"Unable to connect to the network" when testing eth0 (wired)

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ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

"Unable to connect to the network" when testing eth0 (wired)

#1 Post by ekorn »

I'm using Puppy 4.2.1 with a wired connection to my wireless router. The network wizard fails when testing eth0, being "Unable connect to the network". Hardware details for the computer and router follow below.

The usual way to set up this router is by a wired connection to its web interface at http://192.168.1.254. That fails with "Failed to connect. The connection was refused when attempting to contact 192.168.1.254. Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection" (using the Seamonkey web browser).

I know the router is connected to the internet because I can access the internet, both wireless and wired, with my laptop running Windows XP, with another laptop running Vista, and with my laptop running off an Ubuntu 9.04 LiveCD (Puppy 4.2.1-retro wouldn't boot with my Dell Latitude D430, but that's another story). Also, the computer on which I'm installing Puppy used to access the internet just fine when it ran Windows XP.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure what kind of ethernet card I have -- the BIOS does not specify it, and I cannot make it out from the link below. Puppy seems to autodetect it as "tulip", whatever that means. I've tried both the retro and non-retro versions of Puppy 4.2.1, with and without acpi=off and pfix=ram, rebooting the router and modem, and booting up with or without the LAN cable connected. The old computer has no wireless network card.

Connecting to the router at 192.168.1.254 before I have been assigned an IP by the router sounds like something of a bootstrapping feat, but I gather it's common procedure for many wireless routers -- and it's what I did with the Windows computers. Nevertheless, I tried and failed to set up the router to assign a fixed IP for the MAC address of this one computer. It didn't work, but I am not sure I did it right -- and I'm not sure it is relevant to the problem of not even being able to ping the router.

I have googled for hours but am completely stuck. Any help on diagnosing and troubleshooting this problem would be greatly appreciated. (If anybody has other Puppy versions or drivers to recommend, I can easily download and copy that using my other computer and a usb stick.)

As mentioned above, I'm using a wired connection to a Gigabyte GN-BR02G wireless router. The user manual is here, and mentions Linux compatibility explicitly:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Comm ... leID=18057
and the product page:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Comm ... uctID=2213

I have installed Puppy 4.2.1 from CD on a Compaq Presario 5686 (ca 1998?) with 128 MB RAM, installing to a single ext2 partition on a 10 GB hard drive. After booting I have 59 MB of free RAM. Audio, video playback, and printing are all working well.

The system specifications of the Compaq are probably similar to this:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... 836&dlc=en

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gposil
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#2 Post by gposil »

Can you do ifconfig eth0 at the command line and pass on the result...

Should be something like this
# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:E2:73:91:E3
inet addr:192.168.5.3 Bcast:192.168.5.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:41094 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:61077 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:14184 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:19069527 (18.1 MiB) TX bytes:56265399 (53.6 MiB)
Interrupt:20
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ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

#3 Post by ekorn »

gposil wrote:Can you do ifconfig eth0 at the command line and pass on the result...

Should be something like this
# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:E2:73:91:E3
inet addr:192.168.5.3 Bcast:192.168.5.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:41094 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:61077 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:14184 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:19069527 (18.1 MiB) TX bytes:56265399 (53.6 MiB)
Interrupt:20
# ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8B:4C:45:36
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric: 1
RX packets:0 errors:4 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes: 0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

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gposil
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#4 Post by gposil »

Have you selected Auto DHCP in the network wizard...

The general rule is that the router runs its own DHCP server
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belfasteddie
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#5 Post by belfasteddie »

The lan is enabled in the BIOS?

ekorn
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#6 Post by ekorn »

gposil wrote:Have you selected Auto DHCP in the network wizard...
Short answer: That reports success, but apparently assigns an apipa address, which apparently isn't very useful. I can neither ping the router at 192.168.1.254 nor visit that address in a web browser. "ifconfig -a" now reports:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8B:4C:45:36
inet addr:169.254.98.129 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:32 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1360 (1.3 KiB) TX bytes:1360 (1.3 KiB)
Longer answer: (EDIT: Fixed typo in the name of the ohci1394 module.)

Previously, I messed around with an "eth0" device reported by Puppy 4.2.1-retro and using an "ohci1394" module. Evidently, this is some kind of FireWire over Ethernet which never caught on. That device did report connecting to a live network, but auto DHCP gave the same result as quoted above. Until now, I didn't think to try this with the eth device that didn't report a live connection.
The general rule is that the router runs its own DHCP server
Yes, and when I visit the router's web interface with my Windows laptop I can see the DHCP settings. I'm not enough of an expert to see wherever I might tweak, though.

Thanks for the suggestions!
Last edited by ekorn on Tue 09 Jun 2009, 22:41, edited 1 time in total.

ekorn
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#7 Post by ekorn »

belfasteddie wrote:The lan is enabled in the BIOS?
Yes. Used to work with Windows.

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gposil
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#8 Post by gposil »

The apipa address is assigned by a Windows DHCP server, is there a windows pc on the network running dhcpd as a service, and also what is the gateway address of the router...hang on i'll get the routers manual and have look...get back to you soon
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ekorn
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#9 Post by ekorn »

Thank you very much for your help! Highly appreciated.
gposil wrote:The apipa address is assigned by a Windows DHCP server, is there a windows pc on the network running dhcpd as a service, and also what is the gateway address of the router...hang on i'll get the routers manual and have look...get back to you soon
No, there arent't any Windows PC's running a DCHP service, only this Puppy and three laptops with XP or Vista. I've tried shutting down the laptops while connecting.

May it be that the router is working in some Windows-like mode that I would want to bypass for the Puppy computer? Unfortuntately, I find no mention of "apipa" or "automatic private ip" in the router manual.

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gposil
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#10 Post by gposil »

Ok..try this...set up static ip with the settings as below in screenshot, you will need to add your ISP's primary and secondary DNS ...let me know
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PaulBx1
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#11 Post by PaulBx1 »

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8B:4C:45:36
inet addr:169.254.98.129 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
How did you end up with a public address in your router lan rather than 192.x.x.x?

ekorn
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#12 Post by ekorn »

gposil wrote:Ok..try this...set up static ip with the settings as below in screenshot, you will need to add your ISP's primary and secondary DNS ...let me know
I'm not sure which DNS to use. For my XP laptop the routher's ip is used for DNS: 192.168.1.254. The router has a "DNS configuration" webpage which says "DNS relay" is enabled, whereas "Dynamic DNS" is disabled. The router's "status" screen lists Primary DNS: 193.75.75.75, Secondary DNS: 193.75.75.193.

I tried the wizard with both alternatives for DNS. The wizard replied "Default route set through 192.168.1.254". However, I still cannot ping 192.168.1.254 or visit the router's web page. "ifconfig -a" reports
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8B:4C:45:36
inet addr:192.168.1.30 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:14 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1360 (1.3 KiB) TX bytes:1360 (1.3 KiB)
Thank you for your persistence 8-)

ekorn
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#13 Post by ekorn »

PaulBx1 wrote:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:8B:4C:45:36
inet addr:169.254.98.129 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
How did you end up with a public address in your router lan rather than 192.x.x.x?
Be gentle with me, I'm new at this 8-) What do you mean by "public address"? The 169.x.x.x is apparently an "APIPA" address: When a DHCP server fails, APIPA allocates addresses in the private range 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254. Interesting reading, but apparently a dead end for Puppy.

Bruce B

#14 Post by Bruce B »

The router has a DHCP client to the Internet

It also has a DHCP server to the computers connected to it.
I turn the server off.

Any computer or operating system behind the router uses a
static IP configuration. I bypass Puppy's rc.network and don't
use the connect either as there is no need.

Are you interested in doing it this way?

ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

#15 Post by ekorn »

Bruce B wrote:The router has a DHCP client to the Internet

It also has a DHCP server to the computers connected to it.
I turn the server off.

Any computer or operating system behind the router uses a
static IP configuration. I bypass Puppy's rc.network and don't
use the connect either as there is no need.

Are you interested in doing it this way?
It is essential that our laptops be able to use DHCP with other wireless networks they encounter (at work, at the train station, ...). If that can coexist with your trick, I would certainly like to hear more.

As for using DHCP, are there any tools or logs I can use to see what happens when the wizard attempts to get an IP address? Any tools to identify my ethernet card, hoping to find a more suitable driver? Any other livecd distros that would fit in 128 MB RAM and maybe fare better than Puppy, so I can copy its network settings once they're in place?

Thank you all for your help.

Bruce B

#16 Post by Bruce B »

ekorn wrote: It is essential that our laptops be able to use DHCP with other wireless networks they encounter (at work, at the train station, ...). If that can coexist with your trick, I would certainly like to hear more.
The suggestion I had in mind clearly won't work.

Next just a general tip. When I have problems setting up a
network, and this is what you are doing, I disable security
measures, passwords, restricted MAC addresses, and
whatever might get in the way.

The failure might be in these areas. Then IF I can get the
networking working with no security measures, I
systematically enable the securities, watching that the
networking works after each setting. If not well, then I've
narrowed down the area that needs special attention.

~

ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

#17 Post by ekorn »

Bruce B wrote: Next just a general tip. When I have problems setting up a
network, and this is what you are doing, I disable security
measures, passwords, restricted MAC addresses, and
whatever might get in the way.
Thanks for this. There shouldn't be any such problems. When connecting to the router by wire, the only security is the username and password on the router (which can be reset by pushing the router's "reset" button). The intended way to connect and setup is to visit this 192.168.1.254 ip address.

How can I wipe any and all network settings in Puppy and start from scratch? (I've been booting off the livecd with pfix=ram, and maybe that's the best I can do.) What then is the minimal way to visit 192.168.1.254 without setting up anything that might interfere?

I'm considering whether to bypass the router and see if I can connect the old desktop computer directly to the ADSL modem...

ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

#18 Post by ekorn »

I found a possible solution in this thread at LinuxQuestions.org:
So, you could try what happens if you force the driver to use 10Mbit by adding this to /etc/modules.conf (assuming you're using a 2.4 kernel:

Code: Select all

options de4x5 args='eth0:fdx autosense=10Mb'
This fixed a connection problem for another Compaq Presario 5686, though running Slackware and the 2.4 kernel. The de4x5 module seems to be an alternative to tulip.

Apparently, the problem was incorrect transfer speed. For the computer at LinuxQuestions.org, the original poster reported:
mii-tool -l gives:
100mbit half duplex no link...

But it's a:
10 Mbps Ethernet Port
Could someone please help me test this solution on Puppy Linux 4.2.1, which uses kernel 2.6 and therefore modprobe.conf instead of modules.conf? I tried appending this to /etc/modprobe.conf:

Code: Select all

options de4x5 args='eth0:fdx autosense=10Mb'
options tulip args='eth0:fdx autosense=10Mb'
but then the ethernet card wasn't detected by the wizard (the ochi1394 was the only one that came up). Maybe it's the format of the options that's wrong for modprobe.conf.

Also, I'd be grateful if you could have a look at the diagnostics suggested in the other thread, and suggest any I might try under Puppy. mii-tool isn't available. "ethtool eth0" says "Settings for eth0: No data available". I've tried "modprobe tulip options=10" from the command line, which gave no output and no discernible effect.

Bruce B

#19 Post by Bruce B »

Help me out. The topic title says wired, but darn it other parts of your posting cause me wonder.

ekorn
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Joined: Mon 08 Jun 2009, 16:55

#20 Post by ekorn »

Bruce B wrote:Help me out. The topic title says wired, but darn it other parts of your posting cause me wonder.
Could you please be more specific as to what is unclear? I'm trying to give my old computer a wired connection to the internet via the router's LAN port, whereas the router also provides wireless networking for other computers in the family.

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