Ethernet card won't work in Puppy2 (Solved)

[r__hughes]

//////////////
Edit - To summarize the solution - this is now fixed!-
Barry has implemented a fix in Pup201 for this problem & other future occurrances of similar problems by an 'overrides' category in the /etc/rc.modules file.

This effectively blocks out the offending driver so that it no longer registers in modprobe and no longer interferes with specific cards.

It has no effect on computers not having the specific problem card.
Great solution Barry - the ethernet autodetection in pup201 worked flawlessly.
/////////////////////

Help - my Davicom DM9102 ethernet card which works so happily in Livepuppies
108r1 and 109CE (& W98SE) doesn't work in puppy2.

My computer is an AMD-K6 3D 476MHz PC with 384Mb RAM, 3 harddrives, 2 CDs
I am using Live puppy2alpha-24may06 (downloaded, md5-checked & iso-burned twice
using different pc's with identical results).

Puppy2 Xproc system info shows eth0: Davicom DM9102/DM9102A rev 16 at 0001de00
00:30:21:11:e4:3d:, IRQ 10
Compare this to:
(Puppy108r1 Xproc shows eth0: Davicom 9102 at pci00:0d.0 00:30e4:3d:, irq 10)
both show correct MAC# & vendor but puppy2 has different driver.

Puppy2's ethernet wizard finds an active ethernet (eth0) and dhcp toggle flashes off
after about 5 secs - which looks promising.

Using Xterm:
#ipaddr shows a correct assigned IP address
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,20> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 00:30:21:11:e4:3d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.0.101/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0

# ifconfig confirms
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:30:21:11:E4:3D
inet addr:192.168.0.101 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11 errors:206 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:5 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:5
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1720 (1.6 KiB) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xde00

---------but look at the errors.

I can ping 192.168.0.101 (self) but not the router at 192.168.0.1 or any other
IP on the network or the internet. The browser gives me 'page-not-found' errors
for all internet URLs and LinNeighbourhood can't access any windows shares
on my network.

My router, a D-Link 514, still working perfectly for all other 4 computers, shows
that puppy2 was given IP 192.168.0.101 at the correct time but subsequently
shows no activity to/from this address.

If I use puppy2 network wizard to toggle dhcp or remove/reinstall the Davicom
driver I can never get another IP. (The wizard message is very confusing telling
me I do and I dont have a working ethernet card at the same time)

Livepuppies 108r1. 109CE and W98SE (gowashyourmouthout) still insist
the ethernet card is good and use it with no problems.

Does anyone have any ideas or am I stuck at the puppy1 stage?
It looks like my network card is locked up as soon as puppy2 is allocated an
IP address.

[BarryK]

You mentioned that 1.xx is using a different driver.
Can you tell me which one it uses, and which one 2.00 uses?
(lsmod or the Network Wizard will tell you).

If puppy2 does have the same driver as 1.xx uses, then you could try to
unload the one currently loaded in 2.00 (when network is totally down)
and load the 'correct' one.

# rmmod currentdriver
# modprobe correctdriver

[jcoder24]

Maybe it's the speed/duplex settings. Sometimes, if the two devices have different settings (in terms of speed, duplexity and auto-negotiation) you get a lot of errors. In linux these options can be set using with mii-tools. Also have you checked the firewall settings?

[r__hughes]

Thanks a lot for the info Barry - I was able to find the Davicom dmfe driver
locations in 108r1 and 109CE (/lib/modules/2.4.29/net/tulip/dmfe.o.gz) -
and then find an equivalent Davicom dmfe driver in puppy2 at lib/modules/2.6.16/net/dmfe.ko

Up to this point I had been running Puppy2 completely in RAM with no
save to pup_sav.3fs - and this turned out to be the main problem.
Even though the network-wizard announced a valid eth0 and got an IP -
the current session could not use eth0 and there was no indication of dmfe
being assigned to eth0 using lsmod, the network-wizard or modprobe -l.

When I shut down puppy2 and saved pup_sav.3fs to hda1 and then rebooted - the bootlog showed dmfe being assigned to eth0:

Code: Select all

dmfe: Davicom DM9xxx net driver, version 1.36.4 (2002-01-17)
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 0000:00:0d.0
eth0: Davicom DM9102 at pci0000:00:0d.0, 00:30:21:11:e4:3d, irq 10.

The dhcp toggle then got the IP address and the card was live! I could ping
anything in sight & firefox got the internet without a hiccup.

[indopuppy]

I've used Puppy109CE in my Toshiba notebook with 248 MB RAM, Realtek RTL8139/810 Family Fast Ethernet, Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG, and USB mouse attached. I use DHCP, connect to the network in my office, and everything is working well.

Then I can't help using Puppy2 as soon as it's released yesterday.
Puppy1 detected my ethernet as 8139too only, but Puppy2 detected 8139too and ipw2200. I tested the eth0, it's said "Puppy was able to find an alive network". When I try to click Auto DHCP, the mouse is suddenly getting slow and almost freezed, network configuration eth0 unsuccessful, and I couldn't get IP address. I tried to remove ipw2200, but the problem still the same. Using Static IP couldn't solve the problem too. What should I do now?

[r__hughes]

The Davicom ethernet saga continues -----

Moving on to puppy-2.00-seamonkey brought my ethernet card problems
back since I erased the pup_save.3fs file of the previous pup2 version.

The ethernet-wizard this time showed an initially recognized driver called
'tulip' instead of the correct dmfe driver for my Davicom ethernet card.
The wizard said tulip was valid and dhcp-toggle got the right IP address
- but same bad symptoms as before - no internet access & couldn't ping
the router IP.

Rebooted after saving a pup_save.3fs - no luck.
removed tulip with Xterm: rmmod tulip & selected dmfe in the wizard, eth0
tested OK & dhcp-toggle gave a good IP - could ping router & browse
internet.

Rebooted after saving a pup_save.3fs - no luck!! - damned tulip's back &
bootlog showed that dmfe was checked first & got dhcp - then pup2 decided
to check tulip afterwards & lost the dmfe connection.

removed tulip again by Xterm: rmmod tulip & found tulip driver at
/lib/modules/2.6.16.7/net/tulip/tulip.ko - changed its name to xxxtulip.ko
rebooted and it came up roses - I mean dmfe. Pings the router OK , browses
internet OK. It all looks OK now.

Maybe tulip was there in puppyalpha-24may06 too but the network wizard
never showed me any names then. What a mystery - I hope this saga is over.

[r__hughes]

Thank you Barry,

Your puppy201 OVERRIDES solution worked just fine. Pup automatically detected the correct ethernet driver & avoided all compatibility problems.

See the first message in this topic for details.