[SOLVED] No ethernet after minimal install

Bazu135 · #1 15th July 2012, 09:28 PM

I'm attempting a minimal install for the first time, using the F17 install DVD on an Acer Extensa 5220 laptop, but have encountered a problem very early on - the OS doesn't appear to detect the laptop's ethernet port. I've checked that NetworkManager is running, but when I attempt to ping an address (local or 8.8.8.8) it returns the error "connect: Network is unreachable". When I run ifconfig, 'lo' 'p2p1' and 'wlan0' are returned, but no 'eth0'.

When I use an F16 Live CD, the port is detected and the connection operates correctly, so it's not a hardware fault. I tried the minimal installation with absolutely no additional packages, though; are there any I should try adding to rectify this? Can anyone suggest anything else?

Many thanks in advance!

marko · #2 15th July 2012, 10:09 PM

The wired network port is "p2p1" Fedora 17 uses a different port naming scheme designed to make the port name fixed so each time you install Fedora to the same hardware the name comes out the same (the numbers 1 and 2 are from various hardware details that don't change like bus ids and so on). So the question here is, is p2p1 ports state "UP" or "DOWN" ? It should be "UP"

Quote:

ip addr show p2p1

Now, I'd try to use system-config-network to see if its setup to run. Unfortunately system-config-network isn't a default tool anymore and you'd need the network to install it (unless you have the install disk and know how to use the disk as a local repository)

Colors · #3 15th July 2012, 10:17 PM

My ethernet card is em1, so for me:

as root

# dhclient em1

and it should connect.

nonamedotc · #4 15th July 2012, 10:24 PM

Try

Code:

ip link set eth0 up

You can get list of interfaces using

Code:

ip link

Bazu135 · #5 15th July 2012, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko

The wired network port is "p2p1" Fedora 17 uses a different port naming scheme designed to make the port name fixed so each time you install Fedora to the same hardware the name comes out the same (the numbers 1 and 2 are from various hardware details that don't change like bus ids and so on).

Interesting to hear that - it makes sense, but I bet it's gonna cause confusion for a while yet!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colors

My ethernet card is em1, so for me:

as root

# dhclient em1

and it should connect.

dhclient p2p1 fixed it for me - thanks for that!

Is that a permanent fixture, or does it need to be added to a startup file?

Colors · #6 15th July 2012, 10:50 PM

After internet connection is up and running, i used to install mc

# yum install mc

then go to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-p2p1

and edit the file. My file looks like this:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1
UUID="df70a454-ee35-415b-a71e-cfd9c7064c34"
NM_CONTROLLED="yes"
HWADDR="00:23:54:BF:12:56"
BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
DEVICE="em1"
ONBOOT="yes"

Bazu135 · #7 15th July 2012, 11:10 PM

Perfect - thank you

marko · #8 15th July 2012, 11:22 PM

Note, you'd usually be better off using your desktop's NetworkManager widget to configure the ethernet port, editing the network-scripts files by hand is a problem because NetworkManager tends to write changes to those files and might wipe out your changes. But since you're doing a minimal install (no desktop at all?), you might be fine with doing the manual edits.

Bazu135 · #9 15th July 2012, 11:30 PM

I do intend to add a desktop; I just needed a network connection to do that!

Basically, I just want to try building an install from bits and pieces rather than 'taking one off the shelf' - my reckoning was that I'd learn a lot more this way, and so far I'm not disappointed!

I'll keep that point in mind once I have a desktop though