adding a nic to a linux system

1

I've just bought an HP NC360T Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter PCI-E for use in a linux box.

I can't seem to see the device on the system. I've used the lspci command to display a list of items on the pci bus. This also display PCIe adapters, right?

I can see two network controllers (these are already built in and I can access them - they're eth0 and wlan0.)

But I can't see my new card on there. I can see the network activity light flashing when I plug into a switch, so I'm assuming the card isn't dead. I guess I could test it on a windows box as it tends to have better plug and play.

My linux distro is zentyal.

are there any other commands I might try to query the system for the device?

thanks

lapin

Posted 2014-08-11T23:26:41.120

Reputation: 113

Support for the NIC adapter should be compiled in the kernel or be loaded as a kernel module. Probably it is neither compiled in nor you have module loaded in. Check if you have file /proc/config.gz - this is running kernel configuration. We can check if your kernel was configured to support this NIC. What is the brand and model of your NIC adapter? – VL-80 – 2014-08-11T23:49:23.873

brand is HP, model is NC360T dual port gigabit adapter. just checking now for that /proc/config.gz file.. – lapin – 2014-08-11T23:57:31.860

no, /proc/config.gz is not available. – lapin – 2014-08-12T00:01:08.533

I see. I just reread your post... You said you used lspci - do you see the NIC there in the output of lspci? It should be there regardless of kernel support. Also, just to make sure - issue a command ifconfig -a - it should display all available interfaces including deactivated ones – VL-80 – 2014-08-12T00:02:56.300

I can't see the card in lspci output. I also can't see any entry with ifconfig -a - although I do see eth0 and wlan0, which are already in the system and in use. – lapin – 2014-08-12T00:08:44.917

1OK. Than we should dig into hardware level, because lspci is the low (probably even lowest) level discovery tool which queries PCI bus to find out what is connected to it. Check if this PCI slot is enabled in the BIOS, also I would try to put in this PCI slot another device which works for sure - to see that slot itself is operational. – VL-80 – 2014-08-12T00:13:16.543

1You need to use the dmesg command to look for what the driver did during startup. Perhaps the driver probe or initialization failed and reported something. – sawdust – 2014-08-12T08:15:40.790

Answers

1

I googled a few things and this is what I came up with:

Your card has an Intel 82571EB chipset. Ubuntu Forum Post

The Intel 82571EB chipset needs the e1000e kernel module Gentoo Forum Post

Therefore you need to load the e1000e module. If you have the module, try as root

modprobe e1000e

If you get something like

# modprobe e1000e
modprobe: FATAL: Module e1000e not found.

Then you don't have the module. You will either need to install the module or recompile your kernel to include it. Apparently zentyal uses apt as a package manager. Try searching for the module doing something like

apt-cache search e1000e

However I'm not too familiar with apt nor zentyal so I don't know if/where you will find that kernel module. However the e1000e kernel module is what you are after.

Alex

Posted 2014-08-11T23:26:41.120

Reputation: 245

thanks for your response. I've just inserted the module now and I'm rebooting. Hopefully I'll see something in lspci output this time :) – lapin – 2014-08-12T22:21:42.473

:/ well, I've managed to add the e1000e module at boot time, but I'm still not seeing my hardware. I'm wondering if it could possibly be a hardware fault with my pcie slot... – lapin – 2014-08-12T22:26:55.060

seems like this story had a happy ending after all. a bios option (force PCIe graphics) - when turned on - solved it - my card is now visible! Thanks for your help! – lapin – 2014-08-12T22:54:11.817

Asked: 2014-08-11T23:26:41.120

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Active: 2014-08-12T02:09:24.260