Problems with Vector Linux

[ExtremeSlacker]

I'm using 5.9 Standard GOLD built on Dec-16-07. After installation, I can't acess the internet. I don't know what's wrong because there's no problem when I installed in my old pc but for this new pc, it's not the case. When I check my network interface: it shows:
interface type lookpback
ip address 127.0.0.1
mask 255.0.0.0
broadcast address 0.0.0.0

I already set it to DHCP and autodetect but I don't know why this still happen.

[M0E-lnx]

That's where the problem is.... you're only showing a loopback interface.
you should be showing something like an eth0 or eth1, wlan0, ath0 or something else as well as the loopback

can you tell us what type of network adaptor you have and post the ouput of lsmod please.

Welcome to the forums

[ExtremeSlacker]

Thanks. How do I check my network adaptor? Here's the lsmod output:
Module                  Size  Used by
freq_table              4768  0
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            32128  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7168  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48720  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7692  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            38048  0
snd_mixer_oss          15232  1 snd_pcm_oss
firewire_ohci          16000  0
firewire_core          36928  1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t               2816  1 firewire_core
ohci1394               32432  0
ieee1394               82360  1 ohci1394
snd_hda_intel         283040  2
snd_pcm                69764  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19972  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          8712  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep               7812  1 snd_hda_intel
serio_raw               6276  0
k8temp                  5248  0
snd                    45796  14 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
shpchp                 30228  0
pci_hotplug            28616  1 shpchp
soundcore               7008  1 snd
evdev


I issued the ethtool command but it said "no such device" for all.

[wcs]

Maybe your card needs a particular driver.
Does it show up in lspci?

[ExtremeSlacker]

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0754 (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 075c (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0752 (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0751 (rev a1)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0753 (rev a2)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0568 (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 077b (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 077c (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 077d (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 077e (rev a1)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0759 (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0774 (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 075a (rev a1)
00:09.0 SATA controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0ad4 (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0760 (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0569 (rev a1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0778 (rev a1)
00:12.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 075b (rev a1)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 077a (rev a1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 084b (rev a2)
05:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. Unknown device 3403

Here is my system spec:
Model: Aspire X1200
CPU: AMD Athlon LE-1600 processor
RAM: 1GB DDRII
HDD: 320GB SATA
Video: Built in graphic, Nividia GeForce 8200
LAN: Integrated Lan 10/100/1000
BIOS/Firmware Maker: Phoenix Technologies LTD
64 bit: True

[M0E-lnx]

wOw.... buddy, first off, you got a lot of unrecognized hardware for some reason.

And it seems you have a 64bit system.
I would recommend you switch to the 64-bit version of vl 5.9 and see if you have any better luck with that...

[wcs]

I guess you would need to see if there's any module for that Ethernet controller.

Maybe you could also have better luck with a more recent kernel.
Perhaps the one in 5.9.1 Soho.

Or the most recent kernel on the repositories (2.6.25.something). Go with your browser and check for the "kernels" directory.
After installpkg, do vliloconf.

[ExtremeSlacker]

Can a 32bit OS be used on the 64bit cpu? I guess it's a yes since I have installed VL5.9. Will it cause any problem?

wcs, I don't understand these sentences:
Or the most recent kernel on the repositories (2.6.25.something). Go with your browser and check for the "kernels" directory.
After installpkg, do vliloconf.

And If I need to install a new one, which one should I download from here:
http://www.vectorlinux.com/downloads#standard

[bigpaws]

According to what I can find on the ethernet.

Try this as root:

modprobe forcedeth

check with lsmod to see of the module loaded
Now lets see if it will work type:

ifconfig eth0 up

Test using ifconfig

See if there is a eth0 listed.

If you can use VASM to configure the card.

You can use a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit Setup, I have been
running like that for years.

Bigpaws

[wcs]

Or the most recent kernel on the repositories (2.6.25.something). Go with your browser and check for the "kernels" directory.
After installpkg, do vliloconf.

I meant going to http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-5.9/kernels/ and downloading kernel-2.6.25.7-i586-1vl59.tlz .
To install it, you do "installpkg kernel-2.6.25.7-i586-1vl59.tlz".
After that, you need to put an entry for the kernel in /etc/lilo.conf (which can be achieved by running "vliloconf" as root).
The reason for this is that you cannot install kernels through gslapt.

But sure, bigpaws solution is much better. No need to mess around with a new kernel, especially if there's no guarantee that it will help anything.

If you want to try another version of vector, you could go for
VL 5.9.1 SOHO Download edition "new"  or
64-Bit - VL 5.9 64 bits Edition Beta2

[ExtremeSlacker]

This is strange. Way before bigpaws replies, I installed Zenwalk 5.0 and miraculously, I was able to access the Internet. Before that, I was installing OpenSolaris, VectorLinux with internet access problem. As for DSL, I can't even install or boot from LiveCD. I will try bigpaws' method when I'm done dual booting Zenwalk and Vector Linux. 

My first try of dual booting failed but I managed to try bigpaws' solution and here's the result:

modprobe forcedeth

nothing except "vector:/~" is shown

check with lsmod to see of the module loaded

modules     used by
forcedeth       0

Now lets see if it will work type:

ifconfig eth0 up

error while getting interface flags: no such device

If you can use VASM to configure the card.

tried it a lot of times but it never work.

I haven't tried wcs's method yet because I want to have confirmation on how to dual boot before I try to dual boot dual linux again.

I don't know if I should make a new topic or put it here but I put it here for now; this is my current partition setting:

name         flags                part type         fs type                     size
sda1           boot                 primary             linux                     80GB
sda2                                   primary         linux swap               40GB
sda3                                   primary             linux                     80GB
sda5                                   logical            linux swap               40GB
sda6                                   logical             linux                       40GB
sda7                                   logical             linux                       40GB

then zenwalk root is in sda1 while zenwalk swap is in sda2. I looked around the net but I don't know what to type in etc/lilo.conf and how to mount the second linux os.

[wcs]

Note that my comment about trying another kernel or another VL version is a complete wild guess....
Newer kernels tend to support more hardware, but I have no idea whether it would make that work.

Maybe an easier thing to try is the new 5.9 Live CD.
Maybe it comes with the 2.6.25.7 kernel, but not sure. Can anyone confirm?
If it does, no need to install anything, just run the cd and see if you have internet.

[ExtremeSlacker]

I downloaded VL5.9 Live CD and the 5.9 64bit version Beta 2 CD. I tried the LiveCd and I thought it was not much better than my situation. I tried to go to the website but it gave me XML parsin error: undefined entity. During the loading phase, the font cache(?something similar) failed and the multi GUI I think also failed, at least that's what it show. When the Live CD load the desktop, all I could see is a blank blue desktop with the bottom panel? That's only a few item shown if you right click on it. Is the Live CD supposed to be displayed like this? At first I couldn't find Mozilla Firefox but I don't know what I done and a 'box' popped up and asked me to choose the browser I want to use.

[wcs]

l I could see is a blank blue desktop with the bottom panel? That's only a few item shown if you right click on it. Is the Live CD supposed to be displayed like this?

It's not supposed to look like that, but there was a similar problem in a previous version.
You can take it up in this thread:
http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=7431.0

[ExtremeSlacker]

I am downloading the VL 5.9 Live "Final" cd now. Will be back 4 or 5 hours later.

*back* I downloaded the Final edition of Vl 5.9 Live, it resolved the desktop issue but not the network issue. I did lsmod but forcedeth was not up. So I followed bigpaws' method and used modprobe forcedeth and then did a lsmod. Forcedeth is shown. Next I did a ifconfig eth0 up but it failed showing "error while getting interface flags: no such device". I tried using VASM to configure the network. I went to one of the VASM tab where it shows start network, delete interface, add interface... and clicked "start network" but it showed starting inet1 failed. Before that I went to the network tab to configure the networking option where I choose DHCP. Did a ifconfig after that and it showed me loopback interface 127.0.0.1.

What other thing I did was issuing the lspci -v | grep -i ethernet command and it returned: 00:0a 0 Ethernet Controller nVidia Corporation unknown device 0760 (rev a2). I tried the dhclient eth0 after that but it doesn't work; returned command not found I think. Tried alias eth0 forcedeth but doesn't work too.

I went to the /etc/network/interfaces folder and look at it; I saw this two sentences:
loopback 127.0.0.1
localnet 127.0.0.1

I issued another command dmesg | grep -i eth0 but it shows "vector:/~" but if I type in  "dmesg | grep -i eth", it shows me forcedeth c Reverse Engineered nForce Ethernet Driver version 0.60.

The kernel version for this cd is 2.6.22.19?? I could only catch this.