Linuxathome.net

err <-- mejer newb so bear with me . i have a smc 1211tx ethernet card in my system and cannot seem to get RH7.1 to recognise it at all, it runs fine under win2k (dual boot system) but when i boot to linux the lights on the card go out and thats that, i get no response from it, i have tried installing rtl83XX rpm and a netdriver one, to no avail, i am trying to use DHCP to hook up to O@H any ideas would be muchly appreciated thanks.

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me thinks bedways is rightways anyways ;p

If I remember correctly this is what I did to fix a friends box that had the same problem with the SMC card..

ls -la /usr/src/linux-$(uname -r)/drivers/net/8139too.c
if the driver exists
vi /etc/modules.conf
assuming eth0 is your NIC, add the following (or replace if you have an existing alias for eth0):
alias eth0 8139too
save and exit
depmod -a
modprobe 8139too

alias eth0 8139too as Guru redlander suggested (G'day red)

or you can even try adding just:

alias eth0 rtl8139 if you haven't done so already. Note: assuming eth0 here as well.

I know the second works for sure because I used the SMC 112TX the Floptus installer gave me. I used it with RH7 btw and it worked flawlessly.

Thanks for your help

It led me to discover that the drivers/net directory does not exist on my hdd .. oddness , i went to install other rpm's and kept getting a package error , it does not supply any information just says package error and the name of the package ... i believe the card is working but has no configuration files ... the modules file had the same string you suggested in it from another fresh install i tried, so cross's out one possiblility, i will attempt to learn how to install from the *.c files and see how i go , thanks again for the help

MrJingle

The directory that redlander suggested is where you'd find the source code for the network card's driver. The acutal driver should be in
/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/

To see if the driver's been loaded properly, do:
lsmod | grep 8139

If it's there, the card's working; you just need to configure the network. I'd suggest using linuxconf to configure the card (it's pretty easy). Otherwise, just connect to optus with:
dhcpcd eth0

bukharin

I tried all the above ... apparently i do have the 8139too.o file in my drivers directory. when i did lsmod | grep 8139 i got 8139too coming up , so i assume it thinks it is installed, the lights on my network card have not come on since i have installed RH. and i still cant access the network, at boot when it says Bringing up interface eth0 it just [FAILED] all the time, i have absolutely no idea what to do , perhaps i should sacrifice the 5 cd's to burn RH8.0 or go with another flavour altogether ... any suggestions would be helpful i wont be able to get a new version for a week or two.

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me thinks bedways is rightways anyways ;p

hrmm...Check the following:

dmesg | grep eth or grep eth /var/log/dmesg
cat /proc/pci
cat /proc/interrupts

Make sure that your IRQ is correct on all of the above.

Running out of ideas...

Last resort: Get a better NIC - SMC is crap =) Go with Netgear, 3COM or Intel depending on your budget.

Not that this will in anyway help but im using the optus NIC in my server(RH7.3)...works fine. Autodetected on installation and never a problem since...multiple kernel recompiles and all...

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DM

I have tried all of the above ... the best result i have gotten so far is a message at boot that says ... insmod : /path_to_driver : insmod eth0 FAILED
Bringing up eth0 [FAILED]
the system knows it has a SMC 1211tx card in it .. i used netconf and linuxconf and they both say it is a SMC using the realtek drivers in 8139too module (all looks as i was told it should) but still no lights on the network card ....
i checked all the irq's and the only thing i could see that looked odd was that the onboard graphics card (i have disabled this in bios) is still detected and has the same IRQ as the network card ( 10 ) <- i am not sure whether this is allowed ... is there a way to just change the irq of a device or ? ? ? .. beginning to wonder if maybe all us simpletons out there should just stick to windoze. cant be THAT hard to install something ... can it . . . . .

MrJingle