Linux won't find ethernet cards

[jamesl22]

Hi,

I am writing a new lightweight Linux distibution mainly for educational purposes. I have a problem; it won't find any ethernet cards. I have tried enabling several things in the kernel config. What I would really like to know is how to enable some generic ethernet drivers and therefore networking. I would like to avoid having to use modules. I'm using kernel version 2.6.35.1.

Regards,

James

[MikeTbob]

Well you need to go into the correct kernel tree and make your driver built-in instead of as a module. Are either of your cards supported by the kernel? Most NIC cards are, but not a whole lot of WIFI cards. I believe it would be under Device Drivers>Network Device Support>

[jamesl22]

I have madE my card built in. But eth0 still does not show up.

[Freston]

You've baked your own kernel? And you are sure this went right? Are you sure your card is supported? Does it work in other Linux distro's?

---

I mean, it's a bit difficult to figure out what went wrong when someone has build his own distro and kernel, and one aspect doesn't work. How do you run your distro? In VBox, or is it installed? What kind of distro is it?

I mean, I don't know you... some people say they have their own distro when they change the Ubuntu wallpaper and change a couple of packages. Others try to install LFS without the aid of the manual.

For all I know at this point it could either be a matter of

ifconfig eth0 up

or writing your own device driver.

---

Sorry, I don't mean for the tone of this post to be so blunt. I'm sure it's interesting. But there are thousands of ways this could have gone wrong depending on your setup. So, a little more info on your system please

[keikun2004]

the output of dmesg, lspci, lsusb (if libusb is installed) and ifconfig would be a great starting point.

[jamesl22]

Hi, I already tried ifconfig and it says that eth0 does not exist. dmesg show up nothing about detecting any cards. I have tried it on my laptop, this has a realtek pci card also I tried it in vbox with the intel 1000 card. I have built in support for these cards in the kernel config however none work. I have not installed lspci yet but I'll give it a go.

Seriously though this distro is from scratch noting borrowed.

[jamesl22]

lspci confirms that the ethernet card is there:
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

EDIT: This card works in ubuntu

[MikeTbob]

lspci confirms that the ethernet card is there:
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

EDIT: This card works in ubuntu

And you are using the Linux kernel? Which version? That card should be supported through the kernel. You have done make && make modules_install, correct?

[jamesl22]

And you are using the Linux kernel? Which version? That card should be supported through the kernel. You have done make && make modules_install, correct?

Yes, I'm using the linux kernel, version 2.6.35.1. This is a live cd so I ran make && make bzImage. I compiled the support for this card as built-in.

[Freston]

Yes, I'm using the linux kernel, version 2.6.35.1. This is a live cd so I ran make && make bzImage. I compiled the support for this card as built-in.

So let me see if I get this straight... You've created a liveCD with software you've compiled yourself? And you used a form of ./configure --prefix=/path/to/distroroot to create this? You've compiled your own kernel with the necessary ethernet card drivers compiled in? And you created a bootable CD of this? You used mkisofs probably?


And now it is bootable, and you can get a bash login. But not network capability? You can't get the interface up, or even see it in `ifconfig -a`?


Well, the first place I would look is the kernel configuration. You can also try to boot your Ubuntu machine using this 'new' kernel, and see if that picks up the interfaces.This is quicker to troubleshoot. If with this new kernel Ubuntu doesn't have ethernet then it's the kernels fault. Otherwise it's somewhere in userland/configs/settings. I suspect the kernel though.

I have no idea about your method of compiling the kernel but it needs more than just the device drivers. I'm a bit rusty when it comes to kernel compilation, but I believe there are some network settings and some ethernet settings settings you have to enable in the kernel before it works. Depending on your methodology this may or may not have been enabled per default.