Re: Upgrade to 2.4.18 and lose network

[Donald Spoon <dspoon@astcomm.net>]

Dave Leckie wrote:
> Apologies if this comes across as a newbie question... I've been trying 
> to sort through the Debian install and have had nothing but headaches... 
> but I'm still trying... sooner or later this will work out nicely...
>
> Alright. I'm setting up for a firewall-box on an old P75 via 1.44M 
> Floppies and netinstall...
>
> So I go through the installer and everything's relatively hunkey 
> dorey... I install Woody 3.0r1, and I manage to get everything set up 
> including the two NICs... One's a 3com Etherlink III and the other is a 
> rtl8139too. The two NIC driver installs go through great, and I use the 
> Etherlink to connect to the outside world (eth0). All is fine, I'm able 
> to install the base system over the net no problem. Everything works 
> over the net until I want to upgrade the kernel.
>
> I'm wanting to use iptables, so I apt-get the kernel-image-2.4.18-bf2.4
> (non-initrd) and get that all set up.
>
> So I reboot the system, it loads up all happily into 2.4 until the 
> network tries to get configured, then the boot-up seizes for a bit 
> (while I suspect it just fails at configuring) and when I log in and try 
> to move around outside my system, my network isn't working... no 
> configuration, nothing...
>
> I'm at a complete loss now and honestly have no clue how I'm supposed to 
> approach this now...
>
> A similar problem I was having with installing on a larger box via CD (I 
> think with the 2.4 kernel).
>
> So my question is basically do I have to set up the network manually, 
> and if so, how would I do that?
>
> -Dave

The 2.4.18-bf4 kernel should detect the Real-Tek 8139 card just fine.  I 
am pretty sure it has the code compiled into the kernel.  I use them 
here.  When you move beyond the "bf4" kernel, you will have to add the 
module for this card via modconf or by putting it in the /etc/modules file.

The Etherlink III card is another matter.  If it is the old ISA 3c509B 
card that I think it is, you will have to insert this module (3c509.o) 
into the kernel with modconf and include the IO/IRQ values for this 
card.  IIRC, you might get by with just using the IO value that the card 
has been setup to use and it will automatically probe for the IRQ. 
Although it is advertised a "plug and play" it really isn't ... in 
Linux.  BTW, this card has a programmable EEPROM where you can set the 
IO and IRQ it should use.  You can get a "setup" program that runs under 
Linux at: http://www.scyld.com/diag/3c5x9setup.html if you need to 
change these values.  You probably don't since you had it running before 
with the other kernel.

Take a peek at your ifconfig and see if there is at least one of the 
NICs recognized.  I suspect it is and it will be the Real-Tek one.  If 
neither one is being recognized, then you might have another problem. 
Come on back with the results of "lspci", "lsmod" and "ifconfig".

Cheers,
-Don Spoon-