Package: netcfg Debian-installer-version: RC3, from lcs.mit.edu uname -a: Date: 5/11/2005 +/- 1 day Method: RC3 CDs
Machine: H-P Vectra VL Processor: Pentium 2 Memory: 128M Root Device: IDE /dev/hda Root Size/partition table: / 4.8 GB /var 2.5 GB /home 500 MB Output of lspci: Not relevant, no problems with PCI devices Base System Installation Checklist: Initial boot worked: [O] Configure network HW: [E/O] Config network: [E/O] Detect CD: [O] Load installer modules: [O] Detect hard drives: [O] Partition hard drives: [O] Create file systems: [O] Mount partitions: [O] Install base system: [O] Install boot loader: [O] Reboot: [O] [O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it Comments/Problems: This machine is configured to be a multihomed router/firewall, among other functions. It has four Ethernet boards: 1 PCI 3C905B Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT) 1 PCI 3C905B 100BaseT only 1 ISA-PNP 3C509 Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT) 1 ISA-PNP SMC-Ultra Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT) Netcfg (as called by debian-installer) detected and configured either PCI network board with no problems. It didn't detect either of the ISA-PNP boards at all. If I accidentally hit <Esc> at "Detecting network hardware", another screen came up, in which additional driver modules were listed. Nothing in the installer manual or the screen messages said this function exists. If I selected one of the ISA-PNP drivers, the configuration screen came back, and showed that network card in addition to the two PCI cards. Configuring it appeared to take, but pinging didn't work on any of the four boards. lsmod showed that the driver module wasn't loaded for the board that was configured. After installation, it was possible to get all four boards working simultaneously by manually editing /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/modules. The same edits worked for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, even though the update-modules manpage that installs with 2.6 says that /etc/modules.conf is in the process of elimination. There are some hints that hotplug is now being used to load all network driver modules. This doesn't appear to work with any ISA boards, since the kernel is able to detect PCI boards at boot without the help of any config files, but it cannot detect ISA boards the same way. Digging through hotplug docs and config files showed that the driver modules hotplug is supposed to look for are mostly sound drivers, and not network drivers. Getting hotplug to load ISA-PNP (or ISA non-PNP) driver modules would appear to require an unknown amount of work. So if netcfg is to configure an ISA board, even an ISA-PNP board, it must edit whatever config file is to tell the kernel to load the driver module, in addition to the stanza it adds to /etc/network/interfaces. For now, it would seem to be simpler to do this in the traditional way, through /etc/modules or /etc/modules.conf, rather than through the much more complex hotplug system. It should also be noted that most network driver modules don't check for more than one board using the same driver (a fairly common situation in firewalls and routers). In the past, this has been handled by adding alias statements to /etc/network/interfaces. If, as the 2.6 manpage implies, /etc/network/interfaces is going to be eliminated, then this must be accomplished in some other way. Note: this report partly repeats material from 309051. It was necessary to re-file because the title and severity of that earlier report were incorrectly changed, causing the significance to be lost. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]