Configure my laptop - please help!

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Hi All,

I've been working on this for about a week now, and have run out of things to try! Here is some info about my system.

Laptop: PC Club 800Mhz celeron
Distro: Fedora Core 3
Network cards: PCMCIA SMC 10/100 - SMC8041TX
AND
WLAN - TecNew 802.11b

The SMC card lights up and has a flashing Activity light (so I know it it talking to my router).

cardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card-V2", ""
manfid: 0x01bf, 0x8041
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
product info: "", "", "", ""
manfid: 0x0001, 0x0000
function: 6 (network)

So it appears that at least the SMC card is being identified. But I can't get a DHCP IP. It's like my system doesn't really know it is there.

I did add the following to /etc/pcmcia/config
card "SMC 10/100 PC Card"
version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card"
bind "pcnet_cs"

I have no idea what to put in the config for the TecNew wlan card (it is some generic card which I can't find chipset driver info for, it does work in WinXP though...)

I feel like I have tried everything! Can you please tell me what I can do to get this working (I don't need them both, I just need one of the cards working so I can get on my network!)

Thanks so much!
Erik

nashr · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikcw

Hi All,

I've been working on this for about a week now, and have run out of things to try! Here is some info about my system.

Laptop: PC Club 800Mhz celeron
Distro: Fedora Core 3
Network cards: PCMCIA SMC 10/100 - SMC8041TX
AND
WLAN - TecNew 802.11b

The SMC card lights up and has a flashing Activity light (so I know it it talking to my router).

cardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card-V2", ""
manfid: 0x01bf, 0x8041
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
product info: "", "", "", ""
manfid: 0x0001, 0x0000
function: 6 (network)

So it appears that at least the SMC card is being identified. But I can't get a DHCP IP. It's like my system doesn't really know it is there.

I did add the following to /etc/pcmcia/config
card "SMC 10/100 PC Card"
version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card"
bind "pcnet_cs"

I have no idea what to put in the config for the TecNew wlan card (it is some generic card which I can't find chipset driver info for, it does work in WinXP though...)

I feel like I have tried everything! Can you please tell me what I can do to get this working (I don't need them both, I just need one of the cards working so I can get on my network!)

Thanks so much!
Erik

Erik, good post, and thanks for taking the time to include details of your hardware/software.

First off, I'm not so sure your card it "talking to your router" as you suggest. Have you run ifconfig? What do you see?

Next, most linux distros come with tcpdump installed. Find this (I think it might be in /usr/sbin, but I'm not sure any morel; it's been a while). Run tcpdump and see what sort of packets are being sent/received.

Do you have any other computer on this lan? If so, connect to your router and check your logs for any activity related to this system.

Get hold of ethereal and install it (it's available for windows and linux). It's an excellent open-source sniffer and it may also tell you more about what's going on with your system.

Hope something here helps.

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by nashr

Erik, good post, and thanks for taking the time to include details of your hardware/software.

First off, I'm not so sure your card it "talking to your router" as you suggest. Have you run ifconfig? What do you see?

Next, most linux distros come with tcpdump installed. Find this (I think it might be in /usr/sbin, but I'm not sure any morel; it's been a while). Run tcpdump and see what sort of packets are being sent/received.

Do you have any other computer on this lan? If so, connect to your router and check your logs for any activity related to this system.

Get hold of ethereal and install it (it's available for windows and linux). It's an excellent open-source sniffer and it may also tell you more about what's going on with your system.

Hope something here helps.

Thanks for your response nashr!

Here are the results from the tasks you recommended.

ifconfig

Quote:

/sbin/ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 ScropeLHost
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:3147 erros:0 drooped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3147 erros:0 drooper:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3622266 (3.4 MiB) TX bytes"3622266 (3.4 MiB)

tcpdump

Quote:

/usr/sbin/tcpdump
tcpdump: WARNING: Promiscuous mode not supported on the "any" device
tcpdump: verbous output suppresses, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on any, link-type LINUX_SLL (Linux cooked), capture size 96 bytes

0 packets captured
0 packets recieved by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

(I let it run for 5 min, and it picked nothing up...) - I then opened another terminal and pinged localhost, and it captured the pings. I then tried to ping google.com, and ping returned "unknown host..." I also ran the tool with both -v and -vv options, no change.

No logs on my router either. I guess the lights on my card (just the LAN card, the wlan card has dark lights) mean that it is getting power. Linux seems to recognize the card. It is just not setting it up as eth0...

I've also tried running 'neat' - Nothing is listed, no devices, no hardware, etc...

**Scratching my head**

What else do you think it could be?

Thanks so much!
Erik

Thorn · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikcw

...
ifconfig

/sbin/ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 ScropeLHost
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:3147 erros:0 drooped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3147 erros:0 drooper:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3622266 (3.4 MiB) TX bytes"3622266 (3.4 MiB)
...

There's your problem. The wireless card hasn't started as an ethernet device. You should see eth0 (or other similar device name) for the card.

try "ifconfig eth0 up" and then run "ifconfig" again.

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

There's your problem. The wireless card hasn't started as an ethernet device. You should see eth0 (or other similar device name) for the card.

try "ifconfig eth0 up" and then run "ifconfig" again.

Thanks for your response Thorn.

When I run
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
eth0: unknown interface: No such device

How do I get it to recognize my card as eth0?

Thanks!
Erik

Thorn · 01-23-2005

You said you added the following to /etc/pcmcia/config:
card "SMC 10/100 PC Card"
version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card"
bind "pcnet_cs"

Is there actually a pcnet_cs driver (probably 'pcnet_cs.o') and is that the correct driver for the card? You might want to google for "SMC 8041TX-10/100-PC-Card Linux" (or something similar) to see if others have been able to get this card to function under Linux.

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

You said you added the following to /etc/pcmcia/config:
card "SMC 10/100 PC Card"
version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card"
bind "pcnet_cs"

Is there actually a pcnet_cs driver (probably 'pcnet_cs.o') and is that the correct driver for the card? You might want to google for "SMC 8041TX-10/100-PC-Card Linux" (or something similar) to see if others have been able to get this card to function under Linux.

That was the information that I downloaded from the SMC website. (instead of a driver file, they just gave a txt with some instructions, I'll include it below).

I just did a
locate pcnet_cs and there are a bunch of copies. Two that match your description of having a "*.o"
/usr/src/redhad/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/pcmcia/pcnet_cs.o
[NOTE: that same directory allso contains *.ko, *.mod.o, *.mod.o.cmd, *.ko.cmd, *.mod.c, *.o.cmd, *.c]
/lib/modules/2.6.9-1.677/kernel/drivers/net/pcmcia/pcnet_cs.ko

Here is the manufacutres INSTALL_INFO.txt if it will make any more sense of this...

Thanks!
Erik

Quote:

************************************************** ***********************
* SMC Networks, Inc. *
* SMC 10/100 PC Card *
* Linux Driver Installation *
* *
************************************************** ***********************

Most Linux systems support SMC 10/100 PC Card already.

1. Insert the PC Card in the PCMCIA or Cardbus slot in the notebook, and
reboot the system. If the file /etc/pcmcia/config exists,add following
lines in this file:

For PC Card:
--------------------

card "SMC 10/100 PC Card"
version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card"
bind "pcnet_cs"

Be noted that you have to add the lines in /etc/pcmcia/config in exactly
the same format as shown above, including matching capital and lower case
letters.

Reboot or excute "/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart". If the adapter
works properly, you can skip the rest of the document. Otherwise please
go to the next step.

2. You have to build the PCMCIA environment from the source files. First
check if the Linux kernel source tree is installed. Typically this is
in the directory "/usr/src/linux".

If the kernel source tree does not exist, you have to install it first.

Different Linux systems have different ways to install the source tree.
In the following the Red Hat Linux 7.0 is used as an example. For other
Linux systems, please refer to the documentation that comes with the
system.

a. Mount Red Hat 7.0 CD 1.
b. Find the kernel source files, which are typically located in
/mnt/cdrom/REDHAT/RPMS.
The name of the source package is "kernel-source-2.2.16-22.i386.rpm".
c. Install the package with this command:

rpm -i kernel-source-2.2.16-22.i386.rpm

If you use one of the GUI shells, you can just double click on the
rpm package to install it.

3. Check if the PCMCIA driver files are included in the source tree.
The files are located in /usr/src/linux/pcmcia-cs-x.x.x
(The x.x.x designates the version number). If this directory does
not exist, or if the version number is lower than 3.1.21, you have to
download the PCMCIA driver file "pcmcia-cs-3.1.21.tar.gz" or a higher
version of this file from:

ftp://www.sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/pcmcia

You have to untar this file and place it under /usr/src/linux with
this command:

tar -zxvf pcmcia-cs-3.1.2x.tar.gz

4. Change directory to "/usr/src/linux/pcmcia-cs-3.1.2x". Issue the
following command to build the environment:

make config

When the system prompts to select the Kernel-Specific option, select
"Read from the currently running kernel."

5. Issue the following command to install the environment:

make install

6. Modify the file /etc/pcmcia/config as described in step 1.
Issue the following command to restart the cardmgr:

/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart

7. Issue the following command to check the adapter status:

ifconfig -a

8. Refer to the Linux document on how to configure an IP address for the
adapter.

Thorn · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikcw

That was the information that I downloaded from the SMC website. (instead of a driver file, they just gave a txt with some instructions, I'll include it below).

I just did a
locate pcnet_cs and there are a bunch of copies. Two that match your description of having a "*.o"
/usr/src/redhad/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/pcmcia/pcnet_cs.o
[NOTE: that same directory allso contains *.ko, *.mod.o, *.mod.o.cmd, *.ko.cmd, *.mod.c, *.o.cmd, *.c]
/lib/modules/2.6.9-1.677/kernel/drivers/net/pcmcia/pcnet_cs.ko

Here is the manufacutres INSTALL_INFO.txt if it will make any more sense of this...

Thanks!
Erik

Did you follow the steps from #2 on? (I know they may not make much sense if you're new to Linux.)

nashr · 01-23-2005

Here's a quick way to see if your card even works. Go download and burn a copy of knoppix. This is a live CD distro with most of the bugs worked out. Burn the CD, then boot from CD. You should be able to get up and running immediately with just about any standard hardware. If this works, then you can find out what your card is, and how its configured for linux.

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thorn

Did you follow the steps from #2 on? (I know they may not make much sense if you're new to Linux.)

I thought that my kernel would already have PCMCIA support built in since cardctl ident showed some info about my cards...

I guess I was wrong.

I'm working on recompiling the kernel (my first time!!), and I keep coming accross a bunch of errors when I run "make install" (step 3). Here is a section of the errors:

Quote:

(more of the same)
i82365.c:2850 error: structure has no member named `prev'
i82365.c:2850 error: structure has no member named `next'
i82365.c: At top level:
i82365.c:487: warning: 'cb_get_power' declared 'static' but never defined
i82365.c:487: warning: 'cb_set_power' declared 'static' but never defined
make[1]: *** [i82365.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/pcmcia-cs-3.1.3/modules'
make: *** [install] Error 2

How do I circumvent this error?

Thanks!
Erik

erikcw · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by nashr

Here's a quick way to see if your card even works. Go download and burn a copy of knoppix. This is a live CD distro with most of the bugs worked out. Burn the CD, then boot from CD. You should be able to get up and running immediately with just about any standard hardware. If this works, then you can find out what your card is, and how its configured for linux.

Well I downloaded and booted from the knoppix cd - and low and behold - my nextwork is active!!!

Now my question is - what do I need to do to learn about how my card is installed and then move that over to my permanent distro?

This opens another question - would it be easier to just format my disk (it was a fresh install anyway), and use a distro other than Fedora Core 3? Is there a mainstream distro (mandrake, suse, etc...) which is more hardware compatible?

What I'd like to use this laptop for his a file/backup/web (very light load) server and dev environment...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Erik

Thorn · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikcw

Well I downloaded and booted from the knoppix cd - and low and behold - my nextwork is active!!!

Now my question is - what do I need to do to learn about how my card is installed and then move that over to my permanent distro?

This opens another question - would it be easier to just format my disk (it was a fresh install anyway), and use a distro other than Fedora Core 3? Is there a mainstream distro (mandrake, suse, etc...) which is more hardware compatible?

What I'd like to use this laptop for his a file/backup/web (very light load) server and dev environment...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Erik

It looks like the kernel isn't finding all the modules that it wants, but asside from pointing out that rather obvious error, it would be a bit difficult for me to do much more diagnosis.

You probably didn't need to start on a full kernel rebuild, but rather if you'd moved the correct .o file into correct directory, it may have solved the problem. The trick is determining which is the correct file, and placing it in needed directory.

As far as getting a different distribution, I'm not sure that you won't run into similar problems with almost any distro you obtain. If not with the network card, then with the video drivers, or the X-server or the... you get the idea. Linux, while wonderfully configurable, is not something that most people can jump right into using without either some Unix experience or a large learning curve. My suggestion is to grab all the books you can find on Linux and keep plugging away at Fedora. You may find another distro more to your liking at some point, but starting over with a different distro at this point probably won't make a huge difference.

wrzwaldo · 01-23-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikcw

...

This opens another question - would it be easier to just format my disk (it was a fresh install anyway), and use a distro other than Fedora Core 3? Is there a mainstream distro (mandrake, suse, etc...) which is more hardware compatible?

...

My thoughts on mandrake,

It installed fine and actually found all my hardware. BUT, it is (was) a resource HOG. I call it the MS Windows of Linux.

My thought on SuSE,

I only have this installed on an UltraSPARC processor and it seemed to do okay at finding the hardware it should have.

I also have Debian "Sarge" RC2 installed on an UltraSPARC. I would NOT recommend Debian to the new Linux user or to anyone that wants a MS Windows type of install!

01-23-2005	#1 (permalink)
erikcw Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6	Configure my laptop - please help! Hi All, I've been working on this for about a week now, and have run out of things to try! Here is some info about my system. Laptop: PC Club 800Mhz celeron Distro: Fedora Core 3 Network cards: PCMCIA SMC 10/100 - SMC8041TX AND WLAN - TecNew 802.11b The SMC card lights up and has a flashing Activity light (so I know it it talking to my router). cardctl ident Socket 0: product info: "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card-V2", "" manfid: 0x01bf, 0x8041 function: 6 (network) Socket 1: product info: "", "", "", "" manfid: 0x0001, 0x0000 function: 6 (network) So it appears that at least the SMC card is being identified. But I can't get a DHCP IP. It's like my system doesn't really know it is there. I did add the following to /etc/pcmcia/config card "SMC 10/100 PC Card" version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card" bind "pcnet_cs" I have no idea what to put in the config for the TecNew wlan card (it is some generic card which I can't find chipset driver info for, it does work in WinXP though...) I feel like I have tried everything! Can you please tell me what I can do to get this working (I don't need them both, I just need one of the cards working so I can get on my network!) Thanks so much! Erik

01-23-2005	#6 (permalink)
Thorn Did you do the math? Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Villa Straylight Posts: 10,098	You said you added the following to /etc/pcmcia/config: card "SMC 10/100 PC Card" version "SMC", "8041TX-10/100-PC-Card" bind "pcnet_cs" Is there actually a pcnet_cs driver (probably 'pcnet_cs.o') and is that the correct driver for the card? You might want to google for "SMC 8041TX-10/100-PC-Card Linux" (or something similar) to see if others have been able to get this card to function under Linux. __________________ Thorn "I'm The Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I am from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old and I am the man who is going to save your lives and all 6 billion people on the planet below... You got a problem with that?"

01-23-2005	#9 (permalink)
nashr Uber Geek Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Virginia Posts: 1,615	Here's a quick way to see if your card even works. Go download and burn a copy of knoppix. This is a live CD distro with most of the bugs worked out. Burn the CD, then boot from CD. You should be able to get up and running immediately with just about any standard hardware. If this works, then you can find out what your card is, and how its configured for linux. __________________ Help! I've been Simpsonized!

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