No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

rhfrommn · 2005-01-13 18:51:36

Hi All,

I've been lurking on the boards since I installed Arch on a old Pentium II machine last summer. I was pretty impressed how well it ran on crappy old hardware, so I am trying to put it on a much nicer Athlon 1200 box I recently aquired. But I am having problems with the internet connection after the install.

The new system doesn't have a ethernet card, so I am using a Linksys usb-to-ethernet adapter. According to this website:
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/cdetail10700.html
this adapter should work with Linux and uses a module called CDCEther.

After installing off the base CD I burned back in about June and fiddling with rc.conf to get it set up for dhcp, I was able to get on the internet. So I proceeded to do a pacman -Syu and rebooted once it was finished. After that boot I can no longer get to the internet at all. I can't even ping my linksys router which is the gateway. If I do ifconfig eth0 it says device not found, and if I do netstat -r it returns nothing at all.

I didn't add kernel26 to my IgnorePkg line in pacman.conf. Is it possible that the kernel got upgraded and now it can't load the module for my adapter? When I do a uname -a it says the kernel rev is 2.6.10, while before the pacman -Syu I think it was 2.6.3. I notice if I do modprobe CDCEther it says there is no such thing. I didn't try that before it broke though, I didn't have any reason to check it out since everything was working. But I assume it would have found the module then since I could get on the network just fine. . .

What is my best option here? Does anybody know how I can fix this situation, or should I just reinstall? And if I do reinstall should I use the ftp install instead of going off the CD like I did this time?

Thanks,
Ralph

sarah31 · 2005-01-13 19:02:44

It could be the module name was changed or the modules you were using have been compiled out of the package look at the kernel config file via the online web interface to arch's cvs. you could probably find out that way as well if the name changed.

Alternatively you can do the old google.com/linux search to see if anyone has had this problem and if there is a solution. (or you could buy and install an ethernet card they are cheap and easy to install)

rhfrommn · 2005-01-13 19:43:19

Hi Sarah31,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did spend several hours searching these forums, but most of the posts I found had to do with config file settings needed to get your network conneciton up. I couldn't find much on how to know if the module is actually there or not, they basically assumed that part was ok. Thanks for the suggestion to check the cvs, I'll see if I can figure out how to do that next .

Buying a card is also an option. My first arch box had a card with a realtek chip in it and that was pretty easy to set up. If I don't get this figured out I'll go that route. But first I wanted to see if I could learn how to fix it.

iBertus · 2005-01-13 20:03:39

As sarah said, the default kerenl config may not support USB networking. You can modify the config and rebuild the package using ABS if you want or you could reinstall the old kernel package from your base cd. I'd probably look into the ABS solution first.

rhfrommn · 2005-01-13 20:09:17

I found some new information after searching more on Google. I found a page with instructions on how to setup a USB cable modem in Linux, but I bet it applies to my situation as well. Apparently the CDCEther module has been folded into a module named "usbnet" in the 2.6 kernels. Maybe the older 2.6 kernel on that base CD had both still available, but 2.6.10 only uses usbnet and doesn't have CDCEther any more.

I'll try changing my modprobe.conf and rc.conf to use that usbnet module and see if that helps.

Here is a link to that information if anybody who reads this post is interested.
http://www.freewebs.com/linuxnet/CableUSBLinuxEn.html

rhfrommn · 2005-01-14 15:42:14

I have nailed down the problem more and found a workaround for now. I'll add the info here in case somebody else finds this post when working on a similar problem.

I tried changing CDCEther to usbnet in both modprobe.conf and rc.conf as that link I posted above suggested. That didn't help. After rebooting I still had no network connection even though lsmod showed the usbnet module was running.

So I left those files with usbnet in them and downgraded the kernel to the 2.6.3 version on my base install CD from last summer. After doing that and booting the USB to ethernet adapter is fine and I can get to the internet. So clearly it was the pacman -Syu upgrading the kernel that broke it, I just don't know why.

For now I have put kernel26 in my IgnorePkg line of pacman.conf so this won't happen again. I would guess if I figure out why it broke I could upgrade the kernel by recompiling or using ABS as people suggested above. But I'll wait till I have a little more experience and know more about why the newer kernel didn't work before I try that.

Thanks again to iBertus and sarah31 for the help.

gs · 2005-01-14 16:33:47

I upgraded the kernel but my loss of connection has happened on installing a usb memory stick and the laoding of the modules for that. Yes, the memory stick works but the internet connection crumbles on boot up. I use an on board network card, so in my case it seems that there is some spill over from the usb modules involved with memory stick.

As I sort this sort out, I may find some info which will help someone to come up with a crisper diagnosis.

Thanks everyone, because this thread is helpful to me.

Arch Linux

#1 2005-01-13 18:51:36

No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#2 2005-01-13 19:02:44

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#3 2005-01-13 19:43:19

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#4 2005-01-13 20:03:39

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#5 2005-01-13 20:09:17

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#6 2005-01-14 15:42:14

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

#7 2005-01-14 16:33:47

Re: No network after first pacman -Syu, don't know why

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