Installing NIC on Redhat 7.3?

[rootking]

I'm having issues installing my nic on redhat 7.3. I'm quite new to linux so i need some direction as to how things should be installed.

I've found netconfig utility so I can put my ip settings in but i still get a network host is unreachable output when trying to ping my gateway and other nodes on my network. what steps should I take to installing this nic and getting myself online with linux.

And yes i checked the card with the hcl list from redhat and it checks out just fine

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?pagename=details&hid=3365

[michaelk]

Is your network setup correct on the linux box?

Verify the netconfig setup card with the ifconfig and route commands. If you don't understand what its saying post the results.

Can you ping localhost? Can you ping your linux box ip address?

Is the ip address of the linux box in the same net as the gateway?

Whats the firewall setting?

[z0mbix]

what card is it? search google for it's module, then if you're just using the default RH kernel that supports the card then just use modprobe <modulename>

[rootking]

Originally posted by michaelk
Is your network setup correct on the linux box?

Verify the netconfig setup card with the ifconfig and route commands. If you don't understand what its saying post the results.

Can you ping localhost? Can you ping your linux box ip address?

Is the ip address of the linux box in the same net as the gateway?

Whats the firewall setting?

OK first of all when i try to ping anyone even myself it says destination host unreachable. I've tried a loopback on my card and that works correctly.

The firewall setting I'm not sure about. What I did was went into netconfig and set each of the settings in there according to the network here.

IP address
netmask
name server
gateway

here's what i get when i run ifconfig:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2716 (2.6 kb) TX bytes:2716 (2.6kb)

[michaelk]

Your networking card is not being configured.

Do what cheeky_zombie suggests which will load the ethernet card module. Then run netconfig again to setup the card and ifconfig to confirm.

[rootking]

what module name should i use. the model name for the card? what do you suggest?

[rootking]

OK here's what I did.

I found the module name 3c509.o for my card and copied it to the folder with the program modprobe and typed in:

modprobe 3c509.o

then it says can't locate module 3c509.o

whats up with that?

[mdwatts]

Most if not all of the 3Com nics should be supported and the modules will be in /lib/modules/<kernel version>/...

My 3c509.o is in /lib/modules/2.4.13/kernel/drivers/net.

Where did you find the 3c509.o module for your card?

One reason your ethernet card is not being detected is you have PnP OS enabled in the bios. Disable PnP OS.

[rootking]

actually PnP OS is disabled already.

What should I do? I've tried the command

modprobe 3c509.o and it just says that it can't locate that module. and yes I got the module from that same path as you did.

[mdwatts]

Are you root when attempting to load modules?

su -
<enter password>

modprobe 3c509

Leave the 3c509.o where it is in /lib/modules and remove the one you copied to the modprobe location.

Modprobe/insmod will only look in the /lib/modules/<kernel version> directory when searching for the module to load.

[rootking]

OK that worked. I believe it loaded it that time. what would you recommend for my next step?

[rootking]

Not sure if I'm supposed to see this but I still don't see eth0 in my /dev directory.

[rootking]

Well I've tried connecting to the network and it still says destination host unreachable. So things are still not working. What do u suggest I try?

I've put all my settings in netconfig and then tried pinging the network and it gives me the unreachable error.

[rootking]

I entered the lsmod command and the 3c509 module is loaded within that. I just need direction after doing that as to what I should do to get this card up and running.:(

[mdwatts]

I believe Redhat has a network configuration tool named 'neat' that allows you to configure ip addresses etc. or dhcp.

As root, type

neat

at the commandline/terminal.

Redhat should also have documenation on their site to help with configuring the network.

[rootking]

What do i put under the route tab for address, gateway, and subnet mask?

Also how do I know how to set the Network Adaptors Configuration.

Things like :

IRQ
MEM
IO
IO1
IO2
DMA0
DMA1

[mdwatts]

Will you be using dhcp (dynamic) or static ip addressing?

If you are directly connecting to your isp, then I would imagine they would use dhcp. If you have a internal network with multiple pc's and a hub/router, you can use static.

A PCI card will not require setting of the irq, i/o address etc.

Did your isp give you the gateway and dns server addresses?

Did you check Redhat's documentation to see if they have anything on using 'neat' or configuring the network settings?

[rootking]

the card is ISA. and the addresses we use here are static. and yes I've checked redhats docs and so far haven't found what I need.

[mdwatts]

cat /proc/interrupts
cat /proc/ioports
cat /proc/dma

will tell you what resources your isa nic is using.

Enter those values and then add the ip addresses you use for static.

[rootking]

I don't see any listing for my nic with any of those. what would it say?

[mdwatts]

Is the 3c509 module loaded? lsmod to list loaded modules.

If the module is loaded, I would think the resources the card is using would display in the cat commands I posted.

If you are using KDE, start the KDE Control Center and look under the relevant entries in 'Information'.

[rootking]

I'm using gnome

[rootking]

yes the 3c509 module is loaded. still nothing though.

[rootking]

I'm still getting network is unreachable. this is bogus. Why is this so hard to setup?

[mdwatts]

Ensure your static ip addresses etc. are setup in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 or whatever Redhat uses.

i.e.

#!/bin/sh
#>>>Device type: ethernet
#>>>Variable declarations:
DEVICE="eth0"
IPADDR="192.168.1.4"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
NETWORK="192.168.1.0"
BROADCAST="192.168.1.255"
GATEWAY="192.168.1.1"
ONBOOT="yes"
DYNAMIC=""
#>>>End variable declarations

Add your isp dns servers to /etc/resolv.conf as such

domain isp_domain.com
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx # isp dns 1
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx # isp dns 2

Then type

ifconfig eth0 up

[rootking]

OK that is all working but I still can't get internet. It shows the card as active in the Network Configuration window but I can't send packets or ping anyone yet. What all has to be configured for this to work in the network config. window. Like what should I put under the ROUTE tab?

[mdwatts]

Probably the gateway address.

You need the

ip address
netmask
broadcast
gateway

and the dns servers configured in /etc/resolv.conf.

[rootking]

the ip address of what?

[rootking]

finally got it. It was that I needed to set up my routing info while using the neat command. thanks for all the help :)