NVIDIA Nforce on Mandrake linux/ no eth0 interface

[wizbang]

I'm doing Mandrake Linux and I'm trying to set up the ethernet interface. The situation is displayed when I do route in the terminal window (as root, of course). There is no eth0 interface when the network is running. There is also no ppp0. There is only the lo interface registered. I have dug around and found nothing. I tried using the GUI set up tool and the ethernet interface is not even detected (though it is integrated within the NVIDIA nforce board). The only clue I get is when I do cat /proc/pci I do get a listing for an ethernet device. I downloaded the NVIDIA driver for linux and when I tried to run the RPM.src. I was informed that everything was already installed. So, now I'm stuck, I need to get the ethernet running to have a local server to do web development on. Does ANYONE have any suggestions? The machine I'm using is Shuttlex from PC Club with AMD Athlon 2400+ that I had pre assembled (rather than doing the kit myself) and loaded with Windows XP home. I did a dual boot install of linux successfully, accept for the outbound connections; I.E. ethernet and modem. (the modem is detected as a "winmodem" and I am attempting to reslove that issue through other channels.

Thanks

[ianhood]

I'm having the same problem with the same machine but using Redaht 9.0. Any help would be appreciated.

Ian

[hondo]

I have an sn41g2.....was starting to take it personally!...lol
Any further ideas chaps before I disable the onboard and spend some hard earned cash on a new nic?

Cheers

Dave

[qflux]

I have a shuttle S45 with an Nforce 2 ultra on board and I cant get anything at all to work sound/nic.

Ive tried several different kernels with the drivers provided by nvidia and none of them work.


THe problem is that with most chipsets the basic hardware is on board and the bulk of the sound and net stuff is done through software, much like a win modem; the modem has minimal hardware on board and works mostly with software doing all the work.

In an open source community such as linux it makes it easier for competitors to obtain the software reverse engineer it and see exactly what nvidia is doing with thier product to make it work giving away Nvidias advantages.

Therefore we will never see a fully functional Linux driver from Nvidia for the chipsets.

I just hope that Nvidia can see into the future alittle bit further becasue Linux is a huge part of the future and the need to be more supportive of the linux community if they want to maintain thier industry leading status.

[wizbang]

To hondo who is about to dissable his on board eth interface and buy a nic, make sure there is a driver specifically for linux. I tried that and bought a siemens Speedstream ss1020 that was supposedly compatable with linux but has no driver for linux. (I did get an indirect reference to the use of the tulip driver with this board but havn't gotten it to work yet.) to gflux: As for nvidia there is an ethernet driver available as a part of a driver package as a tar.gz that can be installed.
Ethernet HOWTO's and O'reilly's Running Linux, 4th ed has alot on ethernet set up.
That's all I've come up with so far.

[hondo]

cheers wizbang....
am on my way to purchase one....will let u know how I get on ...

DAve

[JimiQuakeKorne]

Take a look at this nForce website. They have a Linux specific forum.

Lots of people with similar questions and some solutions.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/

Too bad nVidia doesn't see fit to browse these forums and answer people.

Good luck.

Dave L.

[playaz]

If you use the .tar.gz file for linux drivers, you should be able to follow the README and get the ethernet driver to work.

best of luck.

[wizbang]

Tahnks, Playaz:
I tried that and expected it to work but there seems to be a hole in my linux istall, I.E. when I run make I get errors that indicate that gcc related software is missing. When I tried to install the kdevelopment package I get a bail out message stating I'm missing a bunch of software so my extreme solution is to reinstall the whole system. I have one file that I want to save and since I don't have any ethernet nor modem my last resort is to put it on a flash memory card. Now I'm trying to get the internal flash card reader I had installed to appear in the system. I hope there's a driver for that. There should be, but there's other hoops I have to jump through to get a mnt/ listing for the flash card reader. It reads compact flash, smart media, Sony memory stick and the fourth type (I don't remember at the moment what it's called).

Wizbang (like runnig into brick walls very quickly)