[CentOS] Server Install Eth0 & Eth1 not working

Mon Jan 15 23:40:59 UTC 2007
Karl R. Balsmeier <karl at klxsystems.net>

Matthew Martz wrote:

>On Mon, January 15, 2007 5:03 pm, Ed Morrison wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi Everyone:
>>
>>I installed CentOS 4.4 on a new Dell 2950 using the server cd.  No
>>errors during the installation and no errors on bootup when loading the
>>Eth0 or Eth1 interfaces.  I currently have iptables stopped and selinux
>>disabled.  The interfaces have been given a static ip (192.168.1.x).
>>the subnet is 255.255.255.0 and the gateway is 192.168.1.1.  I can not
>>ping any device on my network including the gateway.  I can ping
>>127.0.0.1 and the 192.168.1.x.  After trying to ping another device
>>ifconfig will show that on ifcfg-lo transmit and receive packets of 389
>>or some other number depending on how many ping packets were sent.
>>Ifcfg-th0 or Ifcfg-eth1 will not show any TX or RX packets.
>>
>>The box was ordered to support RH from Dell.  The NIC is an embedded
>>dual port Broadcom NetXtreme II5708 GigabitEthernet NIC. I've replaced
>>all network cables and the ports to where they connect into the switch
>>and even a different switch and it still will not show me any love.
>>
>>Any ideas would be welcome!
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Ed
>>    
>>
>
>Have you set one NIC to not start on boot, reboot and then see if it works?
>
>Test with only one NIC in the equation and see how it turns out.
>
>  
>
also check to make sure their hardware addresses are not the same, 
sometimes as an admin I see folks copy/paste network settings from one 
card to another in the console via an editor or cp or mv command, and 
the hardware address gets cat'd in by mistake.

also just use the ifdown and ifup commands and tail -f /var/log/messages 
as you do so.  if that doesn't work you've already seen the driver and 
other recommendations, -putting in a spare NIC for a server is useful if 
the testing shows your onboard broadcomms are being iffy.  the dells I 
work on have two broadcomms and one intel -any luck with the 10/100 
intel nic on there?

ifdown eth0 ifdown eth1 ifdown eth2
ifup eth0 ifup eth1

you've also seen the mayhem with port#'s not matching actual hardware 
#'s, so maybe skip to watching the reboot dmesg output by doing

dmesg | less  and scanning for the hardware

also do:

lspci

that should show you those cards sitting on the board, if not, then you 
have a firmware/bios/hardware driver issue.  try updating to another 
newer kernel see if that helps.  get the dell tool johnny hughes 
mentioned, or even go to broadcomm and see if there's a linux driver 
-perhaps the broadcomm nic type your dell has only works with wintel -my 
own vendors have slipped before when telling me a server is linux ready 
-only to find out they didn't vet this info with their hardware/assembly 
dept.

if that turns out to be the case, you should catapult cows at them.

-karlski