[WBEL-users] Re: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2 networking

[Bob Ramstad]

I answered my own question, thought I'd post the solution to the list,
haven't seen anyone post a solution, figured it would be good for the
archives.

I installed a 3Com 3C905B in the machine temporarily, and added to
/etc/modules.conf the line

alias eth0 3c59x

When I rebooted kudzu picked up the new card, and I configured it for
network access.

I then ran yum update to get the newest kernel, and newest
kernel-source.  I rebooted with the new kernel.

I started to compile a new kernel -- mostly to get to the menuconfig
step -- and inspected the setting for the forcedeth driver.  The
default for WBEL3 kernels is to not compile the forcedeth driver,
either included in the kernel or as a module.

So, I ended up compiling a new kernel with forcedeth as a module and
also with multiple SCSI luns on (I have a DAT changer on one server). 
After compiling and rebooting with the new kernel, kudzu prompted to
configure the nForce networking, and I was all set...  I configured
that, dumped in as root, shut networking down, moved ifcfg-eth1 to
ifcfg-eth0 and edited it, edited /etc/modules.conf and did a similar
swap, shut the computer down, removed the 3Com card, and rebooted. 
Voila!

I chose to install the 3Com card so I didn't have to compile a custom
kernel twice, but that might have been more efficient and less
confusing in the end... it would have been just as straightforward to
install kernel-source from the respin2 CD-ROM, compile a custom kernel
with forcedeth support, get the network working, yum update, then
compile another custom kernel once the update finished.  I thought the
3Com card would speed things up as I didn't have to compile the kernel
twice.  Not sure in the end if it was really faster or not, but it did
give me the warm fuzzies to know that if I couldn't get the forcedeth
to work that at least I had a working network card in the system.

Hope this helps somebody...

-- Bob

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 11:29:34 -0800, Bob Ramstad <rramstad at gmail.com> wrote:
> Let me amplify...  without knowing the gory details for certain, I was
> thinking that respin2 would include forcedeth...  notes from them
> indicate it is included in
> 
> Linux 2.4.26 (forcedeth 0.25)
> 
> Hence my confusion and expectation that respin2 wouldn't have any problems.
> 
> -- Bob
> 
> On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 10:56:25 -0800, Bob Ramstad <rramstad at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi there.  Relatively long time user of WBEL3 here.
> >
> > I'm in the process of upgrading the hardware on a number of servers
> > here and since we're going from Intel on the old servers to AMD on the
> > new servers I decided to install from scratch using respin2.
> >
> > Interestingly with respin2 the installer detects SATA drives just
> > fine, but the bizarre thing is that it doesn't detect any networking
> > components whatsoever.  It just skips the networking questions
> > completely.
> >
> > Once the system is up and running, I'm at a loss.  Of course I can log
> > in at the console, but there's no network access.  I've tried running
> > redhat-network-config (the low tech text as graphics version) but
> > after answering the questions nothing seems to happen.  eth0 doesn't
> > even show up when doing an ifconfig.
> >
> > The board has two Ethernet ports, one is a Marvell Gigabit port and
> > the other is an nVidia port.  I don't care which one works, I don't
> > need both of them working, but I was a bit surprised to see that
> > drivers for neither one made it into respin2.
> >
> > So, could someone out there please save me hours of dinking around
> > doing my own research?  I'm sure someone has been through this exact
> > scenario, and any / all help would be very very much appreciated.
> >
> > Left to my own devices, I'd probably download an RPM for a newer RHEL3
> > kernel as my understanding is that the latest and greatest isn't on
> > respin2... and maybe download kernel-unsupported... and try installing
> > both of those manually and seeing what happens.  Just a guess.
> >
> > I'm in digest mode, so if you could please CC me directly as well as
> > the list, that would really be swell.  Thanks again.
> >
> > -- Bob
> >
>