# troubles with nforce2 onboard network

## xtbasic

I am trying to get my onboard nforce2 nic to work under gentoo, but its not cooperating.  I have been using my intel pro 100+ just fine, and it works great, but i need the onboard nforce2 nic enabled to get my computer on another network seperate from the one that the intel is on.  I tried enabling the reverse engineered nforce net driver in the kernel, but it doesnt seem to have detected the new network interface, so i tried downloading the closed source nforce drivers that nvidia has on their website, i ran the set up and it bugged out and gave me an error saying it could not create the kernel module, long story short (or long story longer, you could say), here's the log:

 *Quote:*   

> nforce-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-nforce-installer.log'
> 
> creation time: Thu Feb 24 20:12:39 2005
> 
> option status:
> ...

 

so im not sure what to do, if this is generally a pain to install another network device after completing a stage3 install, it doesnt seem like it should be, and there's probably just something little that i missed when trying to use the forcedeth driver, but im still learning the ropes and i've never set up more than one nic in gentoo (or any linux dist) before.

any ideas, suggestions and help are welcomed  :Smile: 

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## CriminalMastermind

is the interface enabled in the bios?

that's an option on my motherboard bios and it is disabled by default.

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## xtbasic

the interface is enabled in the bios, i have both of the nics working in windows xp, its just not detecting the card in gentoo, should i try compiling the forcedeth as a module? or is there something else im missing..

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## CriminalMastermind

 *xtbasic wrote:*   

> should i try compiling the forcedeth as a module?

 

i would compile both of them in as modules.  that will let you control which becomes eth0 easily.  also, i believe in older kernels, if you had two network drivers compiled into the kernel, it would stop after finding the first nic... but i'm not sure if that is the case anymore.  modules would be playing it safe.

 *xtbasic wrote:*   

>  or is there something else im missing..

 

umm... compile them in the kernel as modules and load them

```
modprobe e100 (or whatever it is)

modprobe forcedeth
```

 check to see if you get all interfaces with 

```
ifconfig -a
```

 if not check 

```
dmesg
```

 to see where something died... that's about all i can think of at the moment... but it wouldn't surprise me if i missed something.

i'm using the forcedeth module.  i'm pretty sure it's the recommended one now.

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## xtbasic

i tried loading them both as modules with no luck, i lost my e100 and internet, and the forcedeth still wasnt working...

i have the e100 compiled in the kernel, and forcedeth as a module (with forcedeth in my autoload.d), here's what i get for ifconfig -a:

 *Quote:*   

> # ifconfig -a
> 
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:02:B3:87:EF:5F
> 
>           inet addr:128.193.244.204  Bcast:128.193.247.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
> ...

 

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## xtbasic

okay i figured out how to get it working, its eth3, i have to ifconfig ifconfig eth3 192.168.1.22 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 up, every time i want to bring the interface up.  i tried adding this line to /etc/conf.d/net (iface_eth3="192.168.1.22 broadcast 192.168.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0"), with no success of getting the interface auto enabled.  i tried doing a rc-update add net.eth3 default, but it returns an error ( * /sbin/rc-update: /etc/init.d/net.eth3 not found; aborting.).

so i can get the interface to work, by using ifconfig every time i need it, now i just need to get it to auto enable when i start up... where am i going wrong?

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## CriminalMastermind

glad to hear you got it working.

 *xtbasic wrote:*   

> i tried doing a rc-update add net.eth3 default, but it returns an error ( * /sbin/rc-update: /etc/init.d/net.eth3 not found; aborting.). 

 

i think there is something in the installation guide about adding a symbolic link for extra interfaces... you should check there.

if you aren't using eth1 and eth2 you may want to ditch them and make the nforce2 nic eth1.  this will probably make things a little easier to deal with in your mind.

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## xtbasic

how do i ditch the other interfaces, is it difficult? im not too up to par on setting up the network interfaces...

which documentation guide is it in?

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## CriminalMastermind

 *xtbasic wrote:*   

> how do i ditch the other interfaces, is it difficult?

 

it shouldn't be too bad.  running

```
dmesg
```

that will show you information printed from the kernel.  so if you wanted to search it for the string eth1...

```
dmesg | grep eth1
```

would give you a hint as to what was registering itself as eth1.  the buffer that holds the info dmesg displays will only hold so much and will start overwriging old entries.  so if you system has been up a long time and has alot of things printing to the buffer you may need to reboot to see what is eth1.

now that you have an idea as to what is regestering itself as eth1, ether don't load that module, or take that option out of the kernel, recompile and reboot.

 *xtbasic wrote:*   

> which documentation guide is it in?

 

 *CriminalMastermind wrote:*   

> the installation guide

 

umm... that would be the guide you followed while installing gentoo on you system.  i'm guessing you used this one.

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