# (Very) weird networking problem [SOLVED]

## LordArthas

Hi all!

After I finally managed to install Gentoo on my AMD64, I'm running into a very weird network problem, which happens only with the booted system (kernel 2.6.9-r1) and not with the LiveCD (kernel 2.6.7).

I tried two network interfaces, which give the same exact problem: a Marvell 8001 (sk98lin kernel module) built in the K8NS Pro mainboard, and a Realtek 8139 (8139too kernel module) PCI card. The 2.6.9 kernel compiled by me sees and configures both of them without any problem, and I can ping my own LAN IP address (192.168.1.101) without any problem. However, when I try to ping another host on the LAN I just get:

```

Destination host unreachable

```

The card configuration seems to be really OK, but here's the pertinent lines of ifconfig eth0:

```

inet addr: 192.168.1.101   Bcast: 192.168.1.255    Mask: 255.255.255.0

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

```

All the RX-packet, TX-packet, collision and bytes counts are at 0.

route -n prints out the following:

```

Destination      Gateway            Genmask           Flag    Metric  Ref       Use         Iface

192.168.1.0      0.0.0.0             255.255.255.0    U         0           0     0      eth0

127.0.0.0       127.0.0.1           255.0.0.0         UG      0           0     0      lo

0.0.0.0         192.168.1.100       0.0.0.0           UG      0           0     0      eth0

```

Sorry for the poor formatting, but I have to copy by hand as (of course) I've got network access from the machine.

Cables etc are just fine because, as said, if I boot with the LiveCD and use the same configuration everything works. The only (noticeable) difference between the two situations is the release of the kernel: 2.6.9 instead of 2.6.7. I also wouldn't think of a problem with the driver, as it gives the exact same error with two very different network cards.

Thanks in advance everybody, Michele.Last edited by LordArthas on Wed Nov 03, 2004 10:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Anarcho

Which other settings of the kernel did you set in networking-options?

Did you enabled multi-cast for example?

Please post the rest of the settings!

----------

## LordArthas

Hi!

 *Anarcho wrote:*   

> Which other settings of the kernel did you set in networking-options?

 

This is the relevant data in my /etc/conf.d/net (the rest is all commented out):

```

iface_eth0="192.168.1.101 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0"

gateway="eth0/192.168.1.100"

```

I also tried to enable the card by hand (both eth0 and eth1), using directly ifconfig and route exactly as I did with the LiveCD. Nothing to do: in the LiveCD it works, and in the system it doesn't ping external hosts.  :Sad: 

Thanks, Michele.

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## Anarcho

That's not what I was talking about. I need your kernel-config, not the system-config.

What you enabled while in /usr/src/linux make menuconfig.

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## LordArthas

Hi!

 *Anarcho wrote:*   

> That's not what I was talking about. I need your kernel-config, not the system-config.
> 
> What you enabled while in /usr/src/linux make menuconfig.

 

Ops, sorry.  :Wink:  My full .config file is here. I think the relevant part is the following:

```

#

# Networking support

#

CONFIG_NET=y

#

# Networking options

#

CONFIG_PACKET=y

# CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP is not set

CONFIG_NETLINK_DEV=y

CONFIG_UNIX=y

CONFIG_NET_KEY=y

CONFIG_INET=y

CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST=y

CONFIG_IP_ADVANCED_ROUTER=y

CONFIG_IP_MULTIPLE_TABLES=y

CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_FWMARK=y

CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_MULTIPATH=y

CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_VERBOSE=y

# CONFIG_IP_PNP is not set

CONFIG_NET_IPIP=m

CONFIG_NET_IPGRE=m

CONFIG_NET_IPGRE_BROADCAST=y

# CONFIG_IP_MROUTE is not set

# CONFIG_ARPD is not set

CONFIG_SYN_COOKIES=y

CONFIG_INET_AH=m

CONFIG_INET_ESP=m

CONFIG_INET_IPCOMP=m

CONFIG_INET_TUNNEL=m

```

Thank you for your help!

Michele.

----------

## LordArthas

I solved it!

The very strange network problem was caused by the fact that I compiled the kernel with multiprocessor support, and I have a single processor machine. I did that by mistake (oh, I'm so inattetive at times...  :Wink: ), and didn't realize it.

However, since the rest of the system worked fine, I had troubles connecting the network card problem to the multiprocessor kernel option. Anyhow, now everything works fine!

Thanks all, Michele.

----------

## jkroon

Hehe, I'm glad I found this.  The amd64 2004.3 livecd has smp support compiled in on the 2.6.9-r1 kernel  :Smile: .  Guess I'll just have to use usb drive to transfer distfiles until I can get into a custom kernel ...

----------

## nod

 *jkroon wrote:*   

> Hehe, I'm glad I found this.  The amd64 2004.3 livecd has smp support compiled in on the 2.6.9-r1 kernel .  Guess I'll just have to use usb drive to transfer distfiles until I can get into a custom kernel ...

 

oh man.  This problem plagued me all weekend, and I just decided to check the boards.  I trust this has been filed as a bug somewhere?

Thanks for posting your solution.

----------

## etnoy

Seems like a stinking bug. File a bugreport, please. That is not a valid behaviour at all.

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## nod

 *nod wrote:*   

>  *jkroon wrote:*   Hehe, I'm glad I found this.  The amd64 2004.3 livecd has smp support compiled in on the 2.6.9-r1 kernel .  Guess I'll just have to use usb drive to transfer distfiles until I can get into a custom kernel ... 
> 
> oh man.  This problem plagued me all weekend, and I just decided to check the boards.  I trust this has been filed as a bug somewhere?
> 
> Thanks for posting your solution.

 

Just an update.  I just figured out that if I boot from the livecd with noapic, I can then modprobe sk98lin and the nic works flawlessly.

If I get a chance later (i'm finally doing the install!!) i'll post a bug on it.

----------

## jkroon

So it seems it is the apic and not smp?  Or perhaps the combination of the two?

----------

