EasyCD from Roxio - updated from Web to 5.1.xxxxxx

Thanks!


robert wrote:
>
> If they're not there, something is definitely wrong with your
> installation. Before you burned the iso onto CD-ROM, did you
> check the iso's checksum to verify the integrity of the iso?
> What CDR software did you use? I believe there are some
> issues with particular software versions and burning isos.
> Sometimes problems can be caused by defective media (i.e.
> crappy, 'el cheapo' CDRs). Always use good CDRs.

[robert]

Jáder Marasca wrote:
>
> They definitely are not there!
>
> In fact I used the cheapest CDR I could to find!
> How can I verify the ISO checksum (MD5) of  my ISO? I'm a
> newbie on Linux...

Normally what you do is download both the iso and the checksum to the same directory, change to that directory and run the following command:
# md5sum -c smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum
But the last time I checked there was a little error in smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum: it points to smeserver-5.1.2rc2.iso. Apparently this is the iso they used for the release, but they forgot to update smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum.
So, what you can do is edit smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum and change smeserver-5.1.2rc2.iso into smeserver-5.1.2.iso
Alternatively you could rename the iso:
-change to the directory that holds the iso and the checksum
-# mv smeserver-5.1.2.iso smeserver-5.1.2rc2.iso
You can now check the checksum for the iso with the above command.

If the iso is good, md5sum will say 'OK'. Once you've verified the iso and got a good one, make sure you read the documentation for EasyCD to see if there's anything special you need to do to write iso images to CDR and use good CDRs
>
> I'm using EasyCD from Roxio - updated from Web to 5.1.xxxxxx
>
> Thanks!

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:

> Normally what you do is download both the iso and the
> checksum to the same directory, change to that directory and
> run the following command:
> # md5sum -c smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum

But I downloaded it on a Win2k machine! There is a way to do that on Win2k machines?


> But the last time I checked there was a little error in
> smeserver-5.1.2.iso.md5sum: it points to
> smeserver-5.1.2rc2.iso.
I'll take that on consideration! Thanks!

(snip) make sure you read the
> documentation for EasyCD to see if there's anything special
> you need to do to write iso images to CDR and use good CDRs

Id already burned other  CDs(LOTS of THEM!)  from ISO with EasyCD!! No problems!

I'm beting on a BAD ISO!!!

Thanks!

[robert]

Dunno. I don't use Windows. Maybe you could start a new thread with the subject 'Checking md5sum on Windows.'

[Tim Hogan]

md5sum.exe runs under windows.

[Dan Brown]

I expect a google search on md5sum windows would find what you're looking for...

[Jáder Marasca]

Dan Brown wrote:
>
> I expect a google search on md5sum windows would find what
> you're looking for...
I'm at work now (and E-Smith it's at home!) but I already looked for MD5SUM and Windows at Google. The best answer is:

http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/md5sum

Thanks!

I'll check my ISO tonight and let you know!

[Jáder Marasca]

Hi,

I'm sorry (or glad ) to tell you that I found a copy of .iso here (it's just 260MBso why do not copy!  )
I do not donwload it again! It's a copy of file on my original computer!

I do a md5sum -c  on it (after change name on .md5sum file!) and it's ok!

So WHAT's could to be wrong with my installation?
Where I can check if RH7.1 tryed to install my NICs? How can I copy NICs modules from CD to /lib/modules/xx/net ?
How can I force it do detect my NIC? Í'd tryed KUDZU but I recognize when I took off a NIC but say nothing about a new NIC!

Details:
K6 II 350 96Mb RAM HDD 10Gb
BIOS changed to LBA=NO and OS PNP = NO!
Tested with Realtek 8139 / 8029 and Intel EtherExpression 10/100 Pro!

Sometimes I get an error : unable to start initial console!
So I kill all partitions with GDISK and reboot and then it GO!

Thanks!

[robert]

Try burning a new CD-ROM from the iso that checked out OK. Also, are you sure your HDD is still alive and well?

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:
> Try burning a new CD-ROM from the iso that checked out OK.
> Also, are you sure your HDD is still alive and well?

Robert,

I´m working for an hour now! Nothing till now!

I have burned another CD from a MD5 checked ISO!
I changed from OS PnP OFF to ON on BIOS,
I changed from LBA OFF to ON on BIOS
I tryed to boot from a disk
I tryed reformat my HDD on MSDOS622 (worked as 504MB because LBA was OFF)

And despite don´t be able to install A SINGLE TIME (was more than 8 attempts!) I discovered on ALT F3 screen LOTs of messages (it identify my RTL 8029 NIC and think about to use ne2k-pci driver (that´s right!)
These are the STRANGE messages I can see on ALT F3 screen:
         Warning: There is no inittab, bad things will happen!

    IN FACT the are happening!        

/bin/sh: error while loading shared libraries: libtermcap.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

STRANGE...

And this time I used a good media (a CD RW I own!!!)

Tomorrow at my job, I´ll try on SEVERAL different computers with different NICs (even on a OLD HP Netserver LH - a P 100 with 48Mb RAM and SCSI HDD 1.2Gb! if I have time!)

What hardware are you using, or already used to instal E-Smith? There is something to avoid?

Any tips are welcome!

Thanks!

[robert]

Jáder Marasca wrote:
>
> robert wrote:
> > Try burning a new CD-ROM from the iso that checked out OK.
> > Also, are you sure your HDD is still alive and well?
>
> Robert,
>
> I´m working for an hour now! Nothing till now!
>
> I have burned another CD from a MD5 checked ISO!
> I changed from OS PnP OFF to ON on BIOS,
> I changed from LBA OFF to ON on BIOS
> I tryed to boot from a disk

From floppy disk? Did that work?

> I tryed reformat my HDD on MSDOS622 (worked as 504MB because
> LBA was OFF)

That's a very small HDD. With a 256 MB swap partition and a 16 MB boot partition, this leaves you 232 MB for all the packages. Seems very tight, maybe too tight.
>
> And despite don´t be able to install A SINGLE TIME (was more
> than 8 attempts!) I discovered on ALT F3 screen LOTs of
> messages (it identify my RTL 8029 NIC and think about to use
> ne2k-pci driver (that´s right!)

Do you get these messages from the installer? Are you saying you were never actually able to finish an installation?

> These are the STRANGE messages I can see on ALT F3 screen:
>          Warning: There is no inittab, bad things will happen!
>
>     IN FACT the are happening!        
>
> /bin/sh: error while loading shared libraries:
> libtermcap.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file
> or directory

When do you get these messages?
>
> STRANGE...
>
> And this time I used a good media (a CD RW I own!!!)
>
> Tomorrow at my job, I´ll try on SEVERAL different computers
> with different NICs (even on a OLD HP Netserver LH - a P 100
> with 48Mb RAM and SCSI HDD 1.2Gb! if I have time!)

That should at least rule out a bad CD-ROM as a potential problem.
>
> What hardware are you using, or already used to instal
> E-Smith? There is something to avoid?

I once installed SME 5.0 on a 486 w/ 24 MB RAM, one 160 MB HDD and one 410 MB HDD. You need to do a custom installation to install on two such small HDDs, though. You could probably do with a smaller swap partition as well. Here's a thread that explains how to customize the installation (for a different problem, but the solution is the same):
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=12549.msg47093#msg47093

In your case you could edit ks.cfg (but NOT with a Windows editor) and either change the size of the swap partition in the partitioning portion of ks.cfg or remove the partition parameters altogether. You will need to boot from floppy, obviously, to use the custom kickstart file.
>
> Any tips are welcome!
>
> Thanks!

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:

 
> From floppy disk? Did that work?
YEAH! I was able to boot from SME boot floppy! But didn't work!

> > I tryed reformat my HDD on MSDOS622 (worked as 504MB because
> > LBA was OFF)
> That's a very small HDD. With a 256 MB swap partition and a
> 16 MB boot partition, this leaves you 232 MB for all the
> packages. Seems very tight, maybe too tight.

I know! I just do that because I wanna to be sure that HDD was clean!

> > And despite don´t be able to install A SINGLE TIME (was more
> > than 8 attempts!) I discovered on ALT F3 screen LOTs of
> > messages (it identify my RTL 8029 NIC and think about to use
> > ne2k-pci driver (that´s right!)
 
> Do you get these messages from the installer? Are you saying
> you were never actually able to finish an installation?

NO! I was able to finish installations several times, but never got NIC working!


> > These are the STRANGE messages I can see on ALT F3 screen:
> >          Warning: There is no inittab, bad things will
> happen!
> >
> >     IN FACT the are happening!        
> >
> > /bin/sh: error while loading shared libraries:
> > libtermcap.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file
> > or directory
>
> When do you get these messages?

These messages appear on post-install step!

> That should at least rule out a bad CD-ROM as a potential
> problem.

Maybe! i'm at work now! Here, using a PIII 800 with SAME HDD from Home and and RTL8139 I was able to install my first SME ! WOW!

> > What hardware are you using, or already used to instal
> > E-Smith? There is something to avoid?

My hardware to install the SME is a clone AMD K6 II 350 with 96MB RAM and HDD 10Gb and or Intel EtherExpress or RTL8139 NIC !

Do you have any idea why I got the :  unable to open a initial console when I install at home! When I got the errors, I got this message so I think it don't finished installation!

Do you have ever installed SME on K6 II 350 or similar?

Thanks!

[robert]

Aha, so the post-install doesn't finish! That's the most important part of the installation process, where your server is set up to run SME. On reboot you would then be asked to configure your server, including your NICs. No wonder your NICs don't work.
Here's what I guess is happening (pure speculation): your HDD is just big enough to hold all the packages that are installed during the %install part of the installation process. If your HDD was not big enough, the installer would tell you and refuse to install any packages. But you HDD is not big enough to hold the files that are created during the %post part (squid cache?). Therefore post-install doesn't finish and you don't get to configure your server and NICs after a reboot.
If you install onto a bigger HDD, there should be no problem. Your processor and NICs are supported by SME.
This would not explain why you were able to install onto the same HDD in a different machine, but maybe that has to do with BIOS settings making the HDD slightly bigger in one machine as compared to the other. Again, I'm just guessing here.

Jáder Marasca wrote:
>
> robert wrote:
>
>  
> > From floppy disk? Did that work?
> YEAH! I was able to boot from SME boot floppy! But didn't work!
>
> > > I tryed reformat my HDD on MSDOS622 (worked as 504MB
> because
> > > LBA was OFF)
> > That's a very small HDD. With a 256 MB swap partition and a
> > 16 MB boot partition, this leaves you 232 MB for all the
> > packages. Seems very tight, maybe too tight.
>
> I know! I just do that because I wanna to be sure that HDD
> was clean!
>
> > > And despite don´t be able to install A SINGLE TIME (was
> more
> > > than 8 attempts!) I discovered on ALT F3 screen LOTs of
> > > messages (it identify my RTL 8029 NIC and think about to
> use
> > > ne2k-pci driver (that´s right!)
>  
> > Do you get these messages from the installer? Are you saying
> > you were never actually able to finish an installation?
>
> NO! I was able to finish installations several times, but
> never got NIC working!
>
>
> > > These are the STRANGE messages I can see on ALT F3 screen:
> > >          Warning: There is no inittab, bad things will
> > happen!
> > >
> > >     IN FACT the are happening!        
> > >
> > > /bin/sh: error while loading shared libraries:
> > > libtermcap.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such
> file
> > > or directory
> >
> > When do you get these messages?
>
> These messages appear on post-install step!
>
> > That should at least rule out a bad CD-ROM as a potential
> > problem.
>
> Maybe! i'm at work now! Here, using a PIII 800 with SAME HDD
> from Home and and RTL8139 I was able to install my first SME
> ! WOW!
>
> > > What hardware are you using, or already used to instal
> > > E-Smith? There is something to avoid?
>
> My hardware to install the SME is a clone AMD K6 II 350 with
> 96MB RAM and HDD 10Gb and or Intel EtherExpress or RTL8139
> NIC !
>
> Do you have any idea why I got the :  unable to open a
> initial console when I install at home! When I got the
> errors, I got this message so I think it don't finished
> installation!
>
> Do you have ever installed SME on K6 II 350 or similar?
>
> Thanks!

[Dan Brown]

Robert, I don't think that's the problem (or at least, the only problem).  He said he's trying to install it on a 10 GB hard drive, which is plenty of room, but the /lib/modules/2.2.19-7.0.8/net directory is empty.  I don't know why this would be either (sounds very bizarre), but it would not be caused by the post-install scripts failing to run.  Those files belong to the kernel RPM, but apparently the kernel itself is getting installed.

Unfortunately, I don't have any better idea of what the problem could be, but I think there must be something else we're missing.

[robert]

I thought he was doing a test install on a 504 MB hard drive. That size is in one of the posts at least.

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:


> If you install onto a bigger HDD, there should be no problem.
> Your processor and NICs are supported by SME.
I'm glad to know my NIC and CPU aren't the problem! But My HDD isn't the problem!

> This would not explain why you were able to install onto the
> same HDD in a different machine, but maybe that has to do
> with BIOS settings making the HDD slightly bigger in one
> machine as compared to the other.

I think it's something on BIOS:
Should I left OS PnP on or off? or don't matter?
Should I left LBA on or off? or don't matter?

Any other possible things to look at BIOS?

Thanks!

[robert]

To eliminate all confusion, could you remind me what the size is of the HDD you're installing on?
Anyway, now that you know the CD-ROM is good, I think we can say that this is a hardware fault. Maybe cabling or hard drive or CD-ROM drive. What you're experiencing are not problems that can be fixed by software configuration. Somehow important packages are not getting onto your hard drive.
Not sure about the BIOS settings. I think it doesn't matter much whether PnP is on or off. For LBA and such I'd go with the default. Isn't there an autodetect or autoconfigure for hard drives in your BIOS?

> I think it's something on BIOS:
> Should I left OS PnP on or off? or don't matter?
> Should I left LBA on or off? or don't matter?
>
> Any other possible things to look at BIOS?
>
> Thanks!

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:
>
> To eliminate all confusion, could you remind me what the size
> is of the HDD you're installing on?

My HDD is 10GB!


> Anyway, now that you know the CD-ROM is good, I think we can
> say that this is a hardware fault. Maybe cabling or hard
> drive or CD-ROM drive. What you're experiencing are not
> problems that can be fixed by software configuration. Somehow
> important packages are not getting onto your hard drive.

But WHYis the question...

> Not sure about the BIOS settings. I think it doesn't matter
> much whether PnP is on or off. For LBA and such I'd go with
> the default.

> Isn't there an autodetect or autoconfigure for
> hard drives in your BIOS?

There is! But I discovered that here on firm installing on K6 II 450 (a few quicker than the 350 at home but with a very different motherboard!) I have to select LBA OFF!

Here in firm the SME installed with no errors in K6 II 450 96MB RAM 10G HDD!
Almost the same machine at home... just a different MB! So I think it's MB or BIOS! I''ll try to update BIOS!
Any other Tips?


Do you think I can just install this SME (installed on k6II 450 ) to my home K6 II 350 with different MB and it will work?
I have to delivery this machine to client! ASAP! Later I can try discover WHY this S**** don't work!

Thanks!

[robert]

You should be able to swap the hard drive over as long as the processors are of the same type (which they are in your case).

[Jáder Marasca]

robert wrote:
> You should be able to swap the hard drive over as long as the
> processors are of the same type (which they are in your case).

Great news! So I'll do that and let you know later: tonight at 20:00 or later (remember my time is GMT-0300!)

Thanks!

[Jáder Marasca]

Great NEWS!

Just a few minutes ago I installed HDD 10Gb with SME installed at work in my target computer at home!

It works! At least it boot up1 I´ll check everything and send you MORE GOOD NEWS! I hope so!

Jáder