networking woes with 2.4 kernel
Hi, everyone -
I'm in the process of building a new Windows/Linux dual-boot
workstation, and I'm running into a problem with networking. The brief
summary of the problem is that I can get Ethernet and TCP/IP working
under the 2.2 kernel series, but not under the 2.4 kernel series.
A Debian Woody idepci network install (2.2 kernel series) will find
the network just fine. Windows ME also has no networking problems.
However, a Woody bf24 installation off the official CD distribution
fails when it tries to use dhcp. When I hard-code an address and try
to ping, I get host unreachable messages. I get the same results under
Mandrake 9.0 (kernel 2.4.19).
My first thought was that it might be a problem with the integrated
RTL-8139 NIC, so I installed a new Linksys LNE100TX (a tulip chipset),
disabled the 8139 through the BIOS, and got the same results with the
Linksys. (One note, though, is that the 2.2 kernel network
installation CD I was using noticed the 8139 even though it was
disabled by the BIOS, so I'm not sure exactly what the BIOS did to
"disable" the chip. It certainly didn't remove it from the PCI bus.)
I've since pulled the Linksys card to try to simplify the system, but
I've had no luck getting anything with a 2.4 kernel to work.
If I have to, I'll run with a 2.2 kernel, but it'd sure be nice to be
able to use an ext3 file system and get the fancy new USB support, and
I don't want to be locked into the 2.2 kernel forever. Has anyone seen
a similar problem? Are there any particular logs I should be paying
attention to (syslog was pretty uninformative -- it just confirmed the
dhcp failure), or boot parameters I should set for the kernel?
I'm using an ABIT SR7-8X motherboard, which is a Pentium IV socket 478
board with the SiS 648 northbridge and SiS 693 southbridge. The
relevant NICs are the integrated RTL-8139 (module = 8139too) and a
Linksys LNE100TX (module = tulip).
If there's any other info that would be useful, please let me know.
thanks,
Jeff
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