Gentoo Network Issue Help

[psenechal]

Here is my current situation that I could use some assistance with.

HARDWARE: VIA P2B400 Chipset with integrated NIC (circa 2001)

I first installed Gentoo 2006.1 image. DHCP worked during the install and after the install. I was actually able to install SageTV, however, it did not work, so I figured I would try the 2006.0 image. NOTE: Networking works perfectly under the 2006.1 image. DHCP works fine.

I then installed Gentoo 2006.0. DHCP worked during the install, however, after the installation was complete, I received an error on boot that DHCPCD didn't work. No IP address being assigned. I decided to reinstall Gentoo 2006.0 and this time assign the box a static IP address. After the installation, the network card comes up, but I cannot get anywhere. The box can ping itself (192.168.1.45), but cannot ping the router (192.168.1.1).

So...I know the hardware is working fine since the network works fine during the install and works fine after the install on 2006.1. My problem is that I cannot get the network to work after the install on 2006.0, and since I would like SageTV to work (since I purchased it and all), I need the network to actually work on this image.

Does anyone have suggestions for me on what I could possibly try to get this to work? Thanks.

[sshapiro63]

Make sure your network parameters are set to the following:

Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Broadcast 192.168.1.255

Also, make sure that the ip address you set is configured for eth0 and that the interface is in the "UP" state. Try running this command:

ifconfig eth0

and take a look at the output.

Steve

[psenechal]

IP address is assigned to eth0 (only one there is)
Netmask is correct
I have broadcast set to 192.168.1.0 (this should still work, correct?)
eth0 is in the "UP" state

DNS server is set to my router 192.168.1.1, however, since I can't ping the router, I doubt it's even finding the DNS servers.

If Broadcast makes that big of a difference, I can change that when I get home and try it again. Thanks.

Any other suggestions? Or reasons why DHCPCD isn't working on 2006.0 while it is on 2006.1?

[sshapiro63]

Set your broadcast to match the routers broadcast, which is probably .255. If they are both set to the same broadcast you might be able to ping the broadcast address and see if you get a response from another host on the network; router, other pc, etc.

I have seen some routers configured at 192.168.0.xxx instead of 192.168.1.xxx so make sure you verify the settings for the LAN port on the router. Also, if another host on your LAN is already configured for .45 you might get ping replies going back to the wrong host; depending on what the IP to MAC address (ARP Cache) looks like on the router.

Your symptoms seem like the router and host are on different subnets, or you have a cabling problem. Don't forget to check the indicator lights on the router to determine if the port your pc Gentoo box is plugged into is hot.

Steve

[psenechal]

The cabling has been working for the last 2 years, so I'm pretty sure that is okay. Since DHCP worked with the v2006.1 of GENTOO and during the 2006.0 LiveCD setup process, I'm going to assume two things.

1. For some reason DHCP doesn't want to work in v2006.0 of GENTOO after install.
2. My statically assigned network parameters are wrong somewhere. I know my IP address is unique...everything else is DHCP and it's all 100+. Subnet is cool. Could be the broadcast...I'll check that. I guess I should probably check the route table on the Gentoo box to make sure it's pointing to the router.

[sshapiro63]

Just for kicks, try setting your ip to something other than .45 and I suggest you reboot the router too. Is it possible the router is configured to not respond to hosts that it has not assigned an IP for? I don't know if there is a setting for that but it might be worth your time to view the various settings on the unit to see if there are any rules that might be preventing it from responding to the sage box.

Steve

[psenechal]

I'll try something other than .45. I rebooted the router last night while I was screwing around with all this, but I'll do it again when I get home. The router doesn't have any settings to deny static addresses (that I know about). I have set static addresses in the past and it worked fine.

I'm still bothered as to why DHCPCD worked on v2006.1 and doesn't on v2006.0. I spent most of the day searching through GENTOO articles and have found nothing. I would have expected it if I was using a newer mobo, but this sucker is ancient.

Thanks for the help

[Risasi]

If you don't mind me asking, what motherboard are you using? And what chipset.

I had similar problems with some of the newer boards. I could boot to the live CD, I go to install and have problems with my network card.

I tried several distros, including Debian Sarge w/ kernel 2.6, Ubuntu, FC4. All with similar problems when trying to use Kernel 2.6. I had problems with both integrated NIC's and the PCI bus in general with certain chipsets.

I finally went through two more boards and got Gentoo to install fine on a P4-SP board from Asus, I had to change out almost everything. It was embarrassing, really.

[psenechal]

It's an ASUS P4B400. Via P400 chipset. It's fairly old which is why I wondered why I was having problems under v2006.0 but not under v2006.1. My mobo should be old enough for v2006.0 to cover the integrated nic.

Any idea when SageTV will support v2006.1 of GENTOO? I kept getting warning messages about my version.

[psenechal]

I think I'm officially giving up on this for now. After troubleshooting for about 6 hours last night, I figured out a few things, but still could not resolve everything.

1. The 2006.0 GENTOO images does not install the DHCPCD package even though you tell it that you want your card assigned a DHCP address. So I reinstalled and manually selected this package to install during the installation (since I could not do it afterwards without network connectivity to download the package). So...with DHCPCD definitely installed, I tried to retrieve an IP address. DHCPCD still would not work even after manually loading the module in my net file.

2. Okay...back to static assignment to see if I can get that working. After attempting to change the IP address, the broadcast address, creating static routes, changing the DNS servers, etc....NOTHING! I still could not even ping the router.

3. I was so fed up at this point that I decided I would try to install 2006.1 GENTOO and see if I could get SageTV to work with this. I figured at least I had network connectivity with 2006.1. I realized that the first time I did it, it tried to load my video card with Nvidia drivers and I have an ATI, so I thought I would be smart and load the ati driver package during installation. This caused a failure in the installation and it didn't complete properly...again, no network connection and I'm sure I was missing a bunch of other packages as well.

I started installing Windows XP on the box this morning. My family wants the PVR back and I don't have the time to spend hour upon hour trying to get the darn thing working.

I hope everyone hasn't had the horrible experience I have had with this. Too bad I wasted $80 on software that will probably never get used now. I really wanted a streamlined HTPC and not some bloated operating system that constantly has problems, but at least I know that if I load Windows, it will work.

[_Demo_]

The default installation procedure for sagetv should have a working dhcpcd. Are you sure your downloaded iso was not corrupted or maybe the cd you burned it on?

Can you also find out exactly what is the network chipset?

Thanks

_Demo_

[psenechal]

I was mistaken on the motherboard, it's actually a VIA P4PB 400. The integrated network controller is a VIA Rhine III VT6105M 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN controller.

[_Demo_]

Could you give me the error messages you have when you use the install guide method? (with 2006.0)

_Demo_

[psenechal]

No error message...GENTOO installs without any problems. I am able to use the installprofile with no problems. After the GENTOO install, my network adapter doesn't pull an IP address with the system configured for DHCP. When I try to restart the network adapter with it set for DHCP, I get the !! sign next to the DHCPCD service.

When I try to set the network adapter up with a static address, it works and comes up fine, but I cannot get outside my machine. Attempts to ping anything including 192.168.1.1 result in Destination Not Reachable errors.

I cannot run the SageTV install because I can't get to the website to download the installer. Thanks

[_Demo_]

The issue is not dhcpcd itself then. It seems your network chip is working but it's physical interface is not once it has rebooted in the installed gentoo. Could you see if there is any led on the network connector once it has loaded gentoo?

Thanks

_Demo_

[psenechal]

Yep...LED is on...even blinks occassionally like it's trying to do something.

I installed Windows last night on a different hard drive in the same machine. the NIC works fine...it even downloaded 100MB worth of Windows updates in about 5 minutes.

Could this be a driver issue? I'm wondering if the GENTOO install program uses a generic driver during the installation that works, but when the install is complete, it tries to use a more specific driver that it thinks belongs to my NIC and this driver is causing the problem.

Any ideas how I would check the network driver and update it?

[sshapiro63]

I could not get Gentoo to work with dhcp on my system either, which uses an nvidia chipset for the LAN. It worked okay at the initial boot when installing off the live cd, but after it was done the LAN interface failed to function. I reloaded Gentoo and hard coded the ip info to get the LAN working.

Running SageTV on Linux with my system was not a great experience. The server kept dying when I tried to change channels from either the local system or a remote system using Sage Client. I was using version 5.04 which I installed a few days ago.

I removed SageTV and reinstalled using KnoppyMyth. The system has been working fine since I installed it yesterday. If it holds up for a few more days I will stick with KnoppyMyth and maybe add an EPIA based front end in the family room and bedroom.

Believe me, I feel your pain from SageTV on Linux

Steve

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by psenechal

Any ideas how I would check the network driver and update it?

If the gentoo cd works then you might want to try the gentoo sources instead of vanilla sources on the kernel select screen of the installer. In theory this should get you something more similar to the cd after you reboot.

_Demo_

[steve909]

I have had the same problem with no way to wget the sagesetup.sh, see my thread 'help for a new install please'.
I've had to accept that I've wasted $79. I'm also now using Knoppmyth, wish I'd downloaded that for free first of all!
Good forum though, very friendly and helpful. Against this, I got a one line reply from sagetv themselves.. not impressed.

[cbhatt]

Hi all,
This might be too little or too late but I have a Via M10000 and when I did the initial install I have the exact same problem. the system could not start eth0 with DHCP. The problem is that eth0 is not the onboard NIC its something else (firewire???). The work around I used was enabling eth1 in the install wizard and everything worked great after that.

I don't use Sage anymore, I'm on Mythdora, my problem was that X drivers for my video card (CLE266) were a pain in the rear to install and I ended up breaking my kernel 3 times. Rather than deal with that I went to mythdora and it works great.