[NTLUG:Discuss] Troubleshooting a network connection
LEROY TENNISON
leroy_tennison at prodigy.net
Wed May 10 23:53:56 CDT 2006
Thank you for your lengthy reply, I appreciate it. I guess I should have done a little more checking before I switched. I'll explain what I found (with more questions) in a separate email.
Robert Pearson <e2eiod at gmail.com> wrote: On 5/9/06, LEROY TENNISON wrote:
> I'm in the middle of installing CentOS 4.2 right now
> and have run into a major problem. I have two NICs in
> my PC which worked fine under Red Hat 9. Now the NIC
> (a sis900) which accesses the Internet and gets a DHCP
> address from my SMC Barracade DSL "router" doesn't get
> an IP address under CentOS. I know the hardware is
> good because this is coming to you from Knoppix 3.2
> booted on the "problem" hardware. I'm going to try
> and check the versions of the sis900 driver being
> used, I've stopped the firewall temporarily to make
> sure that wasn't an issue. I've tried setting the IP
> address and mask with ifconfig as well as the gateway
> with route to see if I could ping (without success).
>
> What else can I try? Any easy way to check driver
> versions? Thanks in advance for any and all help.
FWIW... since I am sure you can Google as well or better than I...
The CentOS Bug report
<>
ID Category Severity Reproducibility
0001072 [CentOS-4] kernel minor always
DateSubmitted LastUpdate
10-28-05 21:17 10-28-05 21:17
Description:
Network configuration would not work, either for automatic DHCP
configuration or for manual configuration, unless sytem is booted
using "acpi=off".
The network card is a Silicon Integrated Systems [SIS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet.
Following is a reading of the /var/log/messages:
kernel: irq 3: nobody cared! (screaming interrupt?)
kernel: irq 3: Please try booting with acpi=off and report a bug
kernel: [] __report_bad_irq+0x3a/0x77
kernel: [] note_interrupt+0x191/0x1b7
kernel: [] do_IRQ+0x209/0x2bf
kernel: [] common_interrupt+0x18/0x20
kernel: handlers:
kernel: [] (sis900_interrupt+0x0/0x167 [sis900])
kernel: Disabling IRQ 3
kernel: eth0: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex
Alexander Heinz, working on DRBL, reported a similar bug---
<>
[Text of message]
> For the new version, 3.10-pre20, I encountered a problem now, my client
> machine uses sis900 chip, and it still can not run simple menu with
> pxelinux in this version (3.10-pre20).
> It's same situation as I encountered when I used syslinux 3.07, 3.08 and
> 3.09.
What is the last version of syslinux that works for you (if there is one)?
I own a client with the SIS900 chip and I can confirm the problem with
3.10pre20 (I have never used this PC for network booting and that is why
I have never tested older versions).
My client:
motherboard: unknown brand.
cpu: Duron 1GHz
AMIBIOS Version 1.21.06
SIS900: Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build082)
I am pretty sure that the PXE Rom is broken. Using a 3Com NIC (MBA 4.30)
in the same PC works without problems.
> For 3.10-pre20, I compiled in Fedora Core 1, and gcc is "gcc (GCC) 3.3.2
> 20031022 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.2-1)".
Please use the pre-compiled versions that come with the syslinux package.
However there *IS* a workaround (=chain loading etherboot):
- go to rom-o-matic.org/5.4.0
- choose the right "NIC/ROM type:" (sis900:sis900 for my PC)
- ROM output format: PXE bootstrap loader format ROM Image (.zpxe)
- select "get rom"
- save the file (eb-5.4.0-sis900.zpxe) and copy it to your tftproot
now update your dhcpd.conf (assuming all your SIS900 Clients have the
MAC vendor prefix 00:07:95);
if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 3) = "PXE" {
if substring (hardware, 1, 3) = 00:07:95 {
filename "/tftpboot/eb-5.4.0-sis900.zpxe";
}
}
Cheers
Alex
[End Text]
Steven Shiau DRBL Bug Fix...
[Text message]
1. SIS900 network card:
sis900 client does NOT work with pxelinux >=3.07 simple menu, you
WON'T see this:
http://drbl.nchc.org.tw/redhat/desktop/images/syslinux_drbl.jpg
The client will hang before this.
It's reported to:
http://syslinux.zytor.com/archives/2005-April/005030.html
There *IS* a workaround (Thanks to Alexander Heinz for providing
that in syslinux mailing list):
1. Install DRBL version 1.5.8-1 or newer one, finish all the setup.
2. Find your SIS900 Clients' MAC vendor prefix, for example, if
their MAC addresses are AA:BB:CC:DD:XX:YY, the MAC vendor prefix is
AA:BB:CC.
3. Modify the file /etc/dhcpd.conf (RH-like) or
/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf (Debian based):
---------------------------------------------------------
#if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 3) = "PXE" {
# # **************************************************************
# # ***MODIFY*** the MAC vendor prefix of client network card here.
# # **************************************************************
# # For annoying sis900 network card, maybe it's 00:07:95, 00:0C:6E...
# if substring (hardware, 1, 3) = 00:0C:6E {
# # eb-5.4.1-etherboot-pci.zpxe is a all-in-one pxe image,
works for most NIC.
# # sis900.zpxe is specially for sis900 NIC.
# # Try either one.
# #filename = "eb-5.4.1-etherboot-pci.zpxe";
# filename = "sis900.zpxe";
# }
#}
---------------------------------------------------------
uncomment the "if block", and change the MAC vendor prefix to
yours. In this example, we use AA:BB:CC like this:
---------------------------------------------------------
if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 3) = "PXE" {
# **************************************************************
# ***MODIFY*** the MAC vendor prefix of client network card here.
# **************************************************************
# For annoying sis900 network card, maybe it's 00:07:95, 00:0C:6E...
if substring (hardware, 1, 3) = AA:BB:CC {
# eb-5.4.1-etherboot-pci.zpxe is a all-in-one pxe image,
works for most NIC.
# sis900.zpxe is specially for sis900 NIC.
# Try either one.
#filename = "eb-5.4.1-etherboot-pci.zpxe";
filename = "sis900.zpxe";
}
}
---------------------------------------------------------
4. restart dhcpd service, like "/etc/init.d/dhcpd restart"
(RH-like) or "/etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart".
5. Start your annoying sis900 box! It should work now.
[End Text message]
HTH...
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