Cannot activate network device eth0!

[teknowcat]

Moving from a good version of SuSE 10.3 to Fedora 9. Installed clean and smooth. Nic recognized, but can't activate it -get the following error:

Determining IP information for
eth)...SIOCSIFFLAGS: Cannot assign requested
address
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Cannot assign requested address

I'm using Smoothie (Polar 3.0) to hand down DHCP . . . and this Nic is set for DHCP, but can't be activated. My PCs, Macs, and even BSD stations all run fine behind Smoothie. . . hmmmm?

Would appreciated any guidance.

-T

[fnmblot]

Are you using a wireless or wired card? If it is wireless, I have no clue. If it is wired, try turning off Network Manager and turning on network in system-config-services. That is what I have had to do with all of my F9 servers.

[teknowcat]

Thanks fnmblot. It's a wired Silicon Integrated System Ethernet. Basic desktop config -sorry should have included that in the post. Still no joy.

[fnmblot]

ok, trying to do this from memory, but click on system - administration - services. There you can disable and stop Network Manager, then enable and start network. (if you are using gnome) After that, you may need to reboot. I always did.

[teknowcat]

fnmblot:

Don't have Network Manager as a service (Basic desktop install), but did enable network and rebooted (per your instructions -and yes your memory was correct). On reboot it hung, and gave the same error that was previously posted. Once I logged in . . . checked to see if it was running as a service -Yes . . but still can't activate NIC

[g8keepR]

Just out of curiosity, if you do /sbin/ifconfig, do you see eth0 listed or is it now labeled as eth1 (or eth2)?

I was having a problem where every time I rebooted, the eth# would change as well as my mac address. I have a solution for you if that's the case.

[teknowcat]

g8keepR:

Good ? . . . actually I get the following:

Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/28 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436
RX packets:3850 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3850 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrirer:0
collision: 0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:226404 (221.0 KiB) TX bytes:226404 (221.0 KiB)

I guess since it can't be activated . . . it's not errr . . . activated.

[g8keepR]

Ah.. You're getting nothing at all ... If you type ' dmesg | grep eth ' do you see anything?

You should see something like:
forcedeth 0000:00:08.0: ifname eth0, PHY OUI 0x5043 @ 1, addr 00:20:ed:cb:45:7f

or .. does '/sbin/ifconfig eth0 up' (either via sudo or root) bring up the device?

otherwise ... in xwindows (gimp/kde) have you tried configuring it for a static ip?

Sorry, I'm not an expert... just trying to help w/ what I can.

[teknowcat]

g8keepR:

No worries . . . obviously I'm not expert either.

Results for dmesg | grep eth:

Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
eth0: SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xe200, IRQ 19, 00:00:00:00:00:00
type=1400 audit(1219418855.138:4): avc: denied { read } for pid=1735
comm="consoletype" path="/var/lib/dhclient/dhclient -eth0.leases"dev=dm-0
ino=1941990 scontext=system_u:system_r:consoletype_t:s0 tcontext=unconfiined_u:
object_r:dhcpc_state_t:s0 tclass=file
type=1400 audit(121941885.234:5): avc: denied { read } for pid=1760
comm=ifconfig" path="/var/lib/dhclient/dhclient-eth0.leases"dev=dm-0
ino=1941990 scontext=system_u:system_r:ifconfig_t:s0 tcontext=unconfined_u:
object_r:dhcpc_state_t:s0 tclass=file

FYI: in /var/lib/dhclient/ there are two files: dhclient-eth0.leases & dhclient-eth0:1.leases

Any other thoughts?

[g8keepR]

hmm... it almost looks like SELINUX ? Just for the heck of it... try disabling it (there's a gui for it somewhere)

The reason why I think it could be that is the "audit" word.

I'm at work now, but a quick 2 second google for "SELinux dhcp" brought up a bunch of pages on how to configure this... if you wanted SELinux enabled still.

[teknowcat]

g8keepR:

Thanks for the follow through . . . however, in the interim (and for ****s and giggles) I pulled a PCI nic from a BSD box . . . installed it . . . whala. So the SELinux . . . might not be applicable here . . . since I didn't change any other config.

The other thing is I just realized is that in the hardware profile (also in the results that were generated per your instructions) it specifies a PCI adapter. Strange . . . because it's actually an onboard nic . . . so perhaps it was just the driver that was attributed to the nic. Does that make sense?

Anyway . . . I think I'll just stay in this config . . . and proceed. However, I really have appreciated your comments and feedback . . . CHEERS my friend!

[g8keepR]

no problem. I did find something here that may be of interest to you:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...521/cat/myprod

scroll down to #12.

You onboard nic should be supported though. Maybe try bugzilla (or submit a bug).

I also think that there's nothing to worry about your card being labeled as PCI, I think that's just how the kernel categorizes it.

[g8keepR]

Also looking at this line from your previous post:
eth0: SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xe200, IRQ 19, 00:00:00:00:00:00

It looks like it never even got a hardware address, it's all zeros ...

While looking at a few other threads flying around I found out these commands (which may be handy):

"lspci -v|grep -i ethernet" //for see what ethernet cards are detected
"dhclient eth0" // to manually load eth0 with dhcp

[teknowcat]

Love it! Looks good . . . just in the middle of downloading updates through . . . on my newly connected Fedora box . . . LOL . . . so I'll try it l8tr . . . g8keepR . . . cheers!

[stevea]

Just for future reference ...

To see the interface use "ifconfig -a" or better yet use "ip addr" since the ifconfig tool is deprecated. This shows ALL interfaces, and their MACs and config, not just the configured ones (as wit h"ifconfig").

That's a pretty funky interface that doesn't have a valid MAC in firmware. You'd better google for a proper resolution.