UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I'm running Vector Linux on this computer, and everythign works fine, except for the NIC. I run netconfig, and then when I reboot it says:



DC21140 at 0x9400(PCI BUS 0, device 11) h/w address 00:00:C0:2E:13:dC, and reqquires IRQ 9(provided by PCI BIOS)

Setting up net subsytems.

Attempting to configure eth0 by contacting DHCP server.

eth0: media is unconnected, link down, or incompatible connection.


I know the media is connected, because I'm using it right now. I checked, and it is using IRQ 9 so my troubleshooting skills ended right there Please help me get it to work, and thanks in advance.

you wrote:
eth0: media is unconnected, link down, or incompatible connection.

I know the media is connected, because I'm using it right now


- So how did you come to fix it? Is this just a normal error message that doesn't matter (ie. in Solaris when the SUN Disk Manager starts, I always get three errors - they don't matter because I don't use that portion of the software). In your case, it may be that something is trying to use eth0 before it is configured, gives the error, and then another startup script configures it and everything works. Take a look at the startup scripts to see if something is out of order (what I don't know since I don't have a Vector Linux system to look at). HTH!

Oh, sorry, I mean I'm using it under Windows... I can't get it to work at all under Linux.

What type of NIC is it? Vendor, model #, and esp. a chipset name would be very helpful. Luckily it's PCI, so it's probably supported! We need more information to really help out.

It's uses the Intel DC21140, tulip chipset... I'm not sure who makes the card though. But just now, when I went into device manager in win2k, it says that it's on IRQ 11, but when I boot(and in the BIOS) it says it's on 9.

Have you tried moving it to another slot? If your BIOS says it's on IRQ9, but windows says it's on IRQ11, then what it SOUNDS like is that Windows is reassigning the IRQ, via IRQ steering, probably because of a conflict with another device. Do you have anything else listed as being on 11, or 9? Also, I assume you are connecting to the same switch/hub/RJ45 jack during both the Win2K boot and the Linux boot?
When you compiled your kernel, did you get any error messages?
If your machine is recognizing 'eth0' as even being there, it sounds like the driver was installed, and the card is being 'picked up' by LInux. You might want to do a 'dmesg' or 'cat /var/log/messages' and see if you can see anything about your NIC in there.