[SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

gabscic · 2009-03-24 18:09:50

Hi there people, just installed Arch on my PC (again). The first time I had no problems with this, but now it is really bothering me. Well, my PC only access the net via wireless, so I have no wired connection for it. Here's my /etc/rc.conf:

# /etc/rc.conf
eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MySpot key ABCDEFABCDEF1234567ABCDEFC"
INTERFACES=(eth0 wlan0)

Well, everything is working fine, I can get access to the internet on bootup. My only concern is that my system is taking awfully long to boot. It takes about 1-2 minutes on "::Starting Network", then it shows me "eth0: timed out". Then it takes about 10 secs to start my wlan0 interface and the system finishes booting. I had previously installed Arch 2008.12, and the Starting Network only took about 10 secs to start my wlan0. I have already tried commenting out the eth0 line and putting a ! in front of eth0 on INTERFACES, but doing that only shows me an error message for my wlan0 and render my internet unusable on system bootup. So, my questions are:

1) Do I really need the eth0 interface for my connection (since I'm using wlan0 for wireless connection) ? Why can't I comment it out?
2) If I really need eth0, how can I make my boot time go faster, or how can I make it not time out?

Thanks in advance for any help given...

EDIT: problem solved, see Post 8 below for answers...

Last edited by gabscic (2009-03-25 03:40:43)

CheesyBeef · 2009-03-24 19:00:48

Could you provide the output of...

ifconfig

Sometimes my eth0 is not detected, but my eth1 and wlan0 are. I am not quite sure why this happens, so I end up either switching my ethernet cable to eth1 or use wlan0 until I restart.

.:B:. · 2009-03-24 19:18:09

Eth0 is most probably a wired connection, so if you don't have it connected, why put it in your device array at all?

As you noticed yourself it will only slow down boot if it's not connected.

gabscic · 2009-03-24 19:27:17

Thanks for answering. Well, I think eth0 is being detected correctly. Here is the output for ifconfig:

eth0 Link encap: Ethernet Hwaddr 00:18:F3:87:97:41
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU: 1500 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:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:19

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:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0 Link encap: Ethernet Hwaddr 00:15:AF:09:BC:E7
inet addr: 192.168.0.100 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU: 1500 Metric: 1
RX packets:1903 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:615024 (606.6 Kb) TX bytes:1020 (1020.0 b)

wmaster0 Link encap: UNSPEC Hwaddr 00-15-AF-09-BC-E7-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU: 1500 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:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Well, I hope that can help. Searched the net and the forums, and every problem related to this is with people who are actually trying to use the eth0 interface for connection. In my case, I don't think I need it, I only need the wlan0. What I'm trying to do is get rid of eth0 while letting wlan0 work.

gabscic · 2009-03-24 19:31:35

Here's what I get when I comment out the eth0 entries in my rc.conf:

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A):
SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device

Then I do not have any active connection on the booted system; thus I have to connect manually.
B, that's exactly what I want. How can I take it from my devices array?
Thanks for the replies.

Last edited by gabscic (2009-03-24 19:35:17)

.:B:. · 2009-03-24 19:41:26

Either remove it or put an exclamation mark in front of it to leave it in the array but disable it (just like in the MODULES or DAEMONS array).

gabscic · 2009-03-24 19:50:33

Here's how my rc.conf looks like now:

# /etc/rc.conf
#eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MySpot key ABCDEFABCDEF1234567ABCDEFC"
INTERFACES=(wlan0)

Unfortunately, I'm still getting the same problem I described above. Here it is:

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A):
SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device

I cant understand this dependency on eth0. wlan0 won't work without it?

.:B:. · 2009-03-24 19:59:44

Use netcfg2 to set up your wireless, that gives you more possibilities than just rc.conf.

gabscic · 2009-03-25 04:02:54

Ok guys, after some more poking around and experimentation I managed to fix the problem. Don't know what exactly was it (seemed like a bug), but simply updating the entire system (by issuing "pacman -Syu") fixed it for good. Here's how my NETWORKING section in /etc/rc.conf looks like now:

# /etc/rc.conf (NETWORKING Section)

HOSTNAME="ArchPC"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MySpot key ABCDEFABCDEF1234567ABCDEFC"
interfaces=(wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)

After doing that I started getting only the following message after "Starting Network" on boot:

"Could not associate wlan0 - try increasing WIRELESS_TIMEOUT and check network is WEP or has no security"

By this time, I still had no working connection on bootup. With my poker face (Lady Gaga would be proud) did some more poking around and found that the above message was due to a code part in /etc/rc.d/network, which would break the connection and show me such message. The solution would be quite simple:

Comment out the following portion of code on /etc/rc.d/network:

bssid=`iwgetid $1 -ra`
if [[ "$bssid" = "00:00:00:00:00:00" ]]; then
printhl "Could not associate $1 - try increasing WIRELESS_TIMEOUT and check network is WEP or has no security"
return 1
fi

After that, just rebooted the system and after about 10secs on Starting Network fase I booted into the system and had a functional wireless connection. Guess the real trick was actually updating the system. Well, hope this can help someone else in need. Special thanks to CheesyBeef and B for the replies in times of need.

broch · 2009-04-26 15:05:37

I have found that much faster and less problematic way of starting wireless is from user account (as a part of autologin).
Because wireless requires much more time than wired to settle, then starting wireless for rc.conf will slowdown system. If you have multiuser system, it would be better probably ro start this from rc.local with delay.

Eth0 is most probably a wired connection, so if you don't have it connected, why put it in your device array at all?

in my case:
1) wireless at home
2) wired at work
3) vpn at work (depending on location)
As you see one may need both wireless and wired setup working.

jlimon · 2009-05-23 14:48:31

@gabscic:

Thank you so much for your insight. I had to comment out the same bit of code from the rc.d/network script to get my wireless network to connect also.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-24 18:09:50

[SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#2 2009-03-24 19:00:48

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#3 2009-03-24 19:18:09

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#4 2009-03-24 19:27:17

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#5 2009-03-24 19:31:35

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#6 2009-03-24 19:41:26

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#7 2009-03-24 19:50:33

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#8 2009-03-24 19:59:44

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#9 2009-03-25 04:02:54

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#10 2009-04-26 15:05:37

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

#11 2009-05-23 14:48:31

Re: [SOLVED] Issue with eth0 (eth0: timed out)

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