How to use my Intel PRO/100 NIC?

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marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

How to use my Intel PRO/100 NIC?

#1 Post by marcerickson »

I have tried using Dougal's Network setup wizard and no Intel cards listed work. How do I specify the driver I downloaded from Intel's website and have on a USB stick?

I'm a newbie to Linux but am an experienced Windows administrator.

cthisbear
Posts: 4422
Joined: Sun 29 Jan 2006, 22:07
Location: Sydney Australia

#2 Post by cthisbear »

marcerickson:

Welcome to Puppy mate.

"""""""

" but am an experienced Windows administrator. "

So you know when you don't give us the full PC/laptop specs,

just >> Intel PRO/100 NIC? ....

it is not making it easy.

Also many new Puppies use Frisbee....no joke...
which connects you easily with wireless.

So supply your laptop model....

your exact Puppy version...as there are 100's

and we can make magic happen.

""""""

Again....welcome....and reply back please.

The Puppy forum here on Murga is an exceptionally helpful place,
so don't be put off.

Regards.....Chris.

marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

Laptop specs

#3 Post by marcerickson »

IBM ThinkPad 2647-27C 750 MHz PIII 128 MB RAM 15 GB HD.

Precise Puppy 5.4.1.

I can load the driver for the PCMCIA network card but not the built in wired connec tion - which is the topic of this post.

Thank you very much.

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#4 Post by tempestuous »

marcerickson, one of the most important things you need to know about Linux is that drivers need to be compiled for the exact kernel version, and kernel configuration, that you are running. Thus Linux drivers are rarely provided by vendors in final binary form.
The driver that you think you have from the Intel website, is actually source code. It's useless until you compile it, and this is not a trivial exercise.

And what you also need to understand is that hardware problems in Linux are most often not automatically solved by installing a new driver, as is the common case in Windows.

Now let's apply that basic information to your particular situation - the Intel PRO/100 is quite old, and the e100 Linux driver for it has been known to work for many years, with no significant updates.

So diagnosis is in order: please run this command -

Code: Select all

dmesg
and report any errors relating to ethernet detection, and how the e100 driver loads.
This information should be right at the end of the dmesg results.

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greengeek
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Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#5 Post by greengeek »

Hi Marc,

usually the driver for an old card such as your inbuilt NIC will already be built into the puppy kernel, so that it would not normally be necessary to load any additional driver. Does your NIC connector have any link lights on it, and if so do they appear normal? (and does the router light up a port indicator when the NIC is connected?)

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Monsie
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Joined: Thu 01 Dec 2011, 07:37
Location: Kamloops BC Canada

Network setup

#6 Post by Monsie »

Hi marcerickson,

You have received some sage advice I note --especially from Chris and tempestuous. :)

Further to the post by tempestuous, you can filter out the extraneous information provided by the dmesg command by running this at the terminal instead:

Code: Select all

dmesg | grep eth0
I also note that your notebook is a Pentium lll system, but that you are running Precise Puppy. I am wondering if the newer kernel found in this Puppy has dropped support for some of the older hardware, hence your problem finding a driver for your ethernet card. That said, I will offer some more advice and recommend that you download and burn a copy of Wary Puppy because it is this breed that is designed for the older systems such as the Pentium lll models. I run Wary Puppy on my Pentium lll desktop... and, I just checked and found that indeed the e100 driver is available on my setup if needed.

Hope this helps,
Monsie
My [u]username[/u] is pronounced: "mun-see". Derived from my surname, it was my nickname throughout high school.

cthisbear
Posts: 4422
Joined: Sun 29 Jan 2006, 22:07
Location: Sydney Australia

#7 Post by cthisbear »

Specs: or close

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/ibm-thinkpa ... 00008.html

::::::::::::;

Cheat frugal.

When you get sorted with wireless....do a cheat frugal.

Copy the main >> .sfs file to the hard drive >>> in lowercase

and on your next cd boot, Puppy will boot from that instead
of the cd >>> sfs file.

it's like adding instant ram.

Every puppy from Puppy 2.02 could do this trick.

"""""""

tempestuous is our heavy duty network specialist...
go with his advice.

Early Wary Puppies might be the go.

http://bkhome.org/wary/

" Which kernel?
This is a problem area of course, as sometimes an older kernel
works on certain older hardware, and a newer kernel doesn't.

Also, we have some drivers, in particular for analog dialup
modems, that we cannot compile with recent kernels "

"""""

I would try this version.

Had a few bugs fixed.

File:wary-5.2.2.iso 133630 KB 17/11/2011 12:00:00 AM

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/wary-5.2.2/

::

The Puppy Wary >> sfs main file will look like this....

puppy_wary_5.2.sfs

If you copy that to the hard drive....be amazed at the speed.

"""""""

"Verdict
There's no denying that Wary Puppy is a great piece of software.
Thanks to its lightweight nature, it's an excellent choice for getting
some extra use out of discarded or near-forgotten hardware. "

http://www.itreviews.com/software/opera ... z2DK9xffDz

Chris.

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greengeek
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Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#8 Post by greengeek »

Does the onboard NIC work ok with other OS? Not dead or disabled in bios?

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ally
Posts: 1957
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Location: lincoln, uk
Contact:

#9 Post by ally »

I have 2 old t21's with similar spec that picked up lan using slacko 5.3.3 if it helps......

:)

marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

DMESG output

#10 Post by marcerickson »

I didn't know how far back to go - so here's a text file of the output.

marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

Does hardware work? Dunno.

#11 Post by marcerickson »

greengeek wrote:Does the onboard NIC work ok with other OS? Not dead or disabled in bios?
Don't know. I wiped out the Chinese Windows 2000 that was on it before testing - and it won't boot a larger live CD like Ubuntu because of the wear in the CD drive. I consider it fortunate that Puppy would boot and install.

As far as I can see, the built in NIC is fully enabled.

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#12 Post by tempestuous »

marcerickson wrote:I didn't know how far back to go - so here's a text file of the output.
Your attachment didn't work - the forum only accepts certain filetypes.
Run these two commands -

Code: Select all

dmesg > dmesg.txt
gzip dmesg.txt
This will give you a file called "dmesg.txt.gz" located in /root
which you can attach to the forum.

marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

Zip file attached

#13 Post by marcerickson »

I'm having trouble with the Puppy installation - so might have to reinstall. That's why I've provided the attachment as a .zip - hope it's not too much trouble. If so, I'll find an archiver that does gzip files.
Attachments
dmesg.zip
(10.96 KiB) Downloaded 969 times

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rcrsn51
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Location: Stratford, Ontario

Re: Zip file attached

#14 Post by rcrsn51 »

marcerickson wrote:I'm having trouble with the Puppy installation - so might have to reinstall..
1. What happens if you type the command "modprobe e100"?

2. Type the command "lspci -nn". What are the [vendor:product] ID codes for your NIC?

3. Boot off your Live CD using the boot option "puppy pfix=ram". Does your NIC get discovered?

tempestuous
Posts: 5464
Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#15 Post by tempestuous »

Your dmesg results appear truncated to me, but I do see some relevant lines -

Code: Select all

Loading kernel module for a network device with CAP_SYS_MODULE (deprecated).  Use CAP_NET_ADMIN and alias netdev-eth0 instead
mtrr: base(0xf2000000) is not aligned on a size(0x5000000) boundary
e100: Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver, 3.5.24-k2-NAPI
e100: Copyright(c) 1999-2006 Intel Corporation
So Puppy can "see" your ethernet device, and appears to be trying to load the e100 driver.
But this error message -
"Loading kernel module for a network device with CAP_SYS_MODULE (deprecated). Use CAP_NET_ADMIN and alias netdev-eth0 instead"
looks bad.
I Googled this error message, and only found situations where this revealed a total failure of the network driver, with no solution!
I have a gut feeling that the new kernel in Precise may have some regressions with older drivers. If so, this will only be fixed when the kernel developers fix this in upcoming kernel releases.

To avoid further speculation and frustration, I suggest you try an older Puppy version.
Slacko 5.3.x also has a relatively new kernel (although forum member ally reports success with Slacko and a T21 Thinkpad) so I recommend the most recent version of Puppy Lucid - 5.2.8
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pu ... 28.005.iso
This has the older, and reliable, 2.6.33.2 kernel.
Once booted to the 5.2.8 CD, you can run the Network Wizard and check your ethernet interface straight away, before committing to an installation.

On the subject of installation, I see you have only 128MB RAM, which is insufficient for a frugal install - you need to do a full HD installation. And it's important that you carefully partition and format your hard drive - I suggest a single 14.5GB partition formatted as ext3, and the remaining 500MB as linux swap partition.
Other forum members here can give you further guidance on how to do this - I only know old-fashioned "techie" methods.

marcerickson wrote:I'm having trouble with the Puppy installation - so might have to reinstall.
That's a telltale sign of incorrect HD partitioning/formatting.

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greengeek
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#16 Post by greengeek »

I would also recommend removing any pcmcia cards before booting, and also turning off any LAN (pxe) boot setting in the bios.

marcerickson
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Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

#17 Post by marcerickson »

OK - I reinstalled. I tried the version that someone here mentioned as well as Puppy 3.01 and could not get it to boot properly from the CD.

I'm giving up on the built in NIC for now.

marcerickson
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon 26 Nov 2012, 04:28

#18 Post by marcerickson »

I think the built in Intel NIC was defective - I gave up on it and put Windows XP on it. The Intel NIC still wouldn't work. It was an old laptop that was going to be used by a student so it didn't matter.

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