Hello everyone,
I've also posted this onto the Network support forums but figured I'd shoot it to the mailing list as well.
I recently purchased a ECS GF7100PVT-M motherboard and now I'm wishing I'd investigated driver support a little better before I did! I was able to get Centos 5.1 XEN Kernel installed but have been having a helluva time getting the on board NIC going. The MB is running a nForce 630i chipset and has the nic card listed as a Realtek 8111B. I've downloaded what I believe to be the latest Realtek drivers and if I do an lsmod I can see the r8168 module present. I've tried adding the line alias eth0 r8168 to my /etc/modprobe.conf file but it hasn't gotten me anywhere, I've also tried with Nvidia's forcedeth module to no avail.
Does anyone have some ideas of what I could try next? Do I need a newer version of the forcedeth driver? Is this chipset not going to work with Centos 5.1? Is it a Xen related issue? lspci shows "Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07dc (rev a2)"
Any thoughts/pointers would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
David
David Levinger wrote on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:30:34 -0800:
I've also tried with Nvidia's forcedeth module to no avail.
This driver is not from Nvidia! It's a back-engineered driver and doesn't necessarily support the latest hardware. Check the Nvidia site (not the Realtek site!) for the latest Linux drivers. You will have to recompile the kernel module with each updated kernel.
Do I need a newer version of the forcedeth driver?
You could check their website if the latest version supports what the current Centos 5 version doesn't (yet).
Read the thread from Dec. 28 starting with MID 1779.10.1.1.17.1198860842.squirrel@www.arcoscom?
Kai
Hey Kai,
I tried downloading the latest driver's from NVidia's site here: http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nforce/1.23/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.23.zip However, the RPMs that are provided are compiled for a specific kernel and don't work with the latest Centos 5.1 kernel. They also provide a .c file for compile but no makefile. I'm going to try and figure that out.
Fedora 8, however, works right out of the box, and detects everything, except if you want to run Xen (which I do) and then the nic is once again not detected. I'll post more when I figure out more.
Thanks,
david
On Dec 30, 2007 7:31 AM, Kai Schaetzl maillists@conactive.com wrote:
David Levinger wrote on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:30:34 -0800:
I've also tried with Nvidia's forcedeth module to no avail.
This driver is not from Nvidia! It's a back-engineered driver and doesn't necessarily support the latest hardware. Check the Nvidia site (not the Realtek site!) for the latest Linux drivers. You will have to recompile the kernel module with each updated kernel.
Do I need a newer version of the forcedeth driver?
You could check their website if the latest version supports what the current Centos 5 version doesn't (yet).
Read the thread from Dec. 28 starting with MID 1779.10.1.1.17.1198860842.squirrel@www.arcoscom?
Kai
-- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Jan 2, 2008 10:21 PM, David Levinger iskondi@gmail.com wrote:
Hey Kai,
I tried downloading the latest driver's from NVidia's site here: http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nforce/1.23/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.23.zip However, the RPMs that are provided are compiled for a specific kernel and don't work with the latest Centos 5.1 kernel. They also provide a .c file for compile but no makefile. I'm going to try and figure that out.
Hi all, Try to use something like:
$ cat ./NV_Linux_DRV_PKG_v1.23/RHEL5/source/Makefile obj-m := forcedeth.o sata_nv.o
KDIR := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build PWD := $(shell pwd)
default: $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules
Regards,
David Levinger wrote on Wed, 2 Jan 2008 12:21:46 -0800:
I tried downloading the latest driver's from NVidia's site here: http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nforce/1.23/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.23.zip However, the RPMs that are provided are compiled for a specific kernel and don't work with the latest Centos 5.1 kernel.
After some looking around I found this page http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.23.html and assume that's where you found this file. Last year they still provided their own proprietary drivers in those *.run files you find here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_169.07.html It seems these contain only the display drivers now. :-( and forcedeth is now the "official" driver. I see that the provided kernel module is supposed to support RHEL 5.0, so I guess you just need to wait a bit until they release a version for 5.1. There's also an external discussion forum at nvnews.net
They also provide a .c file
for compile but no makefile. I'm going to try and figure that out.
Well, tried just compiling directly with gcc?
Fedora 8, however, works right out of the box,
of course. You *do* know the difference between CentOS/RHEL and Fedora?
Kai
I haven't tried compiling directly with gcc, mostly because I don't know the right way to go about it, although a co-worker of mine is going to try and help me out with that tomorrow. (Going to bring the system into work). I know that Fedora 8 is much more the bleeding edge and assumed it would have more support for newer hardware, hence why I tried it.
I only have basic understandings of the differences between the versions but I think it is something like this:
RHEL - Version sold by Redhat, not the latest and greatest but solid Centos - Same as above by re-released GNU Public License style Fedora - Much more bleeding edge, but updated quite frequently
Please feel free to let me know more if there are more specific differences that might aid my understandings :-)
I appreciate all the feedback guys!
Also, Laurentiu Coica, when I try and run make against the Makefile example that you sent over it says there is "nothing to do for default" but I'm sure I'm doing something stupid. I'm going to bring the system into work tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to get farther with the aid of my coworking being able to see what it is that I'm doing wrong. I'd much prefer to figure out what I need to do to get Centos 5.1 functional then go with Fedora 8, but we'll see how far I get.
Once again, thanks to both of you and everyone else that took the time to read, I'm learning a lot :-)
David
Laurentiu Coica
On Jan 2, 2008 1:31 PM, Kai Schaetzl maillists@conactive.com wrote:
David Levinger wrote on Wed, 2 Jan 2008 12:21:46 -0800:
I tried downloading the latest driver's from NVidia's site here:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nforce/1.23/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.23.zip
However, the RPMs that are provided are compiled for a specific kernel
and
don't work with the latest Centos 5.1 kernel.
After some looking around I found this page http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.23.html and assume that's where you found this file. Last year they still provided their own proprietary drivers in those *.run files you find here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_169.07.html It seems these contain only the display drivers now. :-( and forcedeth is now the "official" driver. I see that the provided kernel module is supposed to support RHEL 5.0, so I guess you just need to wait a bit until they release a version for 5.1. There's also an external discussion forum at nvnews.net
They also provide a .c file
for compile but no makefile. I'm going to try and figure that out.
Well, tried just compiling directly with gcc?
Fedora 8, however, works right out of the box,
of course. You *do* know the difference between CentOS/RHEL and Fedora?
Kai
-- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
David Levinger wrote on Wed, 2 Jan 2008 13:47:47 -0800:
Please feel free to let me know more if there are more specific differences
that might aid my understandings :-)
That's quite correct, just wanted to make sure you understood the differences ;-)
Also, Laurentiu Coica, when I try and run make against the Makefile example
that you sent over it says there is "nothing to do for default"
Did you read the README.TXT? I just downloaded the zip and had a look at the content. The README.TXT tells me 1. that the driver doesn't seem to support your chipset and 2. explains how to compile (at the end of the file). Because of no. 1 I guess your best bet is going to that forum and get help from there.
Kai
Hey Kai,
I did read the README.txt file and at the end it does indeed talk about compiling the file, and if I knew enough about how all of this works it might have made more sense... What it says is, "For forcedeth.ko, just copy the forcedeth.c and Makefile to the same directory then make it." However there was no Makefile included... so that pretty much ended up stopping me in my tracks there.
And I agree that it didn't /seem/ to support my Chipset, but the Realtek Driver which should support it doesn't seem to work either, and on Fedora 8 it is using a newer version of the forcedeth driver so I figured I'd give it a go. I have a feeling I'm going to end up returning this board for a Intel based Chipset and see if I have better luck with that.
Thanks for all your assistance, I truly appreciate it.
David
On Jan 3, 2008 4:21 AM, Kai Schaetzl maillists@conactive.com wrote:
David Levinger wrote on Wed, 2 Jan 2008 13:47:47 -0800:
Please feel free to let me know more if there are more specific
differences that might aid my understandings :-)
That's quite correct, just wanted to make sure you understood the differences ;-)
Also, Laurentiu Coica, when I try and run make against the Makefile
example that you sent over it says there is "nothing to do for default"
Did you read the README.TXT? I just downloaded the zip and had a look at the content. The README.TXT tells me 1. that the driver doesn't seem to support your chipset and 2. explains how to compile (at the end of the file). Because of no. 1 I guess your best bet is going to that forum and get help from there.
Kai
-- Kai Schätzl, Berlin, Germany Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
David Levinger wrote on Thu, 3 Jan 2008 12:29:13 -0800:
I did read the README.txt file and at the end it does indeed talk about compiling the file, and if I knew enough about how all of this works it might have made more sense... What it says is, "For forcedeth.ko, just copy the forcedeth.c and Makefile to the same directory then make it." However there was no Makefile included...
but there is one!
NV_Linux_DRV_PKG_v1.23/RHEL5/source/Makefile
as mentioned by Laurentiu. Copy that in the directory where forcedeth.c resides (or do it the other way around or copy both in a new directory).
And I agree that it didn't /seem/ to support my Chipset, but the Realtek Driver which should support it doesn't seem to work either, and on Fedora 8 it is using a newer version of the forcedeth driver so I figured I'd give it a go.
That driver is from March or so. I really doubt it supports your chipset. But if I were in the same situation I'd probably try, anyway, yes ;-)
I have a feeling I'm going to end up returning this board for a Intel
based Chipset and see if I have better luck with that.
Did you try that nvnews.net forum yet? Maybe it's really that you need a Realtek driver and just somehow got the wrong one. They should know.
Good luck.
Kai
-
David Levinger -
Kai Schaetzl -
Laurentiu Coica