[Solved]Booting from Win 7, connection works fine but not booting from LXDE.

[GermanTux]

Joejac, it looks like that motherboard series comes with one of two built in NICS:

A)An Intel 82579V
B)A Realtek 8111F

I do not believe that 2.6.38 kernel works with the Intel card.  I know it does work with earlier revisions of the Realtek (the 8111 is about five years old and still going strong), but the 'F' revision is new to me. 

You can try one of two things - A)pick up a new ethernet card, and plug it in, and use that.  Or B)Try a distro with the latest kernel, such as Ubuntu or Mageia, and boot off the live CD.  See how the network card responds with a newer kernel.  Either way, I believe NIC support is the issue here. 

[joejac]

Hello Just18

1.- I modified the boot, in the boot everything looks ok, but it is too fast to read and it do not respond to Control S.
 but when I restart I got the following Warnings:
 
WARNING! Loop detected avahi-daemon -> bpalogin
-> Ignoring requires bpalogin

WARNING! Loop detected avahi-daemon -> ultrabayd
-> Ignoring requires ultrabayd
 
WARNING! Loop detected avahi-daemon -> pppoe
-> Ignoring requires pppoe

WARNING! Loop detected avahi-daemon -> network-up
-> Ignoring requires network-up

WARNING! Loop detected network-up -> bpalogin
-> Ignoring requires bpalogin

WARNING! Loop detected network-up -> ultrabayd
-> Ignoring requires ultrabayd

WARNING! Loop detected network-up -> pppoe
-> Ignoring requires pppoe

2.- I have 2 Disks:
2.1 HD WD Caviar Black with Win 7 for my son games, it works good.

2.1 Intel 240 GB SSD Series 520 for my work and personal stuff, in this disk I have:
    The HOST LXDE that runs Virtualbox with the following guest virtual machines inside:
    2.1.1 LXDE Personal, (all my personal files and projects)
    2.1.2 Win 7 Work, with all my work files for living (Different Windows license than the WD HD)
    2.1.3 Open Box immutable, For secure access to internet critical web sites.
   
I understand the advantage of partitions, but for me is cumbersome. I back up my VMs once a week to a NAS.

3.- What Phil said sounds logical, but is above my Linux knowledge to change the driver of the Network card, that comes inside the Asus Motherboard. How can I do that, is there any tutorial for beginners?
3.1 I was told not to do anything outside Synaptic.

4.- Thanks GermanTux, I would like to solve this issue with PCLinuxOS,  I have tried various distros in the past and for me PCLinuxOS is the one I like. I purchased this fast machine to depend less on M$ and work more with Linux until I can work 100% Linux. I also plan to take my son to Linux games also, I know it is not going to be easy. I will download a distro with the latest kernel to a live CD just to test the card and isolate the problem, but that will take time because I have 256 Kbps.

Thanks and Regards
joejac

[GermanTux]

4.- Thanks GermanTux, I would like to solve this issue with PCLinuxOS,  I have tried various distros in the past and for me PCLinuxOS is the one I like. I purchased this fast machine to depend less on M$ and work more with Linux until I can work 100% Linux. I also plan to take my son to Linux games also, I know it is not going to be easy. I will download a distro with the latest kernel to a live CD just to test the card and isolate the problem, but that will take time because I have 256 Kbps.

Gah!  Sorry to hear - 256k can be brutal these days.  Definitely give one of those distros a try.  Even if it solves the problem, it does not mean you cannot use PCLOS.  It just tells us that the kernel driver is the issue, and allows us to go from there.  There are newer kernels available in testing if need be.  Also, here is a $17 NIC card that will work if you wanted to go that route.  It's a quick and easy workaround.  

[Just17]

Let's see if I have the right idea ... to clarify things again.

You have LXDE installed to the SSD. You have various VMs which run on top of it.

When booting LXDE you get a prompt/question box asking about which internet connection you wish to use.

Regardless which of the two you choose, you do not get a reliable (or any) internet connection.

***

I'm sorry, but I have no idea where this prompt/question is being generated from.
I have never seen this on any PCLOS install I have done.

I would dearly love to know what is producing this question. So if anyone has any suggestions, please enlighten me, as I am stumped.  

***

On the understanding that your LXDE install is fully updated, you have the option of installing a newer 'test' kernel from the PCLOS testing section.
This would be much easier than d/loading another full OS.

On first boot after install, extra time is taken to build some modules. Subsequent boots should be normal speed.

If you wish to try one of the newer kernels ----  which does not interfere with your ability to boot your existing kernel in case it does not work well for you. --- then we can give you instruction.
Essentially it involves enabling the testing section in Synaptic, searching for the kernel package, installing the selected one, along with the one other package it brings in as a dependency, and immediately disabling the testing section again.
When that is done, reboot using the default boot option, which will be the new kernel.

Check your internet connection.

***

One last question .....  To which of the two network connections is the ethernet cable attached?

The  Intel 82579V has many reports on the net about dropping connections ....  even with Windows. Here is one example ...

This problem was bugging me and after a number of false starts my solution has been to go into the advanced tab on the 82579v and select gigabit master slave mode and under value select force master mode. It intially dropped me down to 10 mbs FD but once I reset the speed to 100 mbs FD I have had no problem since. I am not runnig a gigabit router, it's a Westell 7500.

http://forums.hardwaresecrets.com/intel-82579v-gigabit/7648/2

The Realtek 8111F  appears to be supported by the rt8169  driver in Linux.

So I have this as a suggestion .....

Delete through PCC - Network & Internet  all the existing NICs.
Immediately after that, set up one .....  select whichever you have the ethernet cable attached to, and go through the settings accepting all the defaults.

Check to see if it works.
If it does not, then back into PCC, delete it, and create a new connection using the other one (having changed the cable from one to the other).

Check to see if that works.

I know that seems like duplication of previous effort.  

The newer kernel might make a difference with this r8169 driver.

***

I continue to wonder where that question/prompt is coming from .....    

[donbraun]

I had a very similar problem:
My Ethernet ( wired ) connection stopped working after some updates this weekend.

I just updated to the  3.2.18-pclos1 kernel and now it works fine !

Don

[joejac]

Thanks for the tip Don,
How can I do the update, Just18 gave some indications on Synaptic and enabling the testing section, is that enough or I should have a more detailed procedure?
Regards
joejac

[Just17]

Thanks for the tip Don,
How can I do the update, Just18 gave some indications on Synaptic and enabling the testing section, is that enough or I should have a more detailed procedure?
Regards
joejac

Before following the below procedure, do a FULL update.

Synaptic - Settings - Repositories
Select your chosen repository in the Synaptic list of mirrors, and add the word
testing
to the 'Sections' list (last line)

Reload

Search (by name) for
kernel

Select the kernel you wish to install, and Apply, & Apply again.

Two files will be installed.

Once the installation is complete, make sure your delete the word
testing
from the sections list.
If you don't, your install will likely be damaged by a further update.

[joejac]

Hello to all,

The Asus board only has one RJ45 LAN connector, the manual indicates that one of the USB ports is also LAN, so I did:
1. I enabled the Wireless LAN of my D-Link router
2. I connected a Netgear N150 Wireless USB Adapter
3. I booted from kernel 2.6.38.8-pclos3.pae.bfs
4. I selected: 1 wireless
5. PCLOS LXDE immediately detected and configured the Netgear
6. I disabled eth0 and worked only with the wireless, I provided the access password.
7. I updated LXDE from the standard repositories, the wireless worked perfect like when I was in the USA with no LAN available.
8. I followed Just18 instructions of his previous post, adding the word testing to the repositories.
9. I installed kernel-3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs and the dependency file, as per donbraun recommendation.
10. I monitored the connection and it worked fine, so the new kernel was installed.
11. I turned off the desktop and the D-Link wireless LAN, I took out the Netgear N150 Wireless USB Adapter.
12. I restarted the desktop and booted from kernel-3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs
13. I monitored the wired connection and erased the word testing from all the repositories because I found another with that word.
14. I updated VirtualBox to version 4.1.16 from GetVirtualbox, while continuing monitoring the eth0 connection.
15. The wired connection worked fine during all VirtualBox 4.1.16 download, about 40 minutes, the Network monitoring reported 80MB received and a continuous red rectangle at 30-32 Kb/s which is my average internet speed.
16. Then the Extension Pack was downloaded also fine.
17. I rebooted again with kernel-3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs as per VirtualBox request.
18. I started my LXDE Personal Virtual Machine, connected to Internet and updated fine.
19. I started my Win 7 Work Virtual Machine and connected fine to Internet.
20. The task bar shows a green check mark with "0 updates available" for both, LXDE Host and Guest.
21. I can not contribute with knowledge or programming to this incredible, friendly and professional PCLOS community, but I did a donation a few minutes ago.
22. Thanks to all for help me and for supporting this fantastic distro!  
Regards
joejac

[GermanTux]

Glad to hear you got it working joejac!  I figured the kernel did not have the proper NIC driver.  Now, get working on a faster internet connection!

Also, remember to mark the thread as solved. 

[Just17]

Congrats   joejac .........  good on ye for sticking with it until solved   

Do tell .......  has the prompt during booting disappeared?

[joejac]

Yes GermanTux, in the future I will change to fiber cable, but the problem is they want to force me to take the infamous TV contract and I do not watch TV.

Just 18 I still get the question on wireless or default, It do not bother me, it only delay the start up, that is really fast anyway.

One last question, now I see in the Network Monitoring graph receive (yellow) and transmit (red) spikes even if I do not have a browser open, no internet activity, why? I remember a couple of months ago nothing were shown in the graph when there were no network activity.

It is like a Trojan or a program continuously polling from somewhere in Internet and getting a response from my computer and I do not like that, specially in my OpenBox VM that is the one I use to connect to banks and online purchases, that has the immutable virtual disk.

How can I know which program is doing that and how can I disable such type of programs?

After this, I will mark this post as solved.

Thank you very much
Best regards
joejac

[Just17]

What you are likely seeing is a few bytes being sent and received between your PC and router ........  like a 'keep-alive' pulse.

How much data is being sent & received? A couple of hundred bytes every 5 or 10 secs appears to be normal here.

[joejac]

Yes, it is a pulse of about 256 bytes every 10 seconds.

Is there a way to monitor and to see the raw data?

Thanks
joejac

[Just17]

Yes there are monitoring tools in the repository .......  I have not used any so cannot advise ..... saw mention of 'netstat' on the forum .......

[djohnston]

Etherape is in Synaptic and is an easy to read GUI for seeing all your network traffic.