problems in installing realtek 8139 network card

[Per-Anton Rønning]

I first removed the eth1 card from the device table. Then I started up 
again:

Entering eth1 via neat > new > Ethernet connection > Other Ethernet Card
Adapter: RTL8139, SMC EZ Card Fast Ethernet
After reboot
Devices:
Inactive eth1 .( eth1 Ethernet
Hardware:
-------------------------------------------------------
Descrition                                |Type          |Device    |Status
-------------------------------------------------------
Marvell technology group        | Ethernet     | eth0      | ok
RTL8139, SMC EZ Card         | Ethernet     | eth1     | configured

Trying to activate card:
"Canot activate network device eth1!"
"8139too device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization"


modprobe 8139too has given this modprobe.conf file (WITH reboot after 
modprobe)
-------
alias eth0 skge
alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
options snd-card-0 index=0 
options snd-intel8x0 index=0 
remove snd-intel8x0 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store 0 >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; 
}; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-intel8x0
alias eth1 8139too
-------
Seems ok .. ?

So the question is:
What exactly is the filename "activate" is looking for, and in what 
folder does it look?
That should be an interesting question.

As far as I can see the driver is there, but it is still not there!
Like i ghost .... :-)
But I don't believe in ghosts! So there must be a rational explanation.
Even if it does not show up in the lspci listing.
NB! I also changed the physical location of the card, I cannot swap it 
with eth0, since eth0 it seems to be integrated in the motherboard. Bud 
I moved it to the uppermost slot.

PA

Charles Curley wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 16, 2006 at 10:13:56PM +0200, Per-Anton Rønning wrote:
>   
>> Charles Curley wrote:
>>     
>>> On Sat, Sep 16, 2006 at 11:38:41AM -0400, G.Wolfe Woodbury wrote:
>>>  
>>> neat is an alias for system-config-network.
>>>  
>>>       
>> ... and I have used neat.
>>     
>>>> It may be that it's old enough to be an ISA-PNP card, and that won't
>>>> show up in lspci.
>>>>    
>>>>         
>>> Good point; I forgot about that
>>>  
>>>       
>> To clarify that - I bought the card a couple of weeks ago, so it is 
>> brand new
>>     
>
> Well, then it is most likely PCI. In that case it should show up in
> lspci.
>
>   
>> Charles:
>>
>>     
>>> Check the BIOS to be sure that the Realtec card isn't being
>>> ignored. Some BIOSes show a list of hardware found during boot. You
>>> may also have to go into the BIOS setup and make sure it isn't being
>>> ignored.
>>>       
>> I did intercept the bios during bootup, but this bios shows no such list as 
>> far as I could see.
>>     
>
> Drat.
>
>   
>> Charles:
>>     
>>> Try swaping the two cards. Just a hunch and a bit of magic incantation
>>> that sometimes works.
>>>       
>> Yes, I have also thought about that. I'll do that tomorrow.  What else 
>> could it be when the system seems not to discvover the presence of this 
>> card? Well, I don't quite know, but its definitely worth a try.
>>     
>
> It could be buggy firmware. Is there an upgrade for the firmware?
>
> I believe the Linux kernel does its own enumeration and setup of the
> PCI bus. But I once saw, many years ago, a BIOS which would
> arbitrarily turn off multiple PCI cards of the same type. I suppose it
> was on the theory that, well, the user really only needs one of each,
> so we'll turn off duplicates. Once the card was turned off, neither NT
> (which also enumerates the PCI bus itself) nor Linux could find it.
>
> We complained loudly to the supplier, who got us a firmware upgrade
> from the vendor.
>
>   
>>     
>>>> Check dmesg to see if the kernel detects an ISA card, and then try
>>>> configuring it via the s-c-network utility
>>>>    
>>>>         
>> No reference to ISA came up when using dmesg.
>>     
>
> Well, if it's a PCI card, that is good news.
>
>