[vox-tech] Network Configuration

[ME]

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Ken Bloom wrote:
[chop]
> I just noticed that on my system Mandrake 8.1, with the following
> ethernet card (reported by lspci):
> 
> 02:09.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX [Fast
> Etherlink] (rev 78)
[chop]

Ahh yes. This is/should be supported. The 3c905 are covered with the linux
modules "3c5x9"

(Pulling from the Kernel Configure.help in /usr/src/linux/Documentation
and jumping to the right section)
--- [ start - copied from anotehr doc as cited]
3c590 series (592/595/597) "Vortex" support
CONFIG_VORTEX
  If you have a 3Com "Vortex" (Fast EtherLink 3c590/3c592/3c595/3c597)
  or "Boomerang" series (EtherLink XL 3c900 or 3c905) network
  (Ethernet) card, say Y and read the Ethernet-HOWTO, available via
  FTP (user: anonymous) in ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
  More specific information is in Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
  and in the comments at the beginning of drivers/net/3c59x.c.

  If you want to compile this as a module ( = code which can be
  inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want),
  say M here and read Documentation/modules.txt as well as
  Documentation/networking/net-modules.txt.
--- [end]

This is the modules you will likely need in order to have your
"eth0" interface be used wit the 3com card mentioned.

To see if it is loaded (I dont expect it to be listed) try
# lsmod

If you see "3c59x" in the list of loaded modules, then we have a different
problem entirely. (Please say if you see this module loaded right now, and
we can follow that route. For now, I will assume it is just not yet
loaded and the instructions below can be followed.)

Assuming "3c59x" is not loaded, we can load it plus and modules that may
depend upon it with:
# modprobe 3c59x

(It may be "# modprobe 3c59x.o" It has been a while since I used it, and I
am not sure if the ".o" is assumed. If the first gives an error, thy the
one with the ".o")

Since it is a card that I have used before, experience dictates that you
should not need to hand any arguments. (There are always exceptions! ;-)

After you issue the above command, then try this:
# ifconfig eth0

If you see information about the interface like ethernet address, etc. You
can try this command:

# ifup eth0
(Assuming RH has this like Debian) To bring up the eth0 interface with the
configured settings you included before. (of course "# ifdown eth0" would
bring it down.)

Now try to ping your gateway
# ping w.x.y.z
(Where w.x.y.z is the ip address of your gateway)
(To stop the ping process, you can press control-c)
(Positive results would include one line each second being printed with a
measurement in latency in milliseconds (ms) for responses to the gateway)

If you can ping the gateway, then try using netscape, or some other tool to
use your networking.

If networking works, then you should make sure this modules gets loaded
upon each start of your system. To do this, edit /etc/modules and near the
top (after the comments) add "3c59x" (no quotes) on one line by
itself. You may want to test that you network comes up on reboot by
actually rebooting your system, though you do not NEED to reboot if you
dont want to verify this.

After the module is loaded at start, you should expect your system to
automatically set up and "up" the interface for you. All of the above
commands are really for troubleshooting, and would/should likely not be
needed once your system is completed with networking setup.

[chop]
> running dmesg | grep eth doesn't list any results, despite the fact
> that I (at this moment) am using that ethernet card from Linux,
> successfully, to post this response. What does it mean that my card
> doesn't show up but that it still works?
[chop]

lspci reports on PCI devices attached to your system, but not all devices
are *necessarily* configured to work with linux. This is kind of like
going to the Windows System control panel and looking at the devices, and
seeing devices that are installed but are not working (Exclamation marks,
or question marks.)

As a fun thing, if your card is recognized by the OS ("ifconfig eth0"
reports good info) try doing:

# cat /proc/interrupts
and you should the IRQ used by the enthernet card (will be next to the
entry with "eth0" or on the same line)

# cat /proc/ioports
and you should be able to see the io ports used by the ethernet card (next
to eth0 or on the same line(s).

I believe that you will only see the IO ports and IRQ of devices in these
proc-special files when the OS recognizes them - am not completely sure,
so if someone else claims otherwise, they may be right.

I frequently dump this data into a a text file on another system (as well
as other useful bits) just in case I need to know information about a
machine that has just had a serious hardware failure (SCSI Card blow-out
for example.)

Please let us know if the above works, or does not and where there are
problems - assuming there are any.

-ME

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS/CM$/IT$/LS$/S/O$ !d--(++) !s !a+++(-----) C++$(++++) U++++$(+$) P+$>+++ 
L+++$(++) E W+++$(+) N+ o K w+$>++>+++ O-@ M+$ V-$>- !PS !PE Y+ !PGP
t@-(++) 5+@ X@ R- tv- b++ DI+++ D+ G--@ e+>++>++++ h(++)>+ r*>? z?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
decode: http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/ about: http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html
     Systems Department Operating Systems Analyst for the SSU Library