Arch at College

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-03 20:39:17

So I'm at the University of Maryland and I can't seem to understand how to get Arch to connect to the network here. I understand you may not be able to help me as this is a problem specific to how the University of Maryland has set up their network, but I thought I might give it a try. DHCP just does not seem to work on Arch, but I've set up my windows box and my MacBook which both pick up the required information when using DHCP. I don't exactly know how to configure arch's DHCP client specifically for the network...but what information would I need to do this?

fk · 2006-10-03 20:56:47

you have dhcpcd installed and added to the daemons line in rc.conf, before network ?

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-03 21:00:37

Actually, this is from a base install and I'm trying to setup arch via ftp. I should have mentioned that previously.

yankees26 · 2006-10-03 21:02:00

Doesn't network start dhcpcd, so wouldn't that not do anything. I'm assuming this based on this snippet from /etc/rc.d/network:

# dhcpcd settings
[ -f /etc/conf.d/dhcpcd ] && . /etc/conf.d/dhcpcd

babyigor37 · 2006-10-03 23:35:01

First of all, do you have the proper module for your network card loaded? Second, are you trying to set up the network with DHCP through the installer or are you trying to do it manually? On one of my computers, the arch installer wasn't able to get DHCP working, but if when I switched into another console and did it manually ('dhcpcd eth1') everything worked fine. So I would suggest you try bringing up your network manually via dhcpcd and ifconfig commands and see if that works.

ralvez · 2006-10-03 23:49:14

A base install includes dhcp support as far as I know.
If your /etc/rc.conf look for the following lines (or similar):

lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
eth0="eth0 192.168.1.21 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0)

then where is reads: eth0="eth0 192.168.1.21 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255" put a comment, so your code will look like:
#eth0="eth0 192.168.1.21 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255"
then above that commented line type: eth0="dhcp"
and you are ready to go after you restart the network (as root)

 /etc/rc.d/network restart

and try again ... 8) it should work.
Or ... post again :?

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-04 01:15:19

Yeah, I've done that as well. I also changed my gateway to the proper gateway. The university also gives a static IP to each student, so I've tried writing down all that information (including the IP, DNS server IP, subnet mask, and gateway IP) in Windows and entering that information in. Still no dice. Any other ideas for what could cause this?

ralvez · 2006-10-04 01:46:43

OK now I'm lost.
You say

I've tried writing down all that information (including the IP, DNS server IP, subnet mask, and gateway IP) in Windows

Are you setting Windows or Linux?
If linux, first try one approach (the easy one is DHCP) and then the other (static IP).
If you try static IP then you must also set up the gateway in which case you have to undo the "!" in ROUTES=(!gateway) to read

gateway="default gw 111.222.333.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)

When setting up Linux forget about Windows for the TCP-IP protocol is the same in all OSes.
If the network is setup to run in a "normal" fasion you should be able to set up Linux either way.

The only thing that my prevent you from linking to the network is if the school uses "active directory" to authenticate the users becuase there is not such thing in Linux and you may need to resort to other things in orther to authenticate.

Having said that just to connect to the network and browse the web using DHCP you should be fine.

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-04 02:29:41

I'm sorry, I keep leaving out bits and pieces of information. I have been trying to do an ftp install and have been bailing out after dhcp keeps failing (leaving the current operating system, windows, untouched). At one point I decided to just do a CD install and then configure the network from inside Arch. Before I decided to do that I wrote down all the network information from windows and tried to input it in as static information instead of letting dhcp grab it all. I thought this would work since all the network information should remain the same for this computer as the only thing being changed is the operating system, but this didn't work either. I also tried just using DHCP after the CD install, but this didn't work.

I don't think there's anything windows exclusive about the network because A. my macbook connects just fine and B. we have "WAM labs" (workstations at maryland) which run a modified version of red hat enterprise linux.

The_Nerd · 2006-10-04 02:40:55

What are your network policies at U of M? I'm up at Loyola and I had to call in my MAC address before I was allowed an IP address. Usually it's taken care of on Windows PC's with some software that you install via cd, but perhaps the MAC for your MacBook was registered with them (The MAC and Operating System are registered together up here, as they constantly check that you are not running Windows when you said you had Linux etc), and you need to do the same with your linux box as well?

You might also want to jump on some of those Red Hat boxes and see if you can check out config files on those machines for anything special. If worse comes to worse, bring it into the tech department there, I imagine they would have someone who knows linux well enough to help you get connected.

SleepyDog · 2006-10-04 02:42:14

My network allowed me to connect, but all my connections were blocked until I opened a web browser and it redirected me to a login page where I put in my college ID and password. I only had to do this once. Does dhpcd fail explicitly or does IRC or something not work?

allucid · 2006-10-04 03:33:29

The_Nerd wrote:

What are your network policies at U of M? I'm up at Loyola and I had to call in my MAC address before I was allowed an IP address.

He said he's able to get on the 'net from windows on the same machine. MAC should not be a problem.

SleepyDog wrote:

My network allowed me to connect, but all my connections were blocked until I opened a web browser and it redirected me to a login page where I put in my college ID and password.

DHCP should work regardless. You have to have an IP before you can be redirected to the login page.

I'm going to repeat some stuff because your answers aren't entirely clear from earlier. DHCP should work (if it worked on windows) and entering stuff in statically should also work so it sounds like you have something else going on.

Do you have the _correct_ networking driver loaded?

Do you have more than one network device (ethernet and wifi perhaps) and are you using the right one? udev may swap the device names. Check the HW addres if you have to.

Now that you are sure your card is working and shows up when you run 'ifconfig':
What happens when you run 'dhcpcd <deivice>'?

Does it timeout?

Is there output?

You can also run dhcpcd with the -d flag and it will spit out more info in your syslog (assuming you have one running). You can 'tail /var/log/messages.log' to view that output. If it dhcpcd just times out that probably isn't going to help much, though.

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-04 18:17:23

I'm about to try and reinstall again and read the logging that dhcp leaves...from what it looks like its just timing out because other network operations time out once all the IP/DNS information is entered in statically, but I'll give it a shot anyways.

The ftp install offers the option of probing the NIC driver automagically...and this has always seemed to work so I am at a loss to describe why it would not work now. But what's an easy way to find what my NIC driver is called? The NIC is an onboard, and its chipset is the Realtek RTL8201CL.

Thank you so much for all the help thus far guys, I'll get back to you with the log information. By the way, SleepyDog, are you at UMD?

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-04 19:17:18

Actually, scratch what I last said about the Realtek RTL8201CL. The correct ethernet driver is the uli526x kernel driver and that is what is being loaded by the arch installer. I also tried doing this manually to no avail.

As far as I can tell I'm not getting any logged dhcp messages except:
"uli526x: eth0 NIC Link is Down"

Sounds rather generic.
Here's what ifconfig gives me:

lo      Link encap:Local Loopback
                   inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
                  UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
                  RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
                  TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
                  collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
                  RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Here's what ifconfig eht0 gives me:

eth0   Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:8F:76:9A:CE
                  BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
                  RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
                  TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
                  collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
                  RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes: 0 (0.0 b)
                  Interrupt:23 Base address:0xe400

I see where the hardware address for the NIC is...but what does it mean to check it and how can I do this?

UPDATE:
errors.log has some more dhcpcd messages:

"dhcpcd[3858]: timed out waiting for valid DHCP server response"

So yeah, its definitely timing out.

Lone_Wolf · 2006-10-04 19:34:32

I've done a bit of searching on the RTL8201CL and it appears it is a PHY ceiver that works in combination with a MAC unit . The driver that it needs is the driver for the MAC unit , which is usually in the mobo chipset.
The 8201CL is used with many chipsets like sis , nvidia, ULI.

Can you tell us the brand and type of your mobo so we can determine which network driver is needed ?

The module needed for your

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-04 19:55:22

Yeah, my mobo is an ASRock 939Dual-Sata2.

SkankinSasquatch · 2006-10-05 12:16:09

Sorry to bump my thread, but does anyone else have any ideas?

Lone_Wolf · 2006-10-05 12:46:47

Right, the uli526x was one of the drivers mentioned for the rtl8201.

run

mii-tool -v

as root and post the output.

If you add the uli526x module manually (modprobe) , make sure to run /etc/rc.d/network restart .

Arch Linux

#1 2006-10-03 20:39:17

Arch at College

#2 2006-10-03 20:56:47

Re: Arch at College

#3 2006-10-03 21:00:37

Re: Arch at College

#4 2006-10-03 21:02:00

Re: Arch at College

#5 2006-10-03 23:35:01

Re: Arch at College

#6 2006-10-03 23:49:14

Re: Arch at College

#7 2006-10-04 01:15:19

Re: Arch at College

#8 2006-10-04 01:46:43

Re: Arch at College

#9 2006-10-04 02:29:41

Re: Arch at College

#10 2006-10-04 02:40:55

Re: Arch at College

#11 2006-10-04 02:42:14

Re: Arch at College

#12 2006-10-04 03:33:29

Re: Arch at College

#13 2006-10-04 18:17:23

Re: Arch at College

#14 2006-10-04 19:17:18

Re: Arch at College

#15 2006-10-04 19:34:32

Re: Arch at College

#16 2006-10-04 19:55:22

Re: Arch at College

#17 2006-10-05 12:16:09

Re: Arch at College

#18 2006-10-05 12:46:47

Re: Arch at College

Board footer