Hi all, The mailing list web page says i should introduce myself. So here goes: Name: Paul Gear Age: 32 (and feeling every minute of it) Location: Brisbane, Australia Why i am here: Trying to convert from Red Hat/Fedora to sarge Using Linux since: kernel 0.97 Distros used: SLS 1.0 (i think), Slackware 3.2 (i think), Red Hat 4.2-9, Fedora Core 1 (almost completely ignorant of Debian) Roles: IT Manager in a school sysadm on 4 different sites (work, home, 2 volunteer orgs) Java dabbler (using jikes & gcj) And now, the problem you've all been waiting for: the 8139too driver seems broken in the sarge installer. My NIC works fine on Debian 3.0r2 and Red Hat 9, but doesn't work in any of the sarge installers i've tried (beta3 businesscard, beta4 businesscard, TC1 businesscard and netinst). The symptoms are: DHCP fails - my server sees the DHCPDISCOVER and sends back a DHCPOFFER, but the machine doesn't see it and never gets an IP. Occasional complaints about TX timeouts are visible in VC4 in the installer. It's not cabling (as i said, it works perfectly under 3.0r2 and RH9), but i tried replacing the cable anyway just in case - it made no difference. I can complete the installation from the netinst CD and it proceeds to completion, but on reboot i have the same situation: no network. My machine is an Athlon 2400+, Gigabyte GA-7N400Pro (NVIDIA nForce chipset), using an add-on PCI RTL-8139 (i refuse to use the proprietary nForce NIC driver). Questions as a result of the above problem: - What's wrong with the 8139too driver? My Red Hat system uses kernel 2.4.20 and 8139too version 0.9.26, which is exactly the same version as is used in the sarge installer. Is it another component (e.g. mii module)? This person seems to have a similar problem: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/04/msg00483.html I wonder also whether this could be related: http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2004/04/msg01491.html - Is there a way i can take a basic install of a 3.0r2 system and upgrade to sarge via apt? - Is this the best place to ask about this problem? - Is there a better way to report this bug? Thanks in advance, Paul http://paulgear.webhop.net -- Think context! Using accepted quoting conventions makes your email easier to understand. Learn how at <http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>.
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