Why isn't my network working?

[raven_glory]

HI, i've just installed fedora 10 for about the 4th time in the last few days and have decided that i need some help from those more knowledgeable than me. Every time i update it i lose the ability to access the network , it doesn't even detect it. The thing is when it is first installed it works perfectly and then i'm not sure if it is after i restart it or after i update then restart it, it does not find any networks. it finds my ethernet controller fine but it cannot use it to connect to the internet has anyone had this problem and know how to fix it or have any idea what could be causing it?

Thanks

[waterhead]

In Linux, hardware drivers are usually created as modules to the Linux kernel (aka: kernel modules). When you first install Linux, it detects the hardware and loads the correct modules.

Now, when you update a fresh install, it usually will also install an updated kernel. It seems that the updated kernel doesn't have the driver module needed for the network card. If you have not updated again, you can check to see what module it is loading that works. First, enter this this command and post the output. It will list all of the PCI devices.

/sbin/lspci

Now enter this command, and post the output. It will list all of the modules that are currently loaded.

/sbin/lsmod

If you no longer have an internet connection on your Linux PC, and have to copy it to a Windows PC, you can pipe the output directly as a text file.

/sbin/lspci > lspci.txt
/sbin/lsmod > lsmod.txt

They can be found in your home folder.

[raven_glory]

Thanks for replying,
Here you go, these are the two files you asked for.

[Felarin]

Thanks for replying,
Here you go, these are the two files you asked for.

PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
03:0e.0

Give me the output of lsmod | grep e1000

What ethernet card is it?

[raven_glory]

When i did that nothing happened, i.e. there was no output. My card is a Realtek RTL8168b/8111b Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIc (NDIS 6.0) it is onboard

[waterhead]

OK, this is the card:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)

And this appears to be the driver loading for it:

Module                  Size  Used by
r8169                  40964  0

You can check that it is still loaded after the connection stops working. Just use the lsmod command again.

To possibly see why it may not be working, read through the output of this command:

dmesg

It is lengthy, but could provide valuable clues. Network cards are initialized towards the end of the boot cycle, so messages about them are usually found towards the bottom of the dmesg output. I would look for things like firmware errors or anything related to Realtek or eth0.