# Nvidia-Nforce ethernet

## mukwuknuk

I did take the trouble to read several other threads on this subject before posting.  While several came close to answering my question, none did.  SO:

I've heard rumors that support for my Nvidia-Nforce ethernet card comes built into the 2.6 kernel (I'm runnning 2.6.5).  Is this true?  Is it there automagically or will I have to do genkernel?  I'm guessing support *can* be in the 2.6.5 kernel if I want to rebuild it that way.  Correct?  

If not, then I'll soon be asking for help with "emerge nforce-net", since the emerge didn't work during the install process and it ain't working now.  Crashes and quits fairly quickly, with complaints about NR_IRQS and NR_IRQ_VECTORS being undeclared.  I wonder what that's all about.

So is it genkernel to get my ethernet working?  How do I tell what's already in my kernel now?  lsmod reveals very little.

Thanks for any help.

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## John2583

I compiled the nforce ethernet support for my A7N8X deluxe board with 2.6.5 with Slackware, but the module is called forcedeth.

Device Drivers > Networking > Ethernet 10 or 100 mbit >Reverse Engineered nForce Ethernet support (EXPERIMENTAL) 

Info: " To compile this driver as a module, choose M here and read                                                          <file:Documentation/networking/net-modules.txt>.  The module will be                                                     called forcedeth. 

Just compile your kernel again like you did to install the kernel the first time.

Edit: oh you want to know if you already have support for it: Well if it's a module then it might be in the same place mine is in: check here: /lib/modules/2.6.5/kernel/drivers/net if you have forcedeth.ko in there then just do a modprobe forcdeth and then you should be able to bing up your eth1 like this: ifconfig eth1 up

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## blueworm

 *mukwuknuk wrote:*   

> I've heard rumors that support for my Nvidia-Nforce ethernet card comes built into the 2.6 kernel (I'm runnning 2.6.5). Is this true?

 

forcedeth has been included in 2.6 kernel since 2.6.2

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## harmonicace

I had the same problem.  I'll try the forcedeth thing.  Is it because of this inclusion that emereg "nforce-net" doesn't work?  I'm also haveing a very similar thing happen when I try to emerge "nforce-audio" how to I fix that?

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## blueworm

nvaudio is for 2.4 kernels only. 

For 2.6 kernels use the alsa driver included in the kernel.

The module you need is allready selected by default.

just emerge alsa-lib and alsa-utils.

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## harmonicace

I just recompiled my kernel including the "Reverse Engineered nForce  . . ." and I have to type "ifconfig eth0 up" before ifconfig will show it and even then I can't ping any servers and emerge doesn't work.  So, I only assume somthing isn't quite right.  My kernel is the mm-sources (kernel-2.6.6-rc3-mm1).

Next time I boot off the livecd (I'm quiting for tonight and going back to windows   :Embarassed: ) I'll emerge the alsa tools; I did include alsa in the kernel but haven't been able to check yet and see if it worked.

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## mukwuknuk

OK "modprobe forcedeth" worked and "ifconfig eth0 up" worked (or at least it didn't give any error message)... but I still can't ping anything so I guess I'm not connected.  Does anyone have an idea how I should diagnose the problem?  Thanks for any help.

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## mukwuknuk

On second thought, I guess my question is far too general.  I do know that there are about half a dozen config files that have to be set correctly for network connectivity to succeed, and I did configure them, so I guess I'll just have to experiment with scores of settings until I find the problem.  I suppose it's not practical to receive help on this.  

But thanks for the "forcedeth" advice!!

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## vonhelmet

 *mukwuknuk wrote:*   

> On second thought, I guess my question is far too general.  I do know that there are about half a dozen config files that have to be set correctly for network connectivity to succeed, and I did configure them, so I guess I'll just have to experiment with scores of settings until I find the problem.  I suppose it's not practical to receive help on this.  
> 
> But thanks for the "forcedeth" advice!!

 

Check your /etc/resolv.conf file. I don't know the structure of it, and can't check offhand as I'm not at my Gentoo box, but that is probably a good place to start.

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## Bluesmoke

resolv.conf would be as follows:

nameserver < ipaddress of nameserver 1 >

nameserver < ipaddress of nameserver 2 >

search < name of your domain >

an alternate method would be just to enable DHCP if your on a network that has it.  It would provide the info you need automaticaly.

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## mukwuknuk

resolv.conf looks good, thanks, but still can't connect.

I did notice I must do "modeprobe forcedeth" every time after a reboot.  How can I install the module permanently?

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## Admiral LSD

There are two ways you can make the forcedeth module (or any module for that matter) load at start up: The first, and probably the easiest is to simply emerge hotplug and then add the hotplug init script to the boot runlevel (rc-update add hotplug boot). Then, on subsequent boots, modules for all your installed hardware will be loaded automatically without any user intervention. The second way is to open up the /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 file (or, if using 2.4, the 2.4 version in the same directory) and add put an entry for forcedeth in there.

To avoid having to ifconfig eth0 up all the time simply add the net.eth0 init script to the default runlevel (rc-update add net.eth0 default).

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## raizyr

I'm having the same problem with mm-sources  both 2.6.6-r4 and 2.6.6-r5.

forcedeth loads,  eth0 shows up in ifconfig  but no ip.  I use dhcp so it should be pulling an ip.  it's not.    I also tried setting the ip statically.  I can not ping the .1 address of my network with the IP set static.

forcdeth works fine for me in gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.5-gentoo-r1

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## FokeyJoe

Just to help anyone else looking at this thread to switch over to forcedeth, there may be an alias set to identify the module with the network interface. This is typically in the /etc/modules.d/aliases file, though could possibly be set in other files in this directory. Remember to run modules-update and then reboot.

HTH  :Smile: 

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## crazyweber

Okay i have a nforce2 motherboard and i can not get internet to work.  See this thread:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=179827

I have given up that it has anything to do with /etc/conf.d/net or /etc/resolv.conf

when i found this thread i checked to make sure I had forcedeth built as a module in my kernel and I do.  Then I went ahead and checked to make sure it was in

```
/lib/modules/2.6.5/kernel/drivers/net
```

it was in there as well

after that I then did 

```
modprobe forcedeth.ko
```

when I did this I recieve an error

```
FATAL: Module forcedeth.ko not found.
```

could anybody help me with this......

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## hw-tph

 *crazyweber wrote:*   

> after that I then did 
> 
> ```
> modprobe forcedeth.ko
> ```
> ...

 

You need to specify the module name. forcedeth.ko is the filename, the name of the module doesn't have a file extension. So type modprobe forcedeth and it should load properly. If it does, simply add "forcedeth" (without the quotes) to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and it will load on boot.

Håkan

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## NightSpirit

 *raizyr wrote:*   

> I'm having the same problem with mm-sources  both 2.6.6-r4 and 2.6.6-r5.
> 
> forcedeth loads,  eth0 shows up in ifconfig  but no ip.  I use dhcp so it should be pulling an ip.  it's not.    I also tried setting the ip statically.  I can not ping the .1 address of my network with the IP set static.
> 
> forcdeth works fine for me in gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.5-gentoo-r1

 

Ditto, I have been using 2.6.5-mm6 fine with forcedeth for a while. Attempted to upgrade to 2.6.7-rc3-mm2 with make oldconfig and forcedeth refuses to work  :Sad: 

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## coelho

same problem !!!

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## LynZ

I'm using 2.6.7-gentoo-r5... forcedeth works just fine for me 

```
Device Drivers->

Networking support->      Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)  ---><*>   Reverse Engineered nForce Ethernet support (EXPERIMENTAL)
```

Check if you have THIS switched on..... if true you don't even need do load a module

Btw. I thought forcedepth was added in 2.4 too

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## DawgG

i have 2.6.8-rc1 on nforce3 gbit-lan and have support for forcedeth compiled directly inside the kernel (in the config forcedeth was mentioned only as a 100mbit-driver, but i enabled it anyway).

it doesn't work at all; and it's not even known to lspci. during boot there's a little msg that the driver is registering - that's it.

(luckily i have a spare nic - life sucks w/out network).

-will i have to patch the sources to be able to use the gbit-driver?

-is it better to compile the driver as a module?

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## DawgG

could have read that earlier - had to be patched with http://www.hailfinger.org/carldani/linux/patches/forcedeth/forcedeth_gigabit_try9.txt

patch applied ok - will test it later.

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## russryder

I had the same problem with 2.6.7

The easy fix is to just install an earlier kernel.

For example I installed 2.6.5 and the forcedeth module works beautifully.

!!Until this is fixed nforce owners beware 2.6.7 bad!!

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## jonnevers

after you bring eth0 up do you run dhcpd to get an IP and nameserver?

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## DawgG

applied the patch and it runs now. gbit lan with nforce3.

might be a little confusing because with the patch the forcedeth-gbit-driver is still in the 100mbit-section, but who cares.

it's compiled directly in the kernel and it runs. haven't had a chance to  REALLY check if it throughputs (?) 1 gbit, though.

btw, i use 2.6.8 (not MUCH choice with nforce3)

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## solja

this is wat worked for me:

```
modprobe forcedeth
```

```
dhcpcd eth1
```

if you have a nforce2 mb firewire is detected as your eth0 so you have to switch to eth1 instead.

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## VinnieNZ

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> could have read that earlier - had to be patched with http://www.hailfinger.org/carldani/linux/patches/forcedeth/forcedeth_gigabit_try9.txt
> 
> patch applied ok - will test it later.

 

I'm kind of new to Linux and am enjoying my experiences so far and am (I think) learning reasonably quickly.

However I have no idea how to apply the above patch.

Could someone please tell me how as I have a Gigabyte Nforce2 chipped m/board.

Cheers

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## enkil

I think the patch is only for the gigabit-versions of the nforce-net. (Tell me, if I'm wrong...) I use forcedeth on a NForce2-based ASUS A7N8X-E and it works flawless on 2.6.8.1 and 2.6.8-rc4. 

However, if you want to apply the mentioned patch, a simple way to do so is to save the file to your /usr/src/linux/drivers/net directory and apply it using:

```
cat forcedeth_gigabit_try9.txt | patch -p3
```

If you get some errors saying the file to patch cannot be found, just play around with the -p switch (try -p2 or -p4).

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## sobers_2002

if u prefer nforce then the newer drivers are for you.........they support 2.6 series so just download the new drivers from nvidia site and enjoy!

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## rkrenzis

All,

I was wondering if anyone else was having "intermittent connections" with 2.6.8.1 and nforce ethernet.  Also, I noticed that netstat -i does not update itself:

Kernel Interface table

Iface     MTU Met   RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR   TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg

eth0       1500   0       0      0      0      0       0      0      0      0 BMRU

lo        16436   0       0      0      0      0       0      0      0      0 LRU

vmnet8     1500   0       0      0      0      0       0      0      0      0 BMRU

Any ideas what I need to add in the kernel to get netstat to keep stats?  I'm not sure if I have problems because obviously I can't tell if there are rx/tx errors.

uname -rvmpios:

Linux 2.6.8.1 #1 Sat Aug 14 22:18:22 GMT 2004 x86_64 4  GNU/Linux

Ryan

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