Arch Linux

secdroid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-11

Posts: 16

[SOLVED] no eth0 (PCMCIA) on new install

Ancient laptop that I'm trying to make useful.  Ethernet OK in other distros.

Installed archlinux-2009.08-core-i686.img by copying from pendrive to HD and
updating GRUB to boot the installer, using another Linux.  This laptop does not
have a working CD and can neither boot from, not provide BIOS support for, USB
storage devices.

System: PII 266 MHz, 192 MB RAM, Intel 440 BX chipset, Trident 9397 VGA,
ISA/IDE/USB/Bridge Intel 82371, CardBus TI PCI1250, Ethernet Realtek
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (in PCMCIA slot)

Currently, PCMCIA eth0 nonfuntional with Arch (both live FTP installer image
and Core i686 .img installed to HD).  Ehternet works fine with multi-booted
Tiny Core Linux and Slitaz Linux.  Previously worked OK with Damn Small Linux.
This is the only network port on the laptop.

(messages.log) yenta_cardbus initialization apparently successful.  After
the yenta/TI/CardBus messages, I get:
"pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket1: pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 1"

boot message: "dhcpd: eth0: interface not found or invalid"

Suggestions?  Cockpit error? 

Last edited by secdroid (2009-12-05 00:28:46)

secdroid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-11

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] no eth0 (PCMCIA) on new install

Decided to RTFM and I appear to have a Catch22.

From http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Configuring_Network in the "Load the device module" section, we see:

Udev should detect your network card (NIC) module and load it automatically at startup. Otherwise, you will need to know which module is needed for your particular model:

hwdetect --show-net

Once you recognize which module to use, you can load it with:

# modprobe <modulename>

Nice idea, but "hwdetect" is not in root's path.  Rather, it appears to be found in "extra" http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/i686/hwdetect/
Not useful when you have no net...

Aha, the same page says:

Other common modules are 8139too for cards with the Realtek chipset or sis900 for SiS cards.

So, I did a "modprobe 8139too" and got back "8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.20."

So, I did /etc/rc.d/network restart and got back "dhcpd: eth0: interface not found or invalid" and "dhcpd: timed out"

Help!

secdroid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-11

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] no eth0 (PCMCIA) on new install

After googling for a solution to the Realtek issue, as well as the long UDEV...BUSY boot issues, I give up.  Tried all of the ACPI tricks suggested.  Most other distros patched the Realtek drivers back in the 2004-2005 timeframe.

Arch UDEV problems still seem to be unsolved for many folks.  My boot times are unacceptable.

This HW works well with DSL (2.4) TinyCore (2.6) and SliTaz (2.6).  Arch looks to be more trouble than its worth on this hardware.  I'm going to try Debian Lenny.

secdroid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-11

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] no eth0 (PCMCIA) on new install

Follow-up, in case it helps anyone in the future.

Debian Lenny installed smoothly.  I went to http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/ … media/gtk/ and copied the 'vmlinuz' and 'initrd.gz' files.  I then copied debian-503-i386-netinst.iso to the same partition, and updated GRUB to boot the Debian installer.  The Debian network-installer in that iso worked fine.  (This card/BIOS does not support PXE.)

FWIW, I think the problem was with the Arch CardBus TI PCI1250 driver.  The ethernet card was apparently detected, but I found no log evidence that the RTL8139 driver was ever able to connect to the card, even when invoked with modprobe

So, Arch has an issue with this hardware.  Given that we are talking about a 1998 laptop, it is extremely unlikely anyone would bother fixing the problem with such old hardware/driver issues.  Sometimes it is better to switch than fight.