Progress with Linksys Ethernet card

Lon,

Great to see that you've made it this far! Perhaps when the other people who have been helping (and in my case, "lurking") can read this they will help you to find out what you did to get here and what you need to do to "make it stick"!

Keep up the good work!

Jon

Hi Jon,

Well, plodding along has done some good but it's
far from a slam dunk to login in to dsl.

I am back on here today but only after doing
the whole Mepis OS Center Network setup again.

Then...

#pump ( a command I got form a local helper)
#ping www.[myISP].net
gives
64 bytes from 209.103 ******:icmp_seq=93 ttl 252 time:

and repeats.

->How do you turn ping off?

Notes of the day:

I do not have a printer.
is there a way to have the init load piped by pages
so i can see and make notes on what happens?

The startup showed this error:

internet subserver-- no isdn something something

also

It says to use modconf to fix hisax module

'S'all Greek to me.

From another part of the woods, my local
helper advised to modify /etc/network/interfaces.

Attempting to make the changes gave a permission
denied error.

I used konqueror to find the file, left click
properties and made the interfaces file read write.

Those IP numbers that appear in Mepis OS config
appear in here.

so they get loaded every time, even after I deleted
them from Mepis OS this time through setup today.

The instruction is to commnet out the lines
at address
netmask
broadcast
network
etc.

and be sure the line:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

has dhcp and not 'static' at the end.

I have changed the permissions but have not
modified that file.

At this time:

oot@1[~]# plog
Aug 10 15:28:31 mepis1 pppd[2001]: receivePacket: recv: Network is down
Aug 10 15:28:31 mepis1 pppd[2001]: Exit.
root@1[~]#

root@1[~]# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:17:52:76:07
inet addr:192.168.0.64 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:557 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:664 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:406018 (396.5 KiB) TX bytes:73613 (71.8 KiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0xe800

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:214 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:214 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:13382 (13.0 KiB) TX bytes:13382 (13.0 KiB)

Since ifconfig always reports eth0 up and l0 up I don't
know why these problems persist.

I will wait a bit on modifying /etc/network/interfaces
until I know more.

I hope this is clear and well explained.

Hi Lon,

I don't know anything about kppp, but perhaps I can answer some of the easier questions

Pretty much anything that you might modify in /etc must be done as root. Pretty much anything located outside of /home/youraccount must be modified as root.

What I usually do before I'm going to modify any file like /etc/network/interfaces is copy the thing 'cause I don't trust my own typing and I like to save previous versions.

If you want to use to command line to start/stop some of these services after you change them you can do the following (as root).
/etc/init.d/networking stop
/etc/init.d/networking start
or
/etc/init.d/networking restart

I'm wondering if you're having routing problems. Just 'cause your interfaces are up doesn't mean you can get anywhere! "cat /etc/resolv.conf" when you are up as well as when you're down and post the results so we can see the differences.

When you ask whether you can send "init load piped by pages...", are you meaning when the system boots or some other initialization? If you want the very first stuff from your system you can enter "dmesg > /root/dmesg.txt" and then send the file dmesg.txt to your printer. If you need other info, there may be a log somewhere. Post what command or process you're trying to check and I'll see if I can find a log or two.

Don't worry about isdn; you're not using it. As root, if you perform the command "rm /etc/rc*d/*isdn" it will delete the isdn start/stop processes.

Jon

What follows is an anecdote that Ihope will be
usefull to other readers.

I have been in communication with the 'Linux Guru" at my
ISP where the new dsl connection is from. The guy had
a dialog with me about the Mepis setup in mail a couple
times. Today he says that since the ISP does not officially
support Linux, any further assistance would have to take
place on sight (my house) where a technician could smoothe
out the setup for $60/hr.

My response was that I agreed that it was a Mepis problem
since I _do_ get connected but only after going through
pppoeconfig in the Mepis OS Center. With that said, I
concluded that his offer of a setup for $60/hr was a
shakedown.

Word.

So I am back in here after making a fresh bunch of notes
today on what I did to get back on the dsl.

As to your instruction:

root@1[~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
nameserver 209.103.196.2
search domain.actdsltmp
root@1[~]#

... when the connection is up like now.

I have no printer so I'd want to put a command in init to display
and load by page at startup. Can I do that?

As to the Mepis problem, like told the shakedown artist, these
problems are in the Mepis OS routine because doing the same
routine each day gets me on, but the settings wherever they
need to be are not retained in system. Why would that be?
and is there a way to bypass and 'turn off' the Mepis Network
'helper'?

I made a diary of the process to get on today. I am going to
make that in a text file so i don't have to rewrite to much.

I'll put that on when finished. It should explain what
The Network control routine is doing or not doing after
each session.

Mepis Network startup notes:

These are notes and observations from a cold startup.
The previous day's session went pretty much the same with
me doing all the data entry in pppoeconfig.

So today :

Power up, login etc.
click on Firefox to see if the connection is on
> no websites can load

then

# if config

> eth0 up
> l0 up

# plog

> "unable to complete PPPoE Discovery"

# pump -i eth0 --status

> IP 19*.1.68.0.64
Netmask 255.255.255.0
Broadcast19*.68.0.255
Network 19*.168.0.0
Bootserv 19*.168.0.1
Nextserv 0.0.0.0
Gateway 19*.168.0.1
Hostname (none)
Domain: domain.actdsltmp
Nameserver 19*.168.0.1 20*.103.196.2
Renewal time
Expiration time

#ping www.[myISP].net
> not found error

checked file at /etc/network/interfaces

received Permission denied error *after* I had changed
the file interfaces changed to rw rw rw.

Konqueror

/etc/network/interfaces

showed the file had retained the rw rw rw setting from
the previous day. (also copied off the original to disk)

In /etc/network/interfaces I commented out the

#address
#netmask
#broadcast
#gateway

and saved the file the previous day. That file
it remained changed as I had made it.

Here is the Network Control Center info before the whole login
Routine is done again:

Status tab:

l0 down
eth0 down

Misc tab:

x Start at system boot (on)
o Use DHCP for DNS (on)

eth0 tab:

x start at system boot (on)
o Use DHCP for IP (on)

All the Start At system Boot check boxes are on at this point.

Test #1

Restart of Mepis from warm boot:

no dsl connection

Run Mepis Net Config

Misc Tab
click pppoeconfig

I respond the default 'yes' to everything, but not going
to write all that out.

Username Box has 'loninappleton' from previous so I
click through that and give my password plus any other default
yeses.

Apply
Exit Network Center

#pump
#ping www.[myISP].net

> 64 bytes from 209.103.196.67

and I'm on for the day.

Whew! A logn road to hoe for this.

One note from my guy at the ISP said that my name at the
service is "lon@[the wonderful service].net" not
"loninappleton@[the wonderful service].net

Here is the guy's note which may be more helpful to you
than me:

Date: Wed, August 10, 2005 12:26 pm
To: lon@[the wonderful service].net

Lon,

Your ifconfig output looks correct, given that eth0 is getting its IP
address via DHCP and appears to be working (as the packet counters are
high on that interface.) That said, no further configuration should be
necessary. As you can see, there is no ppp0 interface configured (per the
ifconfig output) and the connection is working. This is because the PPPoE
session is not managed by the workstation since our modem/router is
handling it (and only one device needs to bring up said PPPoE session).

As far as the username and password, the username associated with the DSL
is 'lon' though I cannot provide the password via email. Note that when
the DSL PPPoE session comes up, the username is sent in full email address
form, (IE 'lon@[the wonderful blah blah.net') but this should not concern you as your PPPoE
session is handled by the modem/router.

I've actually been using Linux myself since 1997 and have configured it
for internet connectivity in static, dynamic (DHCP), and PPPoE setups.
Given my experience, take my word for it: You do not want to setup PPPoE
for this connection, regardless of what the installer tells you. You want
a DHCP configured ethernet interface, which is generally the way it is
setup by default. The PPPoE information you entered did not take effect
at all, because, per your ifconfig output, no ppp0 interface was setup.

If ping is working (to IP addresses) but you cannot browse websites, it
might be a DNS issue. Is this the case?

ends

Ok, that's as complete a diary as I can give of this.

Maybe there are some clues in here to get this settled.

lon

Lon,

The advice the ISP gentleman gave you is solid.

When you run 'ifconfig', you see the information for the network adapter, the mac address, etc. Following that, you see some business about packets, 'tx'(= sent packets) and 'rx' (= packets received).

In one of your earlier posts of your ifconfig, there was a significant number of both sent and received packets (and zero errors listed). This can only occur if your network card is working properly. So have no worries about that particular end of things.

So maybe try a few things:

'ping www.yahoo.com' -See if you get any affirmative results. If it fails, then we know there is a DNS issue

'ping 216.109.118.64' -This is the numerical equivalent of 'www.yahoo.com'.
I expect this one to succeed for you. But if not, let us know.

Open your '/etc/resolv.conf' file. Herein should be something similar to this-

search LonsFavoriteISP.net
nameserver 207.69.188.186
nameserver 207.69.188.187
nameserver 207.69.188.185

The above are the DNS addresses (though yours will be numerically different) that translate 'www.yahoo.com' into '216.109.118.64'. If the file is blank...

Now, the weird thing is that you have to use 'pump'. Have you managed to get a connection w/o using 'pump'? The answer will provide another valuable clue.

Hang in there. You've stumbled on something somewhat unusual. I won't be surprised to find out the problem is in the DSL modem and not Mepis.

Keep us posted.

q

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.

Good advice qtech. With any luck at all, we'll haul Lon, yelling, screaming, and bruised, into the 21st Century with broadband (but he'll feel better for it). And instead of it taking MONTHS for him to solve a problem, it will take mere WEEKS.

Really Lon, hang in there and you'll get this thing whipped!

Jon

To keep some kind of continuity, I'm responding to this
use of the cat/etc/resolv.conf here.

Today when I powered up I did the cat/resolv.conf
command again:

oot@1[~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
root@1[~]#

So, resolv.conf does not see any IP addresses before I go through
the whole thing... which I did again today.

I'd don't actually know what I'm doing here, just following
along by rote.

I put the quote on here just so I can read along and respond:

first the news in the /etc/resolv.conf....

Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
nameserver 209.103.196.2
search domain.actdsltmp

next ping yahoo:

PING 216.109.118.64 (216.109.118.64): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.109.118.64: icmp_seq=0 ttl=49 time=75.8 ms
64 ... still don't know how to turn it off.

What does search domain.actdsltmp mean? shouldn't
my ISP name be in there someplace?

And yes, the pump [return] command is necessary to
activate after all the other Net Config stuff.

I can't see how anything can be wrong with the dsl
modem it's working under Windows and Mepis. The network
setup made every session is not being saved.

I'm hoping these diagnostic things can show that.

The guy at the ISP (not necessarily in the shakedown
department) would tell me if he knew what was the
problem, I think. He spoke of sending a technician
out for $60/hr which is unacceptable. What would the
technician do here? I've assembled my own build and
will start another one soon. to me, everything looks
like it's working inside and out.

New messages are in here today and dsl works once it's
activated all over again.

I'm too slow to remember what the pump command does
right now but pump [return], not pump -i eth0 --status
starts up the system.

Mention was made that the dsl modem itself could be an
issue. What would the physical device have to do with it
unless it was supposed to keep something in firmware?

Is there a flash process for dsl modems like there is
for dvd drives? I suppose that's one of those things
the $60/hr technician could whip off in an hour or 2.

If a firmware upgrade was necessary, the ISP
would give that. Their instructions for setup are
thorough but do not include Mepis. :-/

The device seems to be working ok. Only light not on
is for USB.

Yesterday I did an apt-get upgrade system wide.

Today when starting up system, I did the usual routine since
setup of the dsl of trying to start Firefox first thing.
That failed, there was no connection.

I ran a plog and it showed that PAD could not be found
as usual.

Ran the pump command.

Tried my mail program and that started up ok.

So since upgrade I've only had to run pump
to get things going on dsl.

I do not know if there is any experience with this
kind of error that can be found on google, but I'll
see if I can find anything.

To termminate ping=> Ctrl+c

I got this from the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets
file.

# If you have different providers with different passwords then you better
# remove the following line.

alpha * password

"lon" * "fet[I know the rest]"

"lon@[my wonderful ISP].net" * "fet[I know the rest]"

"username" * ""

ends.

Does this look right from input from PPPoE?

Today I found a helpful tutorial on setting up
the home network here:

http://www.brennan.id.au/index.html

But

# /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp0

gave me a no such file or directory error.

Cheers.

Lon

I believe the problem may be here:

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
nameserver 209.103.196.2
search domain.actdsltmp

The first address, 192.168.0.1, is an address local to your network. It is not a DNS 'nameserver'. I believe the correct address should be 209.103.196.15 or 209.103.197.2. The final line should be

search lonsfavoriteISP.net

Alas, I do not know the proper way of repairing this issue. Betcha a dollar St. Jon of Mepis knows though.

q

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.

qtech and Lon,

I'm not sure it this fix will "stick", but I think that resolv.conf is getting changed because you have set "Use DHCP for DNS" on the Misc tab in the Mepis OS Center, Network Interfaces section (whew!). If you do use DHCP for the DNS side, then it WILL get overwritten. But you can always save the file (/etc/resolv.conf), unset the above option, and leave the values for DNS in as static. Unless lonsfavoriteISP.net changes its DNS frequently, the IP addresses should be OK for quite some time:-)

Fearful of losing my own mind that I am, I always copy these files that I'm going to change. Modify resolv.conf and simply put a "#" in front of the 192.168.0.1. And yes, qtech is right, the two DNS IP addresses for lonsfavoriteISP.net are:
209.103.196.2 and 209.103.196.15

It probably doesn't matter that lonsfavoriteISP.net is placed at the bottom of resolv.conf, but in mine the "search" is at the top of the file.

Make the changes to the file and test it. If it works, MAKE A BACKUP of it. Lately because I have been using my laptop at home and at a clients my resolv.conf keeps getting changed. That and I'm trying to use my own DNS (the jury's still out on this), so I have quite a few copies. Ya wanna trade?

Although you normally don't need to restart your network if you change resolv.conf, I'm funny and restart it anyway. Hey, it's not like having to REBOOT THE SYSTEM like I do with Windows (grin). To stop/start the network from the command prompt, as root you can do the following:
/etc/init.d/networking stop
/etc/init.d/networking start
or
/etc/init.d/networking restart

You may get some errors, but if you get lights on your network card you're good to go

Jon

What?

I may be at the too much tea time of the day
but I'm confused.

What we are trying to resolve is me having to
type pump to get the net connection established
for each session.

This is the 'what time is it?' question not the
'how do I build a clock?' question.

From the previous it looks like something in the
Mepis Control Center should be changed then some
IP addresses have to be changed in resolv.config.,
wherever _that_ is.

Hey, I just learned how to use the whereis command on my own
which is my accomplishment for the day.

Lon,

The 'resolv.conf' file holds the information needed to convert website names, like 'www.yahoo.com', into the computers native language of numbers, like 216.109.118.64.

Without the proper information in your resolv.conf, you will be facing an eternal Tower Of Babel.

Switch to decaf.

q

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.

Ok, I'll go look at it and bring that in here.
At this point my goal is to bypass the Mepsis Control
Center for network altogether. After having read what
you said above, I rechecked the control center and
saw that any changed I made had one again been returned
to default.

As of today, I'm still using pump to start the
dsl connection.

Right here I'm not knowing who we can discuss this
and protect the IP addresses. Here is resolve conf:

# Dynamic resolv.conf(5) file for glibc resolver(3) generated by resolvconf(
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BY HAND -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN
nameserver 192.168.0.1
nameserver 2**.103.196.2
search domain.actdsltmp

So if I can experiment with this from the IP's given in
your earlier post, I can see if that straightens anything
out. Awaiting anything further on this.

After commenting out the '198' line, I used the stop and
restart the net command with the following result:

root@3[~]# /etc/init.d/networking stop
Deconfiguring network interfaces.../usr/bin/poff: No pppd is running. None stopped.
done.
root@3[~]# /etc/init.d/networking start
Setting up IP spoofing protection: rp_filter.
Configuring network interfaces...ifup: interface lo already configured
Operation failed.
Failed to bring up ath0.
Operation failed.
Failed to bring up wlan0.
Plugin rp-pppoe.so loaded.
done.
root@3[~]#

The resolv.conf file is saved to a floppy before this
operation.

I'll try restarting from boot to see what that does.

After restarting, no connection until the pump command is issued
then everything comes up as it has done.

So the resolv.conf file remains altered. And getting
on the dsl remains the same.

the resolv.conf file was overwritten to the
original.

I'm going to assume that I have done nothing of consequence
today. Permission errors of this sort are trying my
patience since looking at the perms for
resolve config say the owner (me) can read/write if I
understand it all correctly.

Perhaps the stop start experiement above worked. I don't know.

Lon, I have been sitting by feeling like I have had little to contribute, and now think that I might have even less to contribute

Actually, I have just done some research on the pump command (not needing DSL for my use). Can you post the results of "pump -s"

There's also a file /etc/pump.conf that has a number of configurable items including domain search info. Unfortunately, I was also looking to see if I could find a reference to a startup script but don't see one on my systems. Can you do the following command from a Konsole and post the results?
ls -la /etc/init.d/*pump*

I don't think you will have anything, but if you do it would be a command to start/stop pump (which is normally done by the command /etc/init.d/ifupdown). If you do have something then I can give you a command to start the thing automatically (but don't hold your breath; I wouldn't want you to turn funny colors).

Go have some more tea instead...

Jon

You've been a big help just staying with me on this.

Ok, I'll begin posting some of this stuff:

root@1[~]# pump -s
Device eth0
IP: 192.168.0.64
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Broadcast: 192.168.0.255
Network: 192.168.0.0
Boot server 192.168.0.1
Next server 0.0.0.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Gateways: 192.168.0.1
Hostname: mepis1
Domain: domain.actdsltmp
Nameservers: 192.168.0.1 209.103.196.2
Renewal time: Wed Aug 17 01:03:11 2005
Expiration time: Wed Aug 17 02:33:11 2005
root@1[~]#

--> Looks like what I've gooten before.

root@1[~]# ls -la /etc/init.d/*pump*
ls: /etc/init.d/*pump*: No such file or directory

--> nope nothing there.

And my startup today was the same: use pump to
make mt dsl work.

My question is: why hasn't Warren the Mepis dude joined us
on this? Why hasn't this been a problem for jillions of
users since we know it's not in the hardware?

Q: If I had a printer-- and could make it work-- could I print out
the initialization routines in a log format so I could read
the errors, *or* print them to a file so I could forward
to you what errors appear?

Tea in large amounts (4-6 cups) provides theophylin which
is an asthma medication. It acts as a decongestant. I'm
not real big on natural remedies but the routine seems to work
to relieve symptoms. Crankiness is a side effect.

I finally got around to doing the command given to
remove isdn stuff which gave an error:

root@2[~]# rm /etc/rc*d/*isdn
rm: cannot remove `/etc/rc*d/*isdn': No such file or directory
root@2[~]#

I think my syntax is screwed at rc*.d but can't remember.
I copied down what I wrote.

Lon, regarding the ISDN stuff. it looks like you have have already deleted it based on the error message. You can double-check by
ls -la /etc/rc*d/*isdn*
If nothing comes up then there are no startups for isdn, which is what I think you want.

Regarding tea: I'm not a doctor (Dammit Jim!!) but if you can get your hands on "Breath Easy Tea". It used to be available in regular grocery stores that have a "Natural Foods" aisle. It's packaged by "Natural Medicines". "Breath Easy" contains ma huang, which is a natural source of ephedrine. Plus it tastes good

Regarding the (ahem) "pump dump", I find it interesting that you're getting a DHCP entry of the 192.168.0.x as well as a DNS entry for same. Those have got to be coming from your modem/router (I would think).

I gotta run in a moment and will be back here later this evening. I think we can put something in place to make your system go though. Can you post exactly what you enter to get pump going? If you have to put any info on the command line that you feel would violate your privacy just enter dummy arguments for the command structure. Also, if there's an equivalent command that you use to shut it down, let me know that. I can build a set of commands that you can put on your computer. Maybe then your system will Will Be Pumpin' (sorry).

Jon

LOL. The FDA took "Breath Easy Tea" off the market ostensibly because of the ephedrine. That stuff was my 'ol' reliable' cold treatment for years. More effective than any of that OTC products. Still available in China.

Now, I just use rsync.

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.

Ok. These days when I plug in my Mepis drive and go through
thr login... I still login as root-- at the root desktop
I open a terminal window and type:

# pump

[return]

and that's it.

Numerous checks of the Mepis Network center have not shown
that any changes I have made have taken effect, but if you want to go
through tat again, alright.

Just for grins i went to look up things under 'system'
at the start panel and the pppoe config that runs in in
Mepis netwrok Center runs in there too.

So I have checked and re-checked just about everything.

Thanks for the advice on the tea. I'm getting cranked up
now.

I had out my Linux sys admin book and
tried to look up the 'pump' command which has
been making my dsl com alive and lo and behold,
no pump command listed. So I got this far essentially
on a tip from a guy at the public library.

:-/

Well anyway I'm still looking for a way to
not have to use the pump command manually but
didn't see a way of writing a script to autoload the
command 'pump' someplace.

Elsewhere there is a proggie to get Wireless going
and it is called a 'wrapper.'

Are there wrappers for dsl as well?

Lon, try to put these commands on your system. You will have to open a console and perform the commands as root.

The first command, "whereis pump" is to establish exactly where the pump command is located. If it is not at /sbin/pump, then modify the commands accordingly.

whereis pump
pump:/sbin/pump


# As user root, create the following links:

ln -s /sbin/pump /etc/init.d/pump

ln -s ../init.d/pump /etc/rcS.d/S45pump

The first link points to the real command at /sbin/pump.

The second link causes the pump command to be executed after the network has been started since the /etc/init.d/networking command has a link /etc/rcS.d/S40networking (they're done in numeric order).

After the links are in place, do a reboot and let me know how it works

Jon

Thanks for the reply, Jon.

I hope to get at this tomorrow.

After the last reinstall of Mepis, I was going back
over the stuff to get the mousetype in Firefox up to
something I can read.

Also spent a number of days seeing how BitTorrent works---
not that well over on Windows under BitComet and a number
of tweaks are necessary from a place called portforward.\
That is another mystery.

My system showed a kernel error while doing a couple of
intensive operations. Last time I had a kernel error in
Windows I had to replace the cpu.

My largest drive used for music storage apparently failed
and will not get recognized. I might be dead.

But I have 2 backups for that. Hate to loose a 60g drive though.

The data is sort of replaceable since last backup but that
will take time.

Jeez.

Back to Linux tomorrow.