New to Slackware 9.1 and Laptops

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

r***@hotmail.com

2004-12-09 11:29:59 UTC

I am really coming to the end of ideas. I have scoured the Internet to
try to find a solution but I am not sure what I can do now.

Laptop is: Dell Lattitude CP
PCMCIA Card is: Linksys PCM100H1 - Phoneline 10/100 Network card

I know this card works with this machine because I have been using it
with Fedora Core 2. I want to move to Slackware because it does not
seem to be as resource heavy.

Well I am having difficulties getting this card to talk to the network.
The adapter lights are on, indicating that the link is there. When I
see the boot messages go by, I do see an unsupported card message, but
then the next message identifies the card correctly.

But I see a message roll by: "SIOCADDRT: Network is unreachable"

I try doing a ifconfig eth0 and I get the following message:

"eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found."

I think cardmgr is starting up before Slackware starts network
services. But I am unsure. In Fedora 2, I had to re-order the rc3.d
files to make sure that card services were started before network
services were started up. I am unsure how to control the starting of
daemons in Slackware. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Conny

2004-12-09 16:17:19 UTC

Permalink

Take a look in the log file by typing: dmesg
Or run: mc ( midnight commander ) and look at the logfile /var/log/dmesg

Post by r***@hotmail.com
"eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found."

Seems like the PCMCIA is not started at boot.
Do you hear 2 beeps at boot?

Post by r***@hotmail.com
I think cardmgr is starting up before Slackware starts network
services. But I am unsure. In Fedora 2, I had to re-order the rc3.d
files to make sure that card services were started before network
services were started up. I am unsure how to control the starting of
daemons in Slackware. Can someone point me in the right direction?

The files started at boot resides in /etc/rc.d/
Try to start pcmcia with: /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia restart
If you want it to start at boot do this: cmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia
Other commands to try is: carmgr and cardctl

Good luck

Razzel

2005-01-14 10:07:34 UTC

Permalink

Post by r***@hotmail.com
I am really coming to the end of ideas. I have scoured the Internet to
try to find a solution but I am not sure what I can do now.
Laptop is: Dell Lattitude CP
PCMCIA Card is: Linksys PCM100H1 - Phoneline 10/100 Network card
I know this card works with this machine because I have been using it
with Fedora Core 2. I want to move to Slackware because it does not
seem to be as resource heavy.
Well I am having difficulties getting this card to talk to the network.
The adapter lights are on, indicating that the link is there. When I
see the boot messages go by, I do see an unsupported card message, but
then the next message identifies the card correctly.
But I see a message roll by: "SIOCADDRT: Network is unreachable"
"eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found."
I think cardmgr is starting up before Slackware starts network
services. But I am unsure. In Fedora 2, I had to re-order the rc3.d
files to make sure that card services were started before network
services were started up. I am unsure how to control the starting of
daemons in Slackware. Can someone point me in the right direction?

1) Try using just ifconfig not ifconfig eth0 -- if eth0 isn't there then
that is the problem (so see 2 nd 4 below)
2) Look into /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTO for documentation on hardware
3) cd /var/log when there scan the bottom of messages and/or run dmesg
to see what happens during bootup
4) if u are using a default kernel like "boot" it may not have network
features so you can either reinstall (ugh!) or UGH learn to build your
own kernel (see 2 above)

Slackware is great compared to RH et. al. but it requires knowledge a
forehand. Once you get to know where the different documentation stuff
resides it gets a lot simpler.
RAZ

E. Charters

2005-02-03 06:03:20 UTC

Permalink

generically -- >try finding the appropriate module for that card. read
the docs and insmod or modprobe the card module, and then ifconfig to
see status.

- and/or- look in rc.modules for your card and uncomment the line with
which loads that module. Then rerun rc.modules, depmod -a and rerun rc.inet1

--or --

if the module installation works then try "ifconfig etho up" or rerun
the script in /etc/rc.d that sets up networking. If you "grep eth0 *"
you should see it. In slack that is /etc/rc.d ./rc.inet1

maybe try this too --

You should run netconfig to get the network setup. You may have
to edit rc.inet1 to get it see see the proper addresses and use
dhcp and invokes the proper route or whatever. If you have difficulty
with your rc.inet1 tell me and I will dump you my file as an example for
broadband.

do a "dmesg | less" to see if the PCMCIA modules/drivers are being
installed before the card is failing. It could be you need to try a
new kernel.

The module that drives that card I am not sure of. It could be a Xircom
or Macronix work alike. or a NE2000 clone. You should walk through
make menuconfig in /usr/src/linux re: network devices support and
try to find what you can about PCMCIA drivers. Linksys usually has
a linux driver, so you should read about how to link that to the kernel
by making it available as a module. Your kernel would need modversions
set in a kernel compile I would think.

EC<:-}

E. Charters

2005-02-03 06:19:36 UTC

Permalink

rc.inet1 is started by rc.M in slack. That starts after the PCMCIA
devices but before the hotplug PCI and USB devices. It is supposed to
defer, but there are two catches. The PCMCIA card may take a while to
start and there is a sleep mode to take care of that. It is set to 5. It
could be lengthened and rc.inet1 start up lines in rc.M could be moved
to after the hotplug section. Make a back up of rc.M before surgery, so
you can change back. First lengthen the sleep time if you are sure the
card is being seen eventually by dmesg. Rerun rc.M and see what happens.
Then move the 5 or so lines in rc.M that start up rc.inet1 to after the
hotplug section.

just an experiment.

EC<:-}