Adding a second NIC

[Karsten Breivik_1]

Greetings Cosmonauts

I am trying to add a second NIC to my machine in order to use it as a router and packet sniffer.

However, I have problems getting the second NIC working:

[root@ast-apd03 network-scripts]# /etc/init.d/network restart
Shutting down interface eth0: [ OK ]
Shutting down loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth0: [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth1: 3c59x device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
[FAILED]
[root@ast-apd03 network-scripts]#

As you can see, it fails. The content of /etc/modprobe.conf is

alias eth0 e100
alias eth1 3c59x
alias scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-intel8x0 index=0
remove snd-intel8x0 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore
-remove snd-intel8x0
alias usb-controller uhci-hcd




The content of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 (which works fine) is:


DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
BROADCAST=134.xx.125.255
HWADDR=00:50:8B:F7:A7:A5
IPADDR=134.xx.125.177
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=134.xx.125.0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
GATEWAY=134.xx.125.129

while the content of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 is:

# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
TYPE=Ethernet
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPADDR=192.168.0.1



The relevant part of lspci -v shows me

02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation: Unknown device ffff (rev 78)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1800 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 20000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2


lsmod gives

[root@ast-apd03 network-scripts]# lsmod
Module Size Used by
mga 66241 1
drm 71765 2 mga
parport_pc 27909 1
lp 12937 0
parport 35593 2 parport_pc,lp
autofs4 19653 2
rfcomm 38745 0
l2cap 25921 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 48069 4 rfcomm,l2cap
sunrpc 141437 1
dm_mod 57181 0
video 16197 0
button 6737 0
battery 9541 0
ac 4933 0
ipv6 249761 10
uhci_hcd 32465 0
hw_random 5589 0
snd_intel8x0 32929 1
snd_ac97_codec 88637 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2497 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_dummy 3781 0
snd_seq_oss 31809 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7105 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 49617 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 9037 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 50545 0
snd_mixer_oss 17985 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 87493 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 25029 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 54437 11 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 9889 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10697 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
3c59x 41449 0
e100 36545 0
mii 5313 2 3c59x,e100
floppy 61957 0
ext3 129993 1
jbd 57813 1 ext3
aic7xxx 149749 0
scsi_transport_spi 21185 1 aic7xxx
sd_mod 18625 0
scsi_mod 135529 3 aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi,sd_mod
[root@ast-apd03 network-scripts]#


I still cannot find out where the "...eth1 does not seem to be present..." comes from.

The system is Fedora Core 4 (2.6.14-1.1653_FC4) running on a Compaq Deskpro PC.

I am currently concidering pouring diesel over it, but perhaps someone has a better idea...

[Rick Garland · Accepted solution]

Av gas may work better - burn hotter.

I would begin by looking at the 3Com drivers. They are notorious.

[Ivan Ferreira]

If you run ifconfig -a can you see the eth1 interface?

I can see the 3c59x module loaded, but unused. Try with another 3cXXX module.

How the device was added, manually or by kudzu?

[Bill Thorsteinson]

Try moving the 3com to another slot. It
may be sharing the IRQ with another
incompatible device.
Check the IRQ list to see which devices
are on IRQ 10.
I had a similar problem installing multiple
ethernet cards on a PC. Changing slots
changed the IRQs and resolved the problem.

[Alan_152]

Are you sure that the 2nd nic is a 3c590? More common installs are 3c509 (isa) and 3c905 (pci) models.

[Matti_Kurkela]

Alan, the module name "3c59x" is a historical artifact.
The module actually handles most current 3com NICs of both 3c5xx and 3c9xx series.

The "Unknown device ffff (rev 78)" part in the lspci output worries me a bit. There is no known product from 3com with a PCI device ID of "ffff". In addition, in some cases the device ID of "ffff" may be an indication of a hardware fault.

Karsten: please check that the card is seated properly in its slot. If that does not solve the problem, can you test the card in another card slot or another computer to see if it works at all?

[Karsten Breivik_1]

Thank you all for your time. Ivan. ifconfig does not show the card. The drivers was added manually with modprobe and it did not work. Also tried removing /etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/sysconfig/hwconf, and then running kudzu to rebuild the files. Also followed Bills suggestion on changing slots. This changed to IRQ from 10 to 5, but still nothing.

Rick, I looked into the Beckers developed drivers. On his site, I came across this mail archive

http://www.scyld.com/pipermail/vortex/2002-June.txt

verifying Mattis consern. It is suggested the error may be caused by the EEPROM being erased on the 3C905C-TX. However I did not verify by trying it out on win2k or anything like that.

I then dived into the box of retired NIC's in the lab and pulled what seems to be an Intel e100 based something. Popped it in and it came right up.

I am on my way to the parking lot. 3Com card in one hand and diesel can in the other.