Problems with Ubuntu & Network Card

sound_wave

Hi all,
After installing Suse 10 on my laptop and really getting a feel for Linux I decided to install Ubuntu on my desktop to see what it was really like. Installation went fine, although the installer could not find my network card, no probs I thought I'll just reconfig it later. Only problem is that I can't seem to be able to install it.

The Nic is a D-Link Rtl 8139 PCI card.
When i run ifconfig there is no sign of eth0, only lo

when I run ifconfig eth0 I get the following:

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

typing ifconfig:

lo                     Link encap:Local loopback
                        Inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
                        int6 addr: ::1/128 Scope: Host
                        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric: 1
                        RX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
                        TX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
                         collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
                        RX bytes:3363202 (3.2 MiB) TX bytes: 3633202 (3.2 MiB)

typing ifconfig -a

lo                     Link encap:Local loopback
                        Inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
                        int6 addr: ::1/128 Scope: Host
                        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric: 1
                        RX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
                        TX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
                         collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
                        RX bytes:3363202 (3.2 MiB) TX bytes: 3633202 (3.2 MiB)

sit0                 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
                       NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:0
                       RX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
                       TX packets: 37083 erroes: 0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
                         collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
                       RX bytes: 0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
                       

So anyone know whats going on with this? How can i get Ubuntu to recognise my NIC?

Snowbat

Do a modprobe 8139too and then check if ifconfig eth0 works.

scojones

Snowbat wrote:

Do a modprobe 8139too and then check if ifconfig eth0 works.

That'll obviously only work if the 8139too module was compiled during installation, if it didn't detect the card then it might not be. I dunno, give it a go OP, it's worth a shot.

niallb

This is ubuntu - the standard kernel will have that driver.

If it still doesn't work, restart, and interrupt the boot process.
Press e to edit the bootloader configuration.

You'll see a few lines from the grub config on how to boot ubuntu.
On the first line - the one starting with kernel, press e again.

Add the word noapic at the end of that line, and press enter.

Now press b to boot.
It's a possibility that this will now just work, google 'noapic' for why - it's involved.
If it does, you have two choices.

• Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and permanently add 'noapic' to the line.
• Try your realtek card in different slots, preferably top or bottom.

Leaving 'noapic' set can cause small performance issues, and in the future
may cause you further problems with kernel updates, so at some stage
think about changing the card. It will probably work perfectly in another
machine. If you have another machine with a different card, try swapping them.

Good luck,
NiallB

sound_wave

Thanks for the replies lads. im in college now, so I'll have to wait to get home before I can tackle this again.
I'll report back with any success or lack there of.