NIC drivers via-rhine problem slack 9.1

[skubiszm]

I just installed Slackware 9.1 on a new computer I build. It has a build in NIC card on the motherboard. The MB is a Mach Speed V4MDMP with a Via VT8235 South Bridge and the NIC card is listed as a Via VT6103 Lan PHY. Checking Mach Speed's website was no help since they only list Windows drivers. Both Slackware and Knoppix tried to use the via-rhine driver and both failed. Here is the output from dmesg:

uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:10.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with device 00:12.0

via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.1.19 July-12-2003 Written by Donald Becker
http://www.scyld.com/network/via-rhine.html
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:12.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
Invalid MAC address for card #0

Error repeats 6 times

Also here is the error when I try to modprobe the driver manually:

init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, include invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
insmod via-rhine failed

Please don't ask me to post full logs or anything like that, since I have no way of copying and pasting from that computer.

I read somewhere that the VT6103 isn't supported by the via-rhine driver, but then somewhere else it said it was supported. Does anyone have any experience with this chip? Also, what can I do to possible resolve IRQ conflicts? Anything to just get the nic up and running.

Thanks in advance.

[hard candy]

Try booting with "noapic" as a boot argument or added to lilo/grub in the appropriate place. APIC has its own IRQ settings and will mess up some drivers.

[skubiszm]

I searched and found that APIC stands for Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller, but I have no idea what that means. Can anyone tell me what it does and what I lose if I disable it? Or just point me to some documentation that explains it.

[JohnT]

Post your reults from "cat /proc/interrupts.

[hard candy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APIC

(wikipedia is a good bookmark to have for most anything)

[skubiszm]

Post your reults from "cat /proc/interrupts.


0: 6660 XT-PIC timer
1: 96 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
5: 714 XT-PIC VIA8233, usb-uhci, bttv
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
10: 0 XT-PIC usb-uhci, usb-uhci
11: 0 XT-PIC ehci_hcd
12: 1143 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 5186 XT-PIC ide0
15: 3 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 0


Tried booting with noapic, didn't help.

[JohnT]

OK lets see cat /proc/lspci...now.

[skubiszm]

I am assuming you meant /sbin/lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 3205
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device b198
00:09.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878
Video Capture (rev 11)
00:09.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878
Audio Capture (rev 11)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B
PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation:
Unknown device 0322 (rev a1)

Why does it list only 1 USB 2.0 port when all 4 are USB 2.0?
My NIC is listed as a VT6103 chip, could that be the difference?

[JohnT]

Try moving your USB card to a different slot.

[skubiszm]

Try moving your USB card to a different slot.
How can I do that, its built into the motherboard? I can't move the NIC either, it is also built in. I could move the bttv card, but I don't think that would help much.

Is there a way I can disable USB for the moment to see if the NIC will work?

Is there something I can try with manually configuring IRQ's?

[JohnT]

Is there a way I can disable USB for the moment to see if the NIC will work? Try disabling in the bios.

[hard candy]

After looking through various threads and mailing lists, the best advice it seems is to use another NIC card if you have a slot available. If you want to run linux I would recommend a reltek or 3com card- the relteks are fairly cheap.
From what I read, that NIC you have is a lot of trouble, even with WinXP and Win98. I've read about it oiverheating, failing to work with Ipv6, and IRQ conflicts with TV cards and controllers.
You may be able to find something at VIA in the technical papers, but it seems it would be easier to just use another NIC. :(

[skubiszm]

After looking through various threads and mailing lists, the best advice it seems is to use another NIC card if you have a slot available.
I might just buy a new motherboard, I would like to have build in firewire also. I know I have seen a hard compatability list for linux before, but is there one that also rates the hardware by how well supported it is?

Like my sound card for instance. It works, but it sounds terrible. I would love to get a motherboard that actually has a full barage of open source linux driver available on there website, just like they do with windows drivers.

Sorry for the ADD, one more question. Are there any linux apps that display temperature and fan speeds? Console or GUI.

[hard candy]

Mandrake and Suse both have a list of supported hardware. gkrellm and lmsensors are both worth investigating for monitoring.

[JohnT]

My personal preference when it comes to boards is one that does "not" have intergrated components. Plenty of options and longer life. $.02

[skubiszm]

My personal preference when it comes to boards is one that does "not" have intergrated components. Plenty of options and longer life. $.02
I agree, but this is a form factor pc that I am using as a home theater pc. So space and room is at a minimum. Not many pci slots for expansion and peripherals.