Activating the network interface

Wed · 01-06-2024, 04:59 AM

I have a fresh install on my stationary computer. Trying to update the system, I repeatedly failed.

It turns out loopback is active. I had the networkmanager handle it. The cable is connected and there is link.

How do I list the NIC's? And how do I get them running?

Quote:

Mellanox MT26448 10GigE
Intel I211 Gigabit

I need to transfer the driver for my nVidia card. xinit gives up, unable to connect to X server: Bad file descriptor.

The driver is on a USB-stick but I haven't found a way to mount one without first getting into X.

With nmtui I tried to find and activate at least one, but got nowhere. So tried

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.intet1 start

. No luck there either. Did I disable networkmanager by that?

camorri · 01-06-2024, 08:59 AM

Quote:

How do I list the NIC's? And how do I get them running?

Two commands, 'ip a' ( without the quotes ) and inxi -n will list the interfaces and display status.

The ip command can change the state of the interface once its configured. On an install with ethernet cards, run the script 'netconfig' ( no quotes ) and fill in the blanks for each item. That should get your interfaces configured. You need to be root to run netconfig.

Is it a .run file for the Nvidia card ? Slackware has Nvidia drivers on Slackbuilds. It is your choice if you want to install the driver from a run file, just understand it is not tracked by Slackware by the package manager. If you install from Slackbuilds, it is tracked.

To mount the USB stick, as root use the mount command. Begin by finding out what the USB stick is know by. Run the command 'lsblk -f' before plugging the stick. Note what partitions and HD's you have. Plug the stick, and re-run the command. Use the mount command.

Ex. 'mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/hd' The xy is the drive and partition number. /mnt/hd is a standard empty mount point on every Slackware system I have used. You can create your own mount point if you wish. Once mounted, you can install the Nvidia driver. You will need to blacklist the nouveau driver for the Nvidia driver to work.

Hope this helps.

damidu · 01-06-2024, 09:18 AM

Quote:

I have a fresh install on my stationary computer. Trying to update the system, I repeatedly failed.

Hi, did you have build an initrd? You can do it with pkgtool

quickbreakfast · 01-06-2024, 11:19 PM

you've got me asking questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wed

I have a fresh install on my stationary computer.

Is the fresh install current or 15.0?

Quote:

Trying to update the system, I repeatedly failed.

Can you ping somewhere like

Code:

ping -c3 www.linuxquestions.org

If you can and no packages are lost, then try, as root

Code:

slackpkg update gpg

then try updating your system.

Quote:

The driver is on a USB-stick but I haven't found a way to mount one without first getting into X.

Have you tried the "mount" command? If so what error message did you get? ...... actually please post ALL error messages.

slac-in-the-box · 01-07-2024, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wed

The driver is on a USB-stick but I haven't found a way to mount one without first getting into X.

Become the superuser:

Code:

su -

Insert the usb-stick.
See how the usb-stick was recognized by the system:

Code:

dmesg

It should say something like sdb, sdc, etc., and list the partitions, like sdb1, sdb2, etc.
Assuming your usb-stick has one partition recognized as sdb1:

Code:

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp

Change to the directory where the usb-stick was mounted:

Code:

cd /mnt/tmp

Look for your nvidia driver:

Code:

ls

Install it.

Wed · 01-13-2024, 04:20 AM

I'm very sorry for the long delay. But I'm back home now. More importantly, awake. Thanks for all of your replies. I lumped them all together here. I'm more than happy to help you help me.

Quote:

Two commands, 'ip a' ( without the quotes ) and inxi -n will list the interfaces and display status.

Code:

# ip a

Shows
1: lo and nothing else

Code:

# inxi -n

Shows
Network:
Device-1 Mellanox Driver: N/A
Device-2 Intel I211 Driver: N/A

Just as during installation, twice, when I ran netconfig, the result was the same.

Code:

# netconfig

Hostname
domain
Networkmanager

Code:

# ifconfig

lo:

Quote:

Is it a .run file for the Nvidia card ?

Yes. I will happily try a slackbuild though.

Code:

# lsblk -l

With or without the USB-stick, it show six results. All nvme.

Quote:

did you have build an initrd?

No. I followed the installation to the end. That is all.

Quote:

Is the fresh install current or 15.0?

It is 15. I'm a stable kind of guy.

Quote:

Can you ping somewhere like ...

No, nothing

Quote:

Have you tried the "mount" command?

No, I don't know what to mount. See below.

Quote:

Become the superuser:

I haven't yet created another user. So, root I am.

Code:

# dmesg

This is a long list. It does show a few USB-sticks being connected and disconnected. Chancing it I tried

Code:

# mount /dev/ "tab, tab"

Only thing that shows up are shm, snapshot, stderr, stdin, stdout. So I didn't go further.

More intriguing though, are the fails to execute "/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxCreateUSBMode.sh ..."
and so on, on a few places. Why does a fresh install remember such things? I put the whole install in the one partition called "/".

___ · 01-13-2024, 04:54 AM

More information on the 2 network devices, and look for their drivers, maybe their names for a modprobe cmd.

lspci -v -nn

It's very odd that lsblk doesn't see your USB device!
Is this actually a VM or real hardware?

Tell us more about: did it used to work? And did you format the disk for the new install? Maybe EFI is booting the wrong disk....

Wed · 01-13-2024, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ___

More information on the 2 network devices, and look for their drivers, maybe their names for a modprobe cmd.

lspci -v -nn

Many sections end with things such as:

Code:

Kernel driver in use: nvme

But these two don't. Just a list of capabilities.

Quote:

It's very odd that lsblk doesn't see your USB device!
Is this actually a VM or real hardware?

Real hardware

Quote:

Tell us more about: did it used to work?

Yes. I did the reinstall as I changed the graphics card, during X-mas downtime.

Quote:

And did you format the disk for the new install? Maybe EFI is booting the wrong disk....

The traditional quick format. Except for the /home partition and the extra disk for files mounted under my home directory.

Wed · 01-13-2024, 05:43 AM

I don't recall the install asking me to jump through hoops about EFI or elilo. Merely if I wanted to install lilo or not. My memory is a bit hazy about the details.

The last few times I tried to install again, the screen was half filled with 99 before freezing up.

Petri Kaukasoina · 01-13-2024, 06:12 AM

Maybe you don't have modules installed for the kernel version you are running. Try these:

Code:

uname -r
ls -1 /var/adm/packages/kernel-*

Wed · 01-13-2024, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Petri Kaukasoina

Maybe you don't have modules installed for the kernel version you are running. Try these:

Code:

uname -r

5.15.117

Code:

ls -1 /var/adm/packages/kernel-*

5.15.19 ...

This is a problem, right? Real questions is how to fix it?

Petri Kaukasoina · 01-13-2024, 06:59 AM

I am only guessing what the problem is.

1. Maybe you have a UEFI system and you did not install elilo. You used to have an updated Slackware system before so you had earlier kernel 5.15.117 and possible initrd in the EFI system partition. You boot now from that. And the root file system has now the original Slackware kernel 5.15.19 with modules.

2. Or you have legacy system and did not install lilo. The old MBR has the old lilo pointing to the old 5.15.117 kernel.

To fix, boot from the install USB stick but in the Boot: prompt, don't press enter. Instead, read the text on the screen. It tells you can type 'huge.s root=/dev/sda1 initrd= ro'. Then you boot to your new os with kernel 5.15.19 with working net and you can fix initrd and elilo or lilo. (You need to know your actual root partition to replace sda1 with it.)

camorri · 01-13-2024, 07:01 AM

To see all ther kernel packages,

Code:

ls -l /var/lib/pkgtools/packages | grep kernel
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 124K Dec 30 17:17 kernel-firmware-20231222_a7dee43-noarch-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  984 Dec 26 07:39 kernel-generic-5.15.145-x86_64-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  31K Dec 26 07:39 kernel-headers-5.15.145-x86-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  980 Dec 26 07:39 kernel-huge-5.15.145-x86_64-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 328K Dec 26 07:39 kernel-modules-5.15.145-x86_64-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.9M Dec 26 07:43 kernel-source-5.15.145-noarch-1

5.15.145 is the latest kernel for 15.0, and you can find the files on any 15.0 mirror. Since you do not have a working network interface, have you access to any working machine? If yes, doenload the above files, copy them to your system, and as root user run upgradepkg on each file. You will have to update lilo, or elilo, or grub depending on what your boot loader is.

Hope this helps.

___ · 01-13-2024, 07:22 AM

Yea, probably mixed-up disk/partitions! Let's do a careful & thorough 'inventory'... (IDK how to confirm bootloaders)

Code:

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0042] (rev 31)
	Subsystem: AzureWave QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [1a3b:2b31]
	Flags: ... [not relevant]
	Memory [ditto]
	Capabilities: <access denied> [ditto]
	Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
	Kernel modules: ath10k_pci

Does lspci find both network cards? Maybe post the info from like the 1st two lines. (only net cards; including like "[1111:2222]")

I think(?) lspci will see them, even if (any) kernel doesn't find drivers(?) (yes?)

5.15.117 won't use 5.15.19 drivers, so back to sorting out partitions/bootloaders!
(P. S. this might even explain it not finding the USB stick driver!)

Fix: either re-reinstall carefully using the 'right' partition/bootloader (IDK EFI)
Or get the 'right' partition to use the 'right' bootloader (existing stuff). Best wishes. Bye.

Wed · 01-13-2024, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Petri Kaukasoina

I am only guessing what the problem is.

1. Maybe you have a UEFI system and you did not install elilo. You used to have an updated Slackware system before so you had earlier kernel 5.15.117 and possible initrd in the EFI system partition. You boot now from that. And the root file system has now the original Slackware kernel 5.15.19 with modules.

Your guess is correct. I took for granted that UEFI was too common these days.

Quote:

2. Or you have legacy system and did not install lilo. The old MBR has the old lilo pointing to the old 5.15.117 kernel.

To fix, boot from the install USB stick but in the Boot: prompt, don't press enter. Instead, read the text on the screen. It tells you can type 'huge.s root=/dev/sda1 initrd= ro'. Then you boot to your new os with kernel 5.15.19 with working net and you can fix initrd and elilo or lilo. (You need to know your actual root partition to replace sda1 with it.)

I did actually make a boot USB-stick this time. Would that help? The partitions were written down bore reinstall.