# Inspiron 8500 - Network support with 1.4?

## cca93014

Hi,

I have an Inspiron 8500 currently running XP and Redhat. I want to install Gentoo 1.4 over Redhat, but I cant get the live CD to detect the Broadcom 4400 NIC. I've previously had to compile my own broadcom module for use with Redhat 9, but having looked on these forums it seems that people have it working with Gentoo 1.4

On startup, the live CD does not detect my Network. If a try an "ifconfig" the shell freezes. If I try an net-setup eth0 and fill in the correct values, that freezes when it has finished. 

Does anyone have any ideas? Would I be better off starting with a stage 2 CD? I really wanted to build it from scratch...

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## Syfax

I have the same laptop and I just installed Gentoo on it. It detects the nic just fine for me.

I used to run Debian on it but had some problems. 

So I tried Gentoo and now almost everything works on it. I just need to get the multimedia keys working.

I use the gentoo-sources kernel.

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## cca93014

What type of install did you do? A base install or a stage 1/2/3?

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## Syfax

I did stage3.

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## cca93014

Maybe that's it. Does anyone know if the kernel in stage 3 would be different to the base kernel? That would explain my problem...

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## lghman

That wouldnt matter, the modules are loaded from the running kernel on the live CD, not on the stages.  Did u try loading the module for you NIC by hand??

--sonik

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## cca93014

Yeah, well I ran "modprobe bcm4400" before running net-setup...Its like that and ifconfig just die when I run them. Hitting the keyboard echos characters to the screen, but I cant kill the process, even from a second shell with kill -9...

Now I'm confused...

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## raincoat

I have been having similar problems with my laptop, I also am switching from redhat and iI have a dell 8200.  Do you think it would work if we tried an older version not 1.4?

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## lghman

Thats wierd, I am typing to you on my Dell 8200 that has been working great since the day I installed.  I would definatly try and download an older image and try it that way.  Really dosent matter if your doing a stage 1 install either.  (as far as versions of packages, i mean).

raincoat: I know your driver is tulip.o. Dosent reconize?

--sonik

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## cca93014

Could this be a bug in the 1.4 CD? 

Raincoat: Do you get exactly the same problem as me? That the shell locks up when trying to run ifconfig? 

Is there anything I could do to generate any further information? Would there be any logs generated?

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## lghman

I read another post , figures I dont see it now, but this person had the EXACT same problem as you did.  It is very possible that its a bug in the cd.  I would download it and try it, but I'm on the road right now and cant.    :Sad: 

Whats the output for dmesg?

--sonik

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## cca93014

I'm not sure we have the same hardware. I dont have a wireless network, I'm just using the internal NIC in my 8500, which is a Broadcom 4400. I think the 8200 has a 3C905C-TX compatible controller???

http://kristol.org/david/dell-i8200/

I am running 

```
modprobe bcm4400
```

as soon as I get to a bash prompt when booting of the install CD. Is this correct? Could I try probing a different module?

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## cca93014

Ok, this is quite curious. It's working.

I booted with every possible option switched off (noacpi, noapm, nodhcp...), removed every peripheral other than the power and ethernet cable and immediately ran:

```
modprobe bcm4400

net-setup eth0
```

That worked! Now to install the thing!   :Very Happy: 

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## int1

You really should run your 8500 with ACPI.  Follow these sites for guidance (adjusting for Gentoo of course):

http://ltswww.epfl.ch/~dsanta/resources/dell-i8500-linux

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/G.Wilford/Inspiron8500/

I've been using the ac-sources for quite a while, and Alan Cox does a good job keeping the ACPI patches up to date.

Good luck!

int1

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## aZZe

Hi guys!

I the same problem as you!!! I have a simple Pentium 4 PC with an Intel e1000 ethernet card on board. I guess it's a bug on the Cd, isn't it? The shell freezes always after an "ifconfig" or a "net-setup eth0". Did anybody solve this problem???

Thanx

darktemplaaa

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## Safrax

I always thought dell used the standard 3c59x driver for the Inspiron series laptops...  I know my i8200 uses the 3c59x driver..  Oh well, I could be wrong...

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## aZZe

So is it a known bug in this Gentoo release???

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## Syfax

It sounds very strange. My Broadcom 4400 NIC works just fine, I boot up using "acpi" then it detects the nic and it works.

cca93014 what bios do you use? perhaps that could be the reason if you use an older version.

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## cca93014

I'm using the latest bios (A03). I'm not quite sure what was going on, but once I had the stage 2 built and my own kernel compiled (with the bcm4400 built into the kernel) everything is working perfectly. 

I havent narrowed down which option I disabled when starting off the boot CD  that got things working ok, but I know that you can get the network up from the boot cd.

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