Re: forcedeth fails on second port with error -12
Greetings,
I was just ready to call the people I bought the PC from, but then:
1) I read here: http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0401.3/0119.html
about the forcedeth (googling for "Switching to a random MAC")
It says:
#> I don't like this random MAC address stuff. Regardless of hardware
#> behavior, this breaks MAC address uniqueness.
#
#> I would much rather that ->open() failed, if a valid MAC address were
#> not present. Then a simple userspace program can be run by the admin
#> (policy!) that sets the MAC address, before bringing up the interface.
#
# This was a feature many users asked for. It seems broken hardware is very
# common for this chipset.
(could this really be -- read on ...)
2) But then I looked up PHY on *wikipedia*, and it says:
An Ethernet PHYceiver is a chip which can send and receive Ethernet frames; it
typically lacks such advanced features of network interface card (NIC) chips
as Wake-on-LAN or Boot ROM support. Also, unlike NIC, a *PHYceiver doesn't
have its own MAC address*.
!!!
So it's "common" to NOT have a MAC address !!!
What's that ??
It goes on at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address:
In Debian just put
hwaddress ether 02:01:02:03:04:08
in the appropriate section of /etc/network/interfaces so that the MAC address
is set when the network device is started.
That sound OK now - ONLY:
I thought I could use
http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.user/msg/0bf920a45ce7a14f
and put
mapping eth0 eth1
script /etc/network/get-mac-address.sh
map 00:00:00:00:00:00 wireless
map 11:11:11:11:11:11 ethernet
into /etc/network/interfaces
to fix the *udev* problem assigning problem.
That of course conflicts when I first assign my own MAC number and then try to
use that to identify the physical port ;-)
Further help would be great !
FYI: Windows assigns (?) just the hex number (MAC addr of the first port) +1
to second port ... that sound reasonable to me...
Thanks,
Sebastian Haase
On Tuesday 18 April 2006 20:33, reeses1@comcast.net wrote:
> Greetings Sebastian:
>
> udev is pretty good about finding devices and loading whatever driver it
> thinks is appropriate. I don't know the exact mechanisms that it employs
> to perform these feats, but I do know that the days of having to put a
> bunch of stuff into /etc/modules are essentially over. It always pulls the
> drivers out of the current kernel's directory in /lib/modules, so it
> doesn't shock me that you had to manually pull the driver files out of that
> directory to control which module loaded for the network. I know that
> there are a bunch of rules in /etc/udev where you can control what gets
> loaded and what doesn't. That would be the place to look if you were
> trying to control which driver gets loaded for your video card.
>
> I'm not running the 3/2006 BIOS yet, I'm still running the previous one.
> It resolved the problems that I was having with the second NICs MAC address
> being all zeros. It sounds like your board is newer than mine and came
> with that BIOS on it, so maybe that isn't the problem.
>
> There are a number of BIOS options that, frankly, I don't have the first
> idea what they do/mean. If you think it would be helpful, I can go through
> the setup screens and tell you what everything is set to. I've had my fair
> share of problems with the box, but I can honestly say that networking
> hasn't been one of them.
>
> -Scott
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: Sebastian Haase <haase@msg.ucsf.edu>
>
> > Greetings Scott,
> > Still having problems: after playing with nvnet.ko eth1 now shows up -
> > but doesn't see any other PC on the local network.
> > Also I found that the only way of preventing forcedeth from loading was
> > to mv it out of the way -- it was not mentioned anywhere in the /etc tree
> > -- how does the system now about it ???
> > The same happend again when I wanted to go back - nvnet was always loaded
> > until I mv'ed it away from the /lib/modules-`uname -r` tree...
> >
> > Just be sure I understand right: Are we talking about *THE* BIOS of the
> > Tyan Thunder K8WE board ?
> > It says it's version 1.2.2895 from Oct.2005 or so - that seems quite
> > recent ! I tried in the BIOS setting to change "installed OS" from
> > 'WinXP64' to 'Linux' - didn't help.
> > Also I noticed that in the BIOS the MAC address of "eth0" is
> > *unchangeably" displayed - there are some other options regards MAC, but
> > I didn't look up what they are for (yet).
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Sebastian Haase
> >
> > On Tuesday 18 April 2006 09:50, reeses1@comcast.net wrote:
> > > Greetings Sebastian:
> > >
> > > I seem to recall that everything worked properly under windows. I
> > > think that the windows driver just quietly assigned a MAC to the
> > > interface and went on. It's been most of a year, so my recollection
> > > might be a little hazy.
> > >
> > > Both interfaces are using forcedeth. I did not have to do anything
> > > special in /etc/modules beyond adding forcedeth. If I don't add it
> > > there, then it doesn't come up until after udev runs, which is a little
> > > late in the boot process for me.
> > >
> > > Flashing the BIOS does have the potential for disaster. That said,
> > > over the course of 15 years I have probably flashed more than 100
> > > without a single issue. The only likely issue would be if the power
> > > went off while the system was writing the image to the flash. What's
> > > the likelyhood of that? Don't try it during an electrical storm, and
> > > don't let the kids play with the cords while you're updating. If you
> > > have a battery backup for the computer, I don't see how you could have
> > > a problem. Read and follow the directions carefully.
> > >
> > > Good Luck.
> > >
> > > -Scott
> > >
> > >
> > > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > > From: Sebastian Haase <haase@msg.ucsf.edu>
> > >
> > > > Thanks for (both) reply(s).
> > > > BIOS update ? Does this still apply when both NICs show up fine under
> > > > WindowsXP(x64) ?
> > > > I have never flashed the BIOS and heard bad stories about it's
> > > > possibly disastrous consequences ...
> > > >
> > > > Are you using forcedeth ? Did you need to edit any files (like
> > > > /etc/modules) ?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Sebastian Haase
> > > >
> > > > On Monday 17 April 2006 20:11, reeses1@comcast.net wrote:
> > > > > Greetings:
> > > > >
> > > > > This board had a bad habit of leaving the second NICs MAC address
> > > > > all zeros. I don't know if this is the root cause of your problem
> > > > > or not, but since it mentions it in your dmesg it might be worth a
> > > > > look. There was a BIOS upgrade that fixed it. Both NICs are
> > > > > working properly on my machine.
> > > > >
> > > > > -Scott
> > > > > -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > > > > From: Sebastian Haase <haase@msg.ucsf.edu>
> > > > >
> > > > > > Hi,
> > > > > > I have two on board ethernet on Tyan Thunder K8WE (s2895).
> > > > > > It seems the forcedeth driver works fine.
> > > > > > But only for eth0. Eth1 doesn't show up...
> > > > > > I thought I might need to specifically reload the module a second
> > > > > > time with different options for the second port (like in
> > > > > > /etc/modutils or so) !?!?!????
> > > > > >
> > > > > > then I discovered an error message in dmesg:
> > > > > > <cut and paste from dmesg>
> > > > > > forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version
> > > > > > 0.48. ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LMAC] -> GSI
> > > > > > 21 (level, high) -> IRQ 18
> > > > > > PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0a.0 to 64
> > > > > > eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 010f1:2895 bound to 0000:00:0a.0
> > > > > > ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK3] enabled at IRQ 19
> > > > > > GSI 19 sharing vector 0xC9 and IRQ 19
> > > > > > ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:80:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNK3] -> GSI 19
> > > > > > (level, high) -> IRQ 19
> > > > > > PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:80:0a.0 to 64
> > > > > > 0000:80:0a.0: Invalid Mac address detected: 00:00:00:00:00:00
> > > > > > Please complain to your hardware vendor. Switching to a random
> > > > > > MAC. 0000:80:0a.0: open: Could not find a valid PHY.
> > > > > > ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:80:0a.0 disabled
> > > > > > forcedeth: probe of 0000:80:0a.0 failed with error -12
> > > > > > Probing IDE interface ide0...
> > > > > > </cut and paste from dmesg>
> > > > > >
> > > > > > lspci shows that 0000:80:0a.0 should be my second NIC.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Any idea what error -12 could mean ?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > > Sebastian Haase
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