lesley_b_linux@yahoo.co.yuk wrote:
> Hi

> I am trying to set up a local network using the Class C addies
> 192.168.xxx.xxx.

> Initially I am starting simple and adding a laptop to what was a
> standalone machine. (I intend later to add a simple router device
> and then connect laptop and eventually other boxes to the router
> which will be connected to the box. I just want a simple network
> to monitor and play with for the moment.)

> I have a Cat 5 x-over cable to connect between my box and my laptop

Self-made cross-over cable or purchased? I think it's easy to make
a wiring mistake.

> I have managed to succesfully configure my ethernet card on the
> laptop with it's own static IP address and a route to my box's eth0.

> The box has an SMC1244TX card installed which I had previously
> configured to a static IP 192.168 address.

This sounds like the card was working. Does "previously" mean you
configured the card before connecting the cross-over cable?

> I have a ppp0 connection to the Internet which gives me a different
> fixed IP address.

> Initially I connected up the laptop and the box with no routing
> info set up on either. All that was set up was the IP addresses
> on the respective eth0's. (And they were different IP addresses ).

> The main box froze. Couldn't get any response except from the
> on off button. So I powered down and spent some time fscking and
> checking system integrity.

Hardware is the most likely cause of a host freezing under Linux.

> I have since set up the laptop to have a default gateway of the
> box's eth0 IP address.

> I have not yet tried to reconect the laptop to the box because I
> seem to have lost the eth0 interface on the box.

> Using the /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o I
> get a failure
> insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o:
> insmod eth0 failed

> in my syslog and my eth0 interface doesn't come up.

> So my first problem seems to be to find out what's wrong with the
> eth0 interface on the box.

If you were able insert the module and configure the box before
connecting the cross-over cable then it sounds like the card was
somehow damaged by the connection.

> I'm using SuSE 8.2 and YaST2 shows the eth0 card with the previously
> configured IP address; all sound and correct. ifconfig eth0 gives

> eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Dunno what YaST2 is, but clearly eth0 does not exist if ifconfig can't
find it. Since the module insertion failed that should be no surprise.

> I need to work out what's gone wrong so that I can fix it but I am
> not getting much help from anything.

> Would someone say what module I am meant to use with the SMC1244TX?

If the card could be configured with rtl8139.o in place before the
cross-over cable was connected then it's probably dead now. There
may be a slight chance there is an interrupt conflict, but I've never
seen a post where that caused a host to freeze.

> The next thing I need to suss out is how to maintain the lan info
> in the resolv.conf and routing info so that the Internet connection
> stuff is appended rather than overwrites the lan info.

This is a common problem with distributions that are trying too hard to
make things "easier" for the user. I suspect in all cases some script
is overwriting resolv.conf with the file /etc/ppp/resolv.conf that pppd
creates when the option usepeerdns is present. One solution *may* be
to remove the usepeerdns option from any pppd configuration file found
in /etc/ppp and to remove /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. No guarantee.

But there's also no guarantee that the next reboot won't put it back
in unless SuSE provides a way to configure to prevent using DNS servers
provided by the peer. DNS servers should not change more than once in
a blue moon so it should be sufficient to simply put the IP addresses
in /etc/resolv.conf.

> Any pointers to further good reading or help in pointing out what's
going wrong?

> Regards, TIA and apologies for a FAQ

> Lesley

--
Clifford Kite Email: "echo xvgr_yvahk-ccc@ri1.arg|rot13"
PPP-Q&A links, downloads: http://ckite.no-ip.net/