RE: eth0 detected by kernel, ifconfig, ifup/ifdown can't configure it. lo (localhost) also has same problem.

Hello there. There is a known problem with net-tools_1.58. You'll need to go get the net-tools_1.57 .deb and downgrade to it to try to fix your problem. And you may need to make sure that your /etc/hosts file is good too and not the one that 1.58 put in. Hope this helps, good luck.

Jimmy Richards

linuxrh@home.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Telford [mailto:troyt@myrealbox.com]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 1:51 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: eth0 detected by kernel, ifconfig, ifup/ifdown can't configure it. lo (localhost) also has same problem.

I apologize if this is in HTML; Outlook express is all I have @ the moment.

I've been working on this for a few hours now... I need some help! I can get neither eth0 nor my localhost (lo) interfaces to work! They were working fine earlier.

I made a simple change to my filesystem - I needed a bigger /var partition, and therefore made the proper preparations (backups, etc), created the new partition, copied all data over, fixed the fstab, etc. But now my network card isn't configuring, and neither is localhost.

Specifically - during boot, I get the usual message about the kernel detecting my RealTek 8029 card on IRQ 10, IO 0xb400, and that it sets it to eth0.

When /etc/init.d/networking runs to configure the card (and lo), I get the following errors (paraphrased)

SIOCFADDR: bad file descriptor
eth0: interface not found: bad file descriptor.
lo: interface not found: bad file descriptor.

And, networking does not function. I don't even have Localhost!, so it can't be the network card itself.

In fact - I have a 'zip rescue' disk that contains a default debian-base installation (v.2.2). It uses the exact same kernel file as my 'regular' boot - kernel 2.4.1, located on my /boot partition.

The zip rescue disk is able to boot and configure networking just fine, everything works.
The hard disk cannot.

The only difference in booting is that the 'zip_rescue' entry in LILO uses the zip disk as the root, whereas the 'linux' entry uses my hard disk. The kernel is not on either partition.

/proc information:

When booting from hard disk: /proc/interrupts does not list the ethernet card, nor its IRQ. /proc/ioports (i think) lists the ethernet card on 0xb400.

When booting from the zip disk, /proc/interrupts lists the ethernet card correctly on IRQ 10. /proc/ioports lists the card on 0xb400.

Realtek's diagnostics show the card as working properly, and it works in Windows as well as on the zip rescue.

So what is it that changed to make my networking stop working when booting from the hard disk, while networking works fine when booted from the zip?

Any ideas?!? I really don't want to have to 'nuke' it all and re-install from scratch. I don't have that kind of time...

Thanks,

Troy