[9fans] rtl8139 woes

[9fans] rtl8139 woes

[Richard C Bilson]

I was hoping to get through the install without needing to ask for help,
and I succeeded -- I was especially impressed by how easy it was to
download the distribution over the network (through a rtl8139 connected
to a cable modem).

Then I tried to start the network.  No luck.  My cable provider gives
all net configuration through DHCP, which was enough to configure
WinXP, Debian, and the Plan 9 install without any further thought.
Uncommenting the ip/ipconfig line in /rc/bin/termrc didn't enable the
network.  Running ip/ipconfig on its own reports:

	ip/ipconfig: binding device: '/net/ether0' cs: file does not exist

and, indeed, there is no /net/ether0 file.

Adding "ether0=type=rtl8139" to /n/9fat/plan9.ini doesn't fix the problem,
but when I do this the boot process does print "ether#0 : rtl8139
: port..."  along with various configuration information that looks
basically correct.  This is the line that prints before "found 9pcdisk".

I haven't yet edited my /lib/ndb/local file to describe the local
interface, since it seems that most of the information I would specify
there ought to be obtained from DHCP -- I'm trying to set the system
up stand-alone (no cpu, auth, fs).  I don't know if I'm right here --
reading the Wiki didn't really clear this up for me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

- Richard

Re: [9fans] rtl8139 woes

[Russ Cox]

You have an old kernel, unfortunately.
If you download the bleeding edge sources
CD on the updates page, you should be
able to use that to get going. 

I think I might make that the default.

Russ

[9fans] rtl8139 woes

[Richard C Bilson]

[responding to my own previous message]

I figured it out.  I had to recompile the kernel, since the stock kernel
in the distribution doesn't have rtl8139 support built in.  An interesting
adventure for my first experience doing anything with plan 9, especially
since I understand that "disk/kfscmd allow" is cheating.  But I figured
it out, and it works just dandy now.

- Richard