# Gentoo home router help

## FreedomFighter2010

I have been running this home-made Gentoo router (www.gentoo.org/doc/en/home-router-howto.xml) for almost a year now, and everything went smooth until I bought a new HP dv9428nr laptop, from which I am currently posting.  No matter what I did, it refused to see the router.  See, usually, the GNOME network applet shows this little spinny thing indicating that it searches for connections, but I didn't even get that far.  All I saw was the red icon, i.e. no connection at all.  When I finally gave up and hooked it up directly with the cable modem, everything worked instantaneously.  I am sitting here scratching my head: what is it that the cable modem does that the router doesn't do that gets the new laptop to respond??

I have another laptop, which works fine both with and without the router.  I notice that the IP address changes depending on whether the router or the new laptop is connected.  I am providing the lspci profiles for all the three.  Someone please help.  This is probably the oddest problem I have ever faced with GNU/Linux.

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This is the hardware profile for the Gentoo router:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge

00:08.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6105/VT6106S [Rhine-III] (rev 86)

00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)

00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)

00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)

00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)

00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)

00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)

00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] (rev 01)

The is the hardware profile for the new laptop (that doesn't see the router):

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)

00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)

00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)

00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)

00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 [Geforce 6150 Go] (rev a2)

00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)

00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)

00:0a.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PMU (rev a3)

00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)

00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)

00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev f1)

00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev f1)

00:0f.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev f1)

00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control

07:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller

07:05.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)

07:05.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 0a)

07:05.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 05)

07:05.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)

The is the hardware profile for the old laptop and works fine with the router and directly with

the modem:

:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)

00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)

00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)

00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)

0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

0e:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)

0e:06.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)

0e:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)

0e:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev ff)

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## richard.scott

Does your router plug into a hub that you plug your laptop into?

If so, then perhaps the hub is on the way out.

I've had no connections when the hub is dying... the only fix I found was to set my laptop to not auto-negotiate a network speed i.e. 10Mbps, 100Mbps

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## d2_racing

Do you use Gentoo on both box ?

Maybe you should post this from your current box :

```

# rc-update show

# cat /etc/conf.d/net

```

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## FreedomFighter2010

Dear richard.scott and d2_racing,

Thanks much for responding. 

richard.scott, I am not using any hubs.  I only had one laptop until recently, and it was connected directly to the router.

As I pointed out in my original post, it worked both with and without the router, i.e. directly with the modem.

d2_racing, this laptop runs Debian rather than Gentoo.   When I connect it with the router, the way I always did with the old laptop, ifconfig gave me the following strange output:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:24:49:58:de  

          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xa000 

#### WHAT IS THIS BELOW?####

eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:24:49:58:de  

          inet addr:169.254.6.245  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0

          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xa000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:29 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:29 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:2494 (2.4 KiB)  TX bytes:2494 (2.4 KiB)

I don't know what eth0:avahi is and have never seen it before.  When connecting directly to the modem, the output is

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:24:49:58:de  

          inet addr:72.229.179.35  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.248.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:576  Metric:1

          RX packets:2456 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:102 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:153192 (149.6 KiB)  TX bytes:16951 (16.5 KiB)

          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xa000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:60 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:60 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:4944 (4.8 KiB)  TX bytes:4944 (4.8 KiB)

and no "avahi".  This avahi thing never shows up on the router.  Maybe I should create this new interface, in addition to eth0 and eth1?

Incidentally, I tried another HP laptop (which ran Windows), and it failed the exact same way the current one did.  I see this as a hint that the problem is likely in the router.

PS  Folks, I've been using GNU/Linux for years, but this makes me feel a TOTAL newcomer.

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## cyrillic

 *FreedomFighter2010 wrote:*   

> I am not using any hubs.  I only had one laptop until recently, and it was connected directly to the router.
> 
> As I pointed out in my original post, it worked both with and without the router, i.e. directly with the modem. 

 

My guess is the NIC on your old laptop has automatic crossover detection, and the NIC on your new one does not.

I would recommend using a switch between the router and your laptop(s) and straight-through cables.

If you want to run without a switch, then you will need an ethernet cable with the correct (crossover) configuration.

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## d2_racing

And if you are really stuck, you can use a hub too.

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## Hu

 *FreedomFighter2010 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> #### WHAT IS THIS BELOW?####
> 
> eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:24:49:58:de  
> ...

 Assuming your comment is because of the unusual address: that is a link local address, which some DHCP clients will assign as a last ditch attempt to put some sort of address on an interface which has not succeeded in getting a response from any DHCP servers.  If you expect a DHCP server to exist on the subnet, seeing this type of address is probably a bad sign.  Some DHCP clients can be configured not to assign a Zeroconf address, and instead just fail if no DHCP server responds.

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## FreedomFighter2010

Dear cyrillic, d2_racing, and Hu,

I'm going to follow the advice and buy myself a switch.  Let's see if everything starts to work, all of a sudden.  Until now, I didn't know that a switch can be so valuable even when only one machine is on the network.

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