No internet access after alpha-6 installer

[Manic]

After successfully flashing with the alpha-6 installer I cannot access the internet through the plug, as it doesnt seem to receive any correct settings from the DHCP server.
I was connecting fine before the update, the administrator here at my Uni gave me access and a static IP for my MAC address (still running the plug on DHCP, but getting the same address each time).

Now however when I run ifconfig -a on the plug, theres no IPv4 address, and even more weird the HWaddr shows a different one than the MAC address on the plug, namely 00:62:81:a0:00:00. As this is the MAC address in the uboot-custom.txt under the installer, I modified the file with the correct MAC address, placed it in the USB and run runme.sh again with no problems. However, nothing has changed, as the MAC address still appears to be 00:62:81:a0:00:00.

This is the ifconfig output:

Code:

root@ubuntu:~# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:62:81:a0:00:00 
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:11

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 
          LOOPBACK  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Further more I get an error during U-Boot, namely

Code:

* Filesystem type 'fusectl' is not supported. Skipping mount.
 * Setting preliminary keymap...                                         [ OK ]
 * Starting kernel event manager...                                      [ OK ]
 * Loading hardware drivers...                                           [ OK ]
 * Loading kernel modules...                                                     * Loading manual drivers...                                             [ OK ]
 * Setting kernel variables (/etc/sysctl.conf)...                        [ OK ]
 * Setting kernel variables (/etc/sysctl.d/10-console-messages.conf)...  [ OK ]
 * Setting kernel variables (/etc/sysctl.d/10-network-security.conf)...         error: "net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies" is an unknown key
                                                                         [fail]

What could be the issue here? Thnx in advance 

[Rabeeh Khoury]

Do you see the gigE port LED blinking (for network activity)?
Do you see the link LED?

Try changing ethernet cable?

[Manic]

Yup both of the leds blink at repeated intervals (i.e. not only once).. Ill check the cable first thing tomorrow when Im at the lab.. Ive even tried giving that MAC an IP address through DHCP but nothing..

[fragfutter]

you did not read the manual

You forgot to set the macaddress in uboot-custom.txt. Now yo have the installers default. To change this boot to the uboot prompt and sentenv ethaddr. If this is not possible (i think uboot protects the variable), stay with the new one (as long as you don't have a second plug on your network).

The writing of the ethaddress happens when the installer is writing the default uboot environment using openocd. You could overwrite it if you know what you are doing.

In the sytem log /var/log/messages you will most likely find messages about failed dhcp requests. Talk to your network admin about the new eth or change to a static configuration.

[birdman]

you did not read the manual

That might be because the README.txt in the sheevaplug-installer-alpha-6 tells you what to do but doesn't mention editing anything.  OK - I did read the README.txt and uboot-custom.txt in installer and still didn't edit mine in.  Perhaps this info needs greater prominence?

[Manic]

Im glad someone pointed that out.. as I did read the manual (I know what RTFM stands for thank you very much).

By doing a setenv ethaddr to my plugs MAC it seems to have worked on my test environment, will show tomorrow in the lab for sure.

Whats really annoying though is the fact that even though I reflashed with a modified uboot-custom.txt with the correct MAC address it still did nothing to resolve the problem.. very bad for troubleshooting ppl... and it means that the installer doesnt wipe everything and start again. A problem for the Marvell folks to ponder over.

Anw glad I seem to be back in business, thanks to the folkes that helped!

[fragfutter]

as far as i know the installer is not from marvell. (And it is labeled alpha...).

The installer wipes everything. It just ignores a lot of errors and continues (reading the output carefully helps here). The good part is, that you can read the source and follow it step by step. Please remember that it is a development board and not a enduser foolproof apliance.

[Manic]

Yes I am aware of that, just giving my feedback on it. I thought it was from Marvell as this is in the wiki:

In this wiki, the installer is for installing the Ubuntu 9.04 from an image. Hopefully the community will like this installer and build their own 'installer' directories that provides other distros.

[birdman]

By doing a setenv ethaddr to my plugs MAC it seems to have worked on my test environment, will show tomorrow in the lab for sure.

Really?  I must try that then... When I ran setenv ethaddr=... I followed it with printenv to check it had changed - and it had actually disappeared so I didn't even try to saveenv!
Since I'm actually running off USB Wifi I suppose it's worth a try.

[Rabeeh Khoury]

the installer is from Marvell developers; but ofcourse using all open source components (openocd, fw_setenv etc...)

[knireis]

Initially i used the sheevainstaller 1.0 to install ubuntu to the SD-card. Then i decided to give debian a try. I installed debian according instructions from Martin Michlmayr.

Everything went fine but i lost internet connection from the sheeva. SSH from within the home network works fine.
I gave the setenv ethaddr=00:50:43:xx:xx:xx command followed by saveenv but no luck sofar
Any help

[DamonHD]

Sounds like you simply don't have routing (via your cable/ADSL/whatever box) set up correctly.

Rgds

Damon

[knireis]

Sounds like you simply don't have routing (via your cable/ADSL/whatever box) set up correctly.

Rgds

Damon

That would be strange since I use the same network settings as on the previous ubuntu setup.

edit: Well, after a reboot it started working again.........