[SOLVED] eth0 not found - Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171-83

Completely new to UnRAID and having a problem right out the gate:

I have the Asus M5A78L-M LX3 MB with the gigabit ethernet onboard (manual saus qualcomm atheros Gb LAN)

and am running unRAID unRAIDServer-5.0-i386 that I just downloaded today.

When I try ifconfig I get the loopback and that is all

The ethernet port itself has 2 lights, one for link and one for speed, the speed is orange (currently connected cable to a 100Mb router) and the link one does flash occasionally but is generally off.

I went with this motherboard because it seemed that I saw it mentioned in a lot of peoples signatures as to what they were running (and it was inexpensive) did I make a bad call?

I've attached my syslog

syslog.txt

I just scanned over the motherboard and found the chip. It's a Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171-83

Hope that helps.

Thank you,

--Aaron

sorry to keep replying to my own post...

A follow up question:

Is there any harm in running preclear on the three new drives in my unRAID box and then fixing the ethernet issue after that is done?

You can preclear without needing network access.  Are you sure you have the ethernet port enabled in the bios? Can you run a live distribution to make sure it actually works.

Is there a live distribution you recommend? Would something like Slackware Live (LiNomad) be OK?

Unfortunately I will not be able to run it until tomorrow (the AM comes way too early) but I will post results at that time.

Thank you for your response,

--Aaron

I saw some older posts indicating Qualcomm Atheros NIC problems. I read over your syslog and the NIC is not seen at all. The fact you have the NIC's indicator lights flashing just means the hardware is OK.

It won't cost much to find an inexpensive Intel GigE NIC to install on your motherboard and just shut the on-board NIC off.

BTW, I'm assuming the Atheros NIC is enabled in the mobo's BIOS, right?

Yes nic is enabled...

The more I poked around the more it seems the lx3 version is NOT the one people were using in their builds. I'll run out and grab a NIC this weekend if there doesn't seem to be an easy resolution.

Thank you,

Aaron

I'm not an linux expert and this stuff took me 3 days to figure out...  I'm working on an Asus p8H77-V which has the Atheros R8161 chip. The port lights wouldn't even come on even though the hardware is fine.

To get this network to work you need the Atheros alx driver module which is not included in UnRaid.

I build the module myself by first setting up a compile environment using the first part of this post: http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Installing_VirtualBox_in_unRAID

Then compile the driver modules I got here: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/alx

Then copied the modules to the boot drive and loaded them from the GO script and bring the eth0 up with ifconfig.

The only problem no is that booting takes a long time because during boot the dbus-uuidgen is taking a long time probably because it is looking for network.

I would be helpful to know how to load the kernel modules earlier in the boot process. Is this possible?

Thank you for the advice on building the drivers... I believe I might have taken the "Installing VirtualBox" instructions too far...

Was I supposed to end as soon as I finished with the installpkg steps that added make and gcc, etc... ?

If I went too far (to the point of :

$ make oldconfig && make

should I just start over and just do the build environment?

ok, I decided to just start over and just add the compiling environment and am running into a problem:

I've gotten to the point of typing:

./scripts/driver-select alx

make

The first bit completes OK the second part though gives me an error

*** No Rule to make target 'modules'. Stop.

Any advice?

Should I move this to the user customization forum?

I did a search and found someone who said he fixed this problem, but in the link he posted I had zero luck parsing out how.

...It won't cost much to find an inexpensive Intel GigE NIC to install on your motherboard and just shut the on-board NIC off....

After a day of running around chasing my tail I am ready to admit defeat and purchase a NIC to install. I was looking at The Intel EXPI9301CTBLK ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033 )

which seems to have the 82574L chipset I have looked around and seen some problems with this one on the forums but it seems they were in the past and mostly with people who had multiple NICs they wanted enabled at the same time. I just want to make sure before I "Pull the trigger" that this will work with 5.0 Stable.

Any advice?

I noticed user TheWombat has one listed in his sig: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=19493 and user JustinChase: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=30262

They seem to post fairly frequently; maybe a PM?

To make sure I got the steps right I just tried it again on a stock 5.0 final release.

I put the downloaded packages to some folder on the cache drive and followed the instructions for an UnRaid 5.x environment. You should go as far as you did, as far as:

$ make oldconfig && make

This can take a while depending on your processor speed.

You have to do this before you try to compile the driver otherwise you will get the error you got.

Then I downloaded the Compat driver to a separate folder on the cachedrive.

I had to do one step that is not mentioned in the posts to fix the module not found error. Which is probably where you got stuck.

In /lib/modules/3.9.6p-unRAID/build is a symbolic link to /usr/src/linux-3.9.6p-unRAID which needs to be modified as follows:

$ ln -f /usr/src/linux /lib/modules/3.9.6p-unRAID/build

Then compile the driver with:

$./scripts/driver-select alx
$make
$make install

At this point you should be able to load the driver and start the eht0 with:

$ modprobe alx 

And you can check with

$lsmod

Bring up the eth0 with (replace with your network configuration):

$ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

I order to make the modules persistent at reboot you have to copy the modules to /boot

The drivers are located at /lib/modules/3.9.6p-unRAID/updates

$mkdir /boot/modules
$cp /lib/modules/3.9.6p-unRAID/updates/compat/compat.ko /boot/modules
$cp /lib/modules/3.9.6p-unRAID/updates/drivers/net/ethernet/atheros/alx/alx.ko /boot/modules 

And modified the GO script to read:

 
#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

modprobe mdio 
insmod /boot/modules/compat.ko
insmod /boot/modules/alx.ko
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

As mentioned booting will take a while because dbus-uuidgen is looking for network and the proper module drivers don't get loaded until the go script is run.

WalterB That worked it!

Thank you so much.

Now I can use the Intel gigabit card in my primary system finally bringing my network up to gigabit.

Thank you to everyone who helped me out. I can't wait until I'm more profecient and can start helping others as well. This community is one of the major selling points for unRAID.

hello i have this same network card and following these steps gives me errors

first of the /usr/src/linux does not exist to make the symlink i dunno why maybe newer version

so just tried to do make after selecting the driver-select script i get this error

entering directory /usr/src/linux-3.9.11p-unRAID

No rule to make target modules stop

leaving directory /usr/src/linux-3.9.11p-unRAID

modules error 2

any help is much apriciated!