Can't get my ethernet card to show up

[snowfox777]

Hi,

I'm a quite new at this, so please bear with me. I think that I can get around a PC fairly well, but here, I'm quite out of my league.

I wanted to try PC-BSD as the second system on a laptop coming with Win7 pre-installed.

The installation process went fairly well, and I even was able to add an entry to the Win7 bootloader (with EasyBCD) so that I could dual boot without any problem.

Turns out, though, that the wired internet on PC-BSD 8.2 - x64 did not work.

I tried to configure the system using the tutorials, but that didn't do much good; I then realised that my ethernet card was not showing up in the configuration GUI.

I tried downloading some driver off of HP.com, but the results were inconclusive.

Since I'm quite new at this, I'm almost completely lost as to what to do to get my internet working.

It might be a driver problem, but I couldn't say for sure.

The laptop I bought is an HP Pavilion g7-1270. It's a 64-bit system, core i5

For as far as I can tell, the ethernet card is a RealTek, exact model unknown.

Anyone can help? Please?


Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[Cobalt]

I've always hated trying to get resolve networking on Linux/*BSDs. Hopefully someone more experienced can help you. I would simply buy an external ethernet adapter (USB) and be done with it.

You're sure that the ethernet is enabled in the BIOS? Also, you mean that you can't see the device in the System Network Configuration in the System Settings?

If the drivers on HP's site are for Windows, they're useless.

The admins are going to hate me, but if all else fails, you could use the XFCE spin of Fedora:
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/xfce/

But get a second or third opinion first. :)

[snowfox777]

Thanks for the reply, Cobalt.

To answer your first question, I would assume that the ethernet is enabled in the BIOS since, as a dual boot, I'm also using Windows 7 and the internet works fine.

To answer your second question, on another computer, I'm using PC-BSD, and the ethernet card shows up as re0.

On my laptop, in the System Network Configuration, this "re0" simply does not show up... It's as if the OS does not even know it's there...

Lastly, the drivers *seem* to be for *BSD systems, but I can't get them to function...

Anyway, thanks for the reply and if you have any ideas, let me know!

I'm not quitting on PC-BSD yet!

:)

Cheers!

[Cobalt]

You could try 9.0 RC*, or wait for Stable to be released. I checked on HP's site and they don't seem to have *BSD drivers for your laptop. The only time that I've seen Windows drivers work with a Linux/*BSD system is NDISWrapper.

By the way, these are what I was talking about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833327302
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812196235

I was kind of vague with my description.

[snowfox777]

Thanks Cobalt for the pointer, although, I think it's a stop-gap measure...

I would *really* like to get that thing working!

Is there anything similar to the Windows' "device manager" in PCBSD, to see if the OS knows that there *is* an network card installed?

Maybe that way, I can find out if the OS is simply being naughty or just plain blind...


Cheers!

[kmoore134]

Run the "ifconfig" command and look if there is any device that looks
like your NIC.

Also, "pciconf -lv" can be helpful, if you want to post the output of
both here.

[snowfox777]

Hi Kris,

Thanks for the reply. Here are a few things that I've tried...

I've tried to get Ubuntu Linux to run on the laptop, on the "try-it!" mode and went on the Internet. So, I guess that Ubuntu has found the ethernet card and is making it work. It also reports the card as being "r8169". So I would assume that it is a RealTek 8169. Since it works with Ubuntu, on the demo mode, I assume a generic driver must be available somewhere, open-source...

Furthermore, I did a copy of my loader.conf file and I can't see the re0 line... Would it be because of that? Here's the contents of the file...

=====


# Kernel Options
kern.ipc.shmseg=1024
kern.ipc.shmmni=1024
kern.maxproc=10000

# Load Wireless Support
if_ipw_load="YES"
if_iwi_load="YES"
if_wpi_load="YES"
if_iwn_load="YES"
if_bwn_load="YES"
legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
legal.intel_wpi.license_ack=1
legal.intel_iwn.license_ack=1

# Enable usb Webcam Support
cuse4bsd_load="YES"
pwc_load="YES"

# Load mmc card-reader support
mmc_load="YES"
mmcsd_load="YES"

# Load additional sata device support
ahci_load="YES"
siis_load="YES"
sdhci_load="YES"

# Load support for scd
scd_load="YES"

# Load sound-support
sound_load="YES"
snd_uaudio_load="YES"

# Load geom support
geom_journal_load="YES"
geom_uzip_load="YES"
geom_mirror_load="YES"
geom_eli_load="YES"

# Load Serial Bus Protocol Support
sbp_load="YES"

# Load File-System Support
libiconv_load="YES"
libmchain_load="YES"
cd9660_iconv_load="YES"
msdosfs_iconv_load="YES"
ntfs_load="YES"
ntfs_iconv_load="YES"
udf_load="YES"
udf_iconv_load="YES"
zfs_load="YES"
tmpfs_load="YES"

# Disable acpi throttle by default, fixes issues with powerd and later AMDs
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled="1"

# Fix crashes on 32bit with Nvidia
machdep.disable_mtrrs=1
sem_load="YES"
splash_pcx_load="YES"
vesa_load="YES"
bitmap_load="YES"
bitmap_name="/boot/loading-screen.pcx"
hw.ata.atapi_dma="0"
beastie_disable="NO"
autoboot_delay="30"

======

Here's also an output from the ifconfig....

=====

iwn0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
ether 8c:a9:82:81:34:e8
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
status: associated
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
nd6 options=3<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV>
pflog0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 33152
pfsync0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1460
syncpeer: 224.0.0.240 maxupd: 128
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
ether 8c:a9:82:81:34:e8
inet6 fe80::8ea9:82ff:fe81:34e8%wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
nd6 options=3<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV>
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet OFDM/18Mbps mode 11g
status: associated
ssid dlink channel 3 (2422 MHz 11g) bssid 84:c9:b2:4e:86:2d
country US authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 14 bmiss 10 scanvalid 60
bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi 7 roam:rate 5
protmode CTS wme
tun0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=80000<LINKSTATE>
Opened by PID 556
lo1: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
inet 10.1.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00

=====

And finally, the pciconf -lv that you requested...

=====

[Magister@hp-laptop] ~> pciconf -lv
hostb0@pci0:0:0:0: class=0x060000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x01048086 rev=0x09 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
pcib1@pci0:0:1:0: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x01018086 rev=0x09 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib2@pci0:0:1:1: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x01058086 rev=0x09 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib3@pci0:0:1:2: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x01098086 rev=0x09 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
vgapci1@pci0:0:2:0: class=0x030000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x01168086 rev=0x09 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = display
subclass = VGA
none0@pci0:0:22:0: class=0x078000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c3a8086 rev=0x04 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = simple comms
ehci0@pci0:0:26:0: class=0x0c0320 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c2d8086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
hdac0@pci0:0:27:0: class=0x040300 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c208086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = multimedia
subclass = HDA
pcib4@pci0:0:28:0: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c108086 rev=0xb5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib5@pci0:0:28:1: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c128086 rev=0xb5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
pcib6@pci0:0:28:2: class=0x060400 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c148086 rev=0xb5 hdr=0x01
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-PCI
ehci1@pci0:0:29:0: class=0x0c0320 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c268086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = serial bus
subclass = USB
isab0@pci0:0:31:0: class=0x060100 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c498086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-ISA
ahci0@pci0:0:31:2: class=0x010601 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c038086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = mass storage
subclass = SATA
none1@pci0:0:31:3: class=0x0c0500 card=0x1672103c chip=0x1c228086 rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = serial bus
subclass = SMBus
vgapci0@pci0:1:0:0: class=0x030000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x67601002 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'ATI Technologies Inc. / Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'
class = display
subclass = VGA
iwn0@pci0:4:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x13158086 chip=0x00848086 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
class = network
re0@pci0:5:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x813610ec rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'
device = 'Realtek 10/100/1000 PCI-E NIC Family all in one NDIS Driver v5.728.0604.2009 06/04/2009 (Rtl8023)'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
none2@pci0:6:0:0: class=0xff0000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x520910ec rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'

=====

Hopefully, with this info, you can guide me in this new OS that I'm trying out...

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[kmoore134]

The "re" device is included in the GENERIC kernel we use, so you don't
need to load it in loader.conf.

I see the two devices here though:

re0@pci0:5:0:0: class=0x020000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x813610ec rev=0x05 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'
device = 'Realtek 10/100/1000 PCI-E NIC Family all in one NDIS Driver v5.728.0604.2009 06/04/2009 (Rtl8023)'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
none2@pci0:6:0:0: class=0xff0000 card=0x1672103c chip=0x520910ec rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor'

I'm not sure why the driver isn't working with it though. For this issue you may need to take it upstream and report it on the freebsd-net mailing list:

http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net ('http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-net')

This may require a driver guy to take a look and update the re driver to
work with your card in particular.

Be sure to post the same pciconf / ifconfig output you provided here :)

[snowfox777]

Hello there again.

I got annoyed -- and a bit discouraged, I have to say -- at not having any luck finding a cure for my internet access... so I quit.

I decided to wait for PC-BSD 9.0 to see how it was going to behave.

Well, let's just say that I've been very disappointed. Again.

I've burned the *.iso image, checked the md5 sum, making sure they matched and I have, at least I thought, a fully functionning DVD.

Turns out that it doesn't work either. Only this time, I can't even get it to run the GUI installer.

It gives me an error message that the driver doesn't work and then the OS tries "to go VESA". That fails too.

So I'm stuck there -- and I don't know enough about command line in BSD to even try to tamper with the system.

Any thoughts on how I could fix that problem and get the GUI to work during the installation process?

Thanks in advance!