Networking: Ethernet Related Problems

Try /usr/sbin/mii-diag ethx (replace x with the number of your NIC).

mii-diag is in the package netdiag. It doesn't work for (RealTek 8139), it reports 10 mbps half-duplex, when in reality it's running 100mbps, full-duplex. rtl8139-diag from the same package, at least confirms the duplex setting, but doesn't mention link beat or speed setting.

You need to have IP Aliasing support enabled in the kernel. Then just configure it like any other interface. You can have the following in /etc/rc.config :

NETDEV_0="eth0"
NETDEV_1="eth0:1"

#
# parameteres for ifconfig, simply enter "bootp" or "dhcpclient" to use the
# respective service for configuration
# sample entry for ethernet:
# IFCONFIG_0="192.168.81.38 broadcast 192.168.81.63 netmask 255.255.255.224"
#
IFCONFIG_0="dhcpclient"
IFCONFIG_1="192.168.169.1 broadcast 192.168.169.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 up"
	

YaST2 can not do it at the time being /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcg.template explains

# Multiple addresses (aka aliases)
# There are several ways to assign more than one IP address to a network
# interface. If you ever want to use YaST2 for this you should choose
# the
# first possibility:
# 1) one IP address per config file:
#    create multiple copies of your master config files and add
#    ':<string>' to
#    the filenames of the copy. Prefer increasing number starting at 1.
# 2) multiple IP addresses per config file:
#    You can extend the variable name 'IPADDR' by any string you like
#    (IPADDR_1,
#    IPADDR-FOO, IPADDRxxx, ...) and use these variables for your IP
#    addresses.
#    If you need some additional parameters for these addresses, then
#    just add
#    the same extension to these variable names.
#    IPADDR_AAA=1.2.3.4
#    NETMASK_AAA=255.0.0.0
#    BROADCAST_AAA=1.2.3.55
#    IPADDR_BBB=10.10.2.3/16
#    LABEL_BBB=B
      

On one of my systems, I needed to change the MAC address on the Ethernet interface. I tried putting the "hw ether addr " spec in the IFCONFIG_0 variable, but ifconfig didn't seem to want to set the IP address and the MAC address at the same time. Also, I found that it was necessary to change the MAC address before setting the IP address, otherwise ifconfig would give an ioctl error.

To solve this problem, I made a change to /etc/rc.d/network as follows:

 
--- rc.d.old/network    Fri Nov 30 20:05:59 2001
+++ rc.d/network        Fri Nov 30 21:32:43 2001
@@ -68,6 +68,10 @@
                    ;;
                *)
                    echo "Setting up network device $NETDEV"
+                   IFCHMAC=`eval echo '$'IFCHMAC${I}`
+                   if test "${IFCHMAC}" ; then
+                        ifconfig $NETDEV $IFCHMAC
+                   fi
                    ifconfig $NETDEV $IFCONFIG
                    rc_status -v1
                    ;;

And then adding an entry to /etc/rc.config in the form of:

IFCHMAC_0="hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"
	

After making these changes, the system will set the correct MAC address upon boot, before setting the IP address.

Keith Winston

There is a new pcmcia.rpm at the SuSE FTP which is also available with YaST Online Update.Here are the patch details:

Bug-ID: pcmcia-1138
Kind: recommended
- fixes wireless lan problems: we now use orinoco driver
instead of wlan-ng for
most cards
- updates
/usr/share/doc/packages/pcmcia/README.SuSE
- fixes some minor bugs
    

I want to confirm that that the fix indeed works as promised, even for cards that use encryption keys other than key [1]. The updated README.SuSE now includes a detailed description of how the new system works, which configuration files to use, and which ones are updated by the patch.

Rick Green

The DWL-650 is in /etc/pcmcia/config as delivered with SuSE 8.0. Just plug it in! (Assuming you've installed the pcmcia package, of course!)

I'm running the compact flash version DCF-650W, and I added the following to /etc/pcmcia/config to support it:

card "D-Link DCF-650W"
#card "Z-Com XI300 11Mb/s 802.11b WLAN Card"
  manfid  0xd601, 0x0002
  bind "wvlan_cs"
      

...and I found I had to switch from 'kernel' to 'external' pcmcia support.