[Sderby] SuSE 9.2 IPv6 problem?

[David Bottrill]

Kris,

On Wednesday 09 February 2005 16:31, Kris Adcock wrote:
> Evening all!
>
> I'm asking about this on behalf of a friend - this is a paraphrase of
> his message (names changed to protect the innocent, and all that). He
> has an Athlon 64 running SuSE 9.2.
>
> ---------8<----------
>
> Matt spent some time here last evening configuring this box so that I
> could use the 250GB HDD as a backup receptacle for the data from the
> Athlon 64.
>
> All is well except the following: Matt set up the networking to obtain
> an IP address using DHCP [from the ADSL router] and all wasn=92t well as
> the Linux box set an IP address which seemed to be in HEX.
>
> The next approach was to set up a static IP address this worked when it
> was set, however after a reboot the address reverted to HEX.
>
> Listed below is a printout of part of the ifconfig file:
>
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:E8:8E:68:92
>            inet6 addr: fe80::200:e8ff:fe8e:6892/64 Scope:Link
>            UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>            RX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>            TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
>            RX bytes:262 (262.0 b)  TX bytes:460 (460.0 b)
>            Interrupt:11
>
> lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
>            inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
>            UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
>            RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>            TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>            collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
>            RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
>
> sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
>            NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
>            RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>            TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>            collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
>            RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
>
> ---------8<----------
>
> Now, as far as I can tell from the above (I haven't seen it personally),
> the network is being configured for IPv6 only  - there's no line in eth0
> describing the ordinary inet addr. Him saying it's in HEX is because
> he's confusing the inet6 address with the ordinary inet one.
>
> Ditto the loopback adaptor - there's no inet line.
>
> sit0 is apparently some form of tunnel for using IPv6.
>
> So, has anyone seen this before? Or have a clue which part to start
> swearing at first? :)
>

This looks like a case of the box not negotiating an IP address by DHCP. Ha=
s=20
another computer been tested against the router?

Here's my eth0

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:8D:F7:14:C1
          inet addr:192.168.1.10  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::250:8dff:fef7:14c1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:16543 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10105 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:6998654 (6.6 Mb)  TX bytes:1255769 (1.1 Mb)
          Interrupt:193 Memory:e3004000-0


My guess is you "friend" has a motherboard with an poorly supported Gigabit=
=20
NIC. I know of people having problems with certain onboard NICs. My Athlon =
64=20
has a 3COM Gigabit interface and this works fine with SuSE 9.2. I know=20
someone who has a Gigabyte motherboard, I think it has a VIA Ethernet chip=
=20
and this has all sorts of intermittent problems with Linux. There have been=
=20
messages to the SuSE mailing list about this in the past, the problem is I=
=20
believe VIA have not released technical details of the chip to the OpenSour=
ce=20
community and what has been done so far is just a stab in the dark. I belie=
ve=20
there are binary drivers on the VIA site and I don't think these behave muc=
h=20
better. As an interim solution I suggest you stick a supported PCI NIC in =
=20
and hope that before long VIA do the right thing and release some workable=
=20
source code.

David

=2D-=20
David Bottrill

david at bottrill.org
www.bottrill.org
Registered Linux user number 330730
Internet SIP Phone: 1-747-244-2699