# Network driver does not associate with eth0  [SOLVED]

## philip

After a change of motherboard, I have not been able to get my ethernet connection, with the on-board i/f,  to work.  

Motherboard: ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe

Ethernet chipset: nVidia

Processor AMD Phenom

I load forcedeth as a module 

System:

kernel is Gentoo 2.6.22-gentoo-r5

The i/f is recognized if I boot from a Systemrescue CD and I have manged to read out the mac address.

First I thought it was the udev rules, in the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules that remembered my old i/f card (I use the same HD as before). 

I changed the content in the 70-persistent-net.rules to comply with my new mac address and eth0, but no success.

If I do 

# dmesg | grep forcedeth

there is only one row recognizing the module but no other actions, like associating with eth0.

If I try 

# ifconfig eth0

I get "No such interafce" back

I have also tried, what several posts suggest, to delete the 70-persistent-net.rules file and restart my system. But udev does not create a new rules file.  

I have also checked that the module, forcedeth, actually gets loaded alright, which is the case. 

[*] EISA, VLB, PCI and on board controllers is enabled in the kernel.

I am really stuck here. Unfortunately, as I have no ethernet i/f I can not copy and paste output from dmesg or any thing else from the screen I I use another computer for the post).

Can anyone help?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

philip,

Please post your lspci output. forcedeth is for nVida ethernet.

----------

## count_zero

What interfaces are listed when you do:

```
ifconfig -a
```

----------

## philip

lspci gives:

---- snip

00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0760 (rev a2)

---- snip

(Sorry is had the wrog info in my first post - now corrected. It is indeed a nVidia chipset)

ifconfig gives:

lo            Link encap:Local Loopback

               inet addr:127.0.0.1   Mask:255.0.0.0

---------  snip

Just the lo i/f

----------

## NeddySeagoon

philip,

forcedeth is the right driver for the network chip shown in your lspci.

is it made as a loadable module or built into the kernel ?

If its the former, is is loaded, check lsmod?

----------

## philip

I am loading forcedeth as a module

lsmod says:

------ snip -------

soundcore                 6240   1    snd

forcedeth                 40352   0    

nvidia                  7093360   20

------ snip -------

The module is actually loaded and visible. Here is where the strange problem show. I have concluded the following so far:

a) The module is the right one and it is loaded

b) The device is visible (through lspci)

c)  I know the mac address of the device and I have edited udev's 70-persistent-net.rules file to associate the device with eth0

but for some reason the i/f is still not associated with eth0.

There may be one clue; If I remove the 70-persistent-net.rules file and restart my system, the 70-persistent-net.rules file is not recreated. It is as if udev does not do its thing. But I am unfortunately not that acquanted with udev to figure out what to check for. Or could it still be something else?

SunHateR at this post https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-706372-highlight-m3nht.html has got the on board ethernet to work on the same MOBO as I have, with the forcedeth module loaded. So I know it is possible to get it to work.

----------

## philip

I solved it.

I upgraded the kernel from version 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 to version 2.6.25-gentoo-r8

This made my on board i/f work.

----------

