Dell Inspiron + Broadcom 440x Integrated nic + Solaris 10 x86 = no network?
I'm having problems getting the driver to load for this nic on this laptop. I've tried the various other suggestions found in the forums (boot from cd, sys-unconfig, ifconfig plumb, etc.) but I think my basic problem is that the driver isn't recognized/loaded.
prtconf shows that "driver not attached" for this pci1028,188
ifconfig only lists lo0 device
I checked the HCL and it appears to have support for this nic with a link to download the driver for the integrated 440x (Broadcom's site specifically says they don't provide a driver for Solaris)
sys-unconfig never provides a prompt to put in an IP address, etc.
Booting from CD never shows a nic interface name (i.e. bfe).
Does anyone have specific directions on how to install/load the nic driver? I'm new at Solaris and the readme.txt a bit confusing for me on the specific steps I need to take to install the driver.
Or am I spinning my wheels and this combination doesn't work at all?
FYI, this also has a built-in wireless (intel pro 2915 ABG) that is also not recognized by the OS (used both 6/06 and 11/06 Solaris builds).
thanks!
Message was edited by:
JanineLumC
# 1
The best place to get help for this is at the opensolaris.org web site.They have a specific community and forum setup for laptop issues. http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/forum.jspa?forumID=66 http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/laptop/alan
# 2
You might want to try using the driver available at:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/mrym3/taiyodo/eng/
What I would suggest is editing the /etc/driver_aliases and comment out any reference to your Broadcom driver (bfe, or bcf).
Follow the read me text included in the driver package (I just follow along where it mentions testing). Here's a copy of the text for the realtek card (rf), to give you an idea - obviously change the reference of rf to whatever it would be for a Broadcom card (bf)? Note: If you compare the text from the driver package, you'll notice I removed the reference to rm /kernel/driver/rf. Firs step would be to create /etc/hostname.rf0 (or what your driver would be)
# cd /.../rf-x.x.x
# /usr/ccs/bin/make install
# ./adddrv.sh
# modload obj/rf
# devfsadm -i rf (for solaris7, use drvconfig and reboot with -r )
# ifconfig rfN plumb ( where N is an instance number, typcally 0 for first card)
# ifconfig -a( you will see an entry for rfN)
# ifconfig rfN YOUR-HOST-NAME
# ifconfig rfN
# ifconfig rfN up
After following those steps, I'd do a sys-unconfig as it won't accept the assigned ip addres that you set in the /etc/hostname.rf0 (or what it should be for your card) and then reset up my network.
Hope this helps you out.
Message was edited by:
mrmdls
added reference to creating /etc/hostname.rf0
# 3
mrmdls,Thank you very much for your help! I followed your directions, modified the necessary network config files and I'm now surfing the net! Now to tackle the wireless nic!Janine
# 4
Actually, I may have spoken too soon.
I've been able to get it to work, but keep needing to modify/add resolv.conf, nsswitch.conf, run the ifconfig ... up, /etc/hosts, etc. after rebooting. It's not always the same files.
What am I missing that rebooting looses my network configuration? I'm wondering if when I ran the sys-unconfig that something didn't clear out correctly and it keeps trying to reconfigure. I did run it twice just to make sure I was doing it right.
I do notice on boot up the following: Failed to configure IPv4 interface bfe0"
# 5
Hi,
I have the same problem with BroadCom BCM4401 on IBM thinkcentre.
I tried the above mentioned driver & steps, but failed to get it work.
When I do #./adddriver.sh, it fails with error " driver installed but failed to attach"
Any inputs will be appriciated..
--
Tatyaso
# 6
JanineLumC,
Couple things you might want to look at or try. First, I'd look at the /etc/driver_aliases - I normally delete the old entry that rferences your driver even though I told you comment it out (I don't mind messing my machines up, just not other folks). Then look at the /etc/hostname.bfe0 that you created, it should look something like this:
192.168.1.1mapleleafmapleleaf.localnet.orgmapleleaf
Still having a problem, try a sys-unconfig again and try setting a static ip address, and use the actual dns server addresses rather than having the router handle the dns. See if that makes a difference.
If you're still having problems, you might want to take a look at this as it might be useful.
http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/solaris_network_configuration.html
Also, as an interesting sidenote. The latest Solaris Developer Edition, not only has a real nice network configuration gui. But I found as soon as I added the driver, it automatically set up my network using dhcp.
# 7
mrmdls,
Thanks, I'm going to give the developer edition a try - it supports my wireless card and maybe that'll be easier.
Actually I deleted the entries in /etc/driver_aliases when I first went through your instructions and I'm using static IPs and dns servers already. I've run sys-unconfig 4 times already. At least now when I run sys-unconfig I get the prompts to configure the bfe0 nic so at least the driver is being loaded.
It appears to me that for some reason after running the sys-unconfig, it works, and upon rebooting a second time, the system is trying to run part of the sys-unconfig scripts again. What's strange is I don't get any errors when running sys-unconfig and the immediate reboot after it, the card works fine. Doing a reboot after that results in the error about "failed to configure IPv4 Interfaces: bfe0" and various files being deleted (like it wanted to run sys-unconfig again although I didn't give it the command?).
I'm hoping the developer edition will work better for me.
Tatyaso, I believe I got the same error you got when running the adddrv.sh command but went ahead and everything still worked fine.
# 8
I think I found the problem why my settings weren't sticking.
I dug around more and found that the svc:/network/physical:default was in maintenance mode and did a google search on that service. I found a discussion that mentioned inetmenu causing similar errors and removing it fixed it. I removed the inetmenu pkg (something I came across that would help configure my nic which I didn't have any success in), ran sys-unconfig again (only because a reboot didn't fix it right away) and have now rebooted twice after running sys-unconfig with no problems.
What I thought would be a few hours of work has almost taken 4 days - but I have conquered it! Now, on to the wireless!
