13 Some Questions and Answers.

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Following are some questions and answers that are commonly asked.

How do I know what version of kernel/net code I am running ?

Try: cat /proc/version

I keep getting the error `eth0: transmit timed out'. What does this mean?

This usually means that your Ethernet cable is unplugged, or that the setup parameters for your card (I/O address, IRQ, etc.) are not set correctly. Check the messages at boot time and make sure that your card is recognized with the correct Ethernet address. If it is, check that there is no conflict with any other hardware in your machine, eg you might have a soundblaster sharing the same IRQ or i/o control port.

I get errors `check Ethernet cable' when using the network.

You probably have your Ethernet card configured incorrectly. Double check the settings in /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/CONFIG. If this checks out ok, you may in fact have a cabling problem, check the cables are plugged in securely.

dip doesn't work. How do I make it work ?

Check that the file permissions of dip are 6750, that is `chmod 6750 dip'. Check also that dip is owned by root: `chown root:dip dip'

With SLIP I can ping my server, but can't connect to anything.

This is most likely caused by a disagreement on the use of header compression between your server and your machine. Double check that both ends either are, or are not, using compression. They must match.

I can ping my server/gateway, but can't connect to anyone remote.

This is probably due to a routing problem. Reread the `routing' section in this document, and ensure that you have a default route set that is pointing to you gateway, or server.

How can I hang up the phone line when I'm done using SLIP?

If you use dip to dial out on the SLIP line, just `dip -k' should do the trick. If not, try `kill -9' the dip process. When dip dies it should hang up the call.

How do I use my existing Novell fileserver with my Linux machine ?

If you have the Novell NFS Daemon code then it is easy, just NFS mount the Novell volume that you wish to use. If you don't, and you are really desperate to be able to do this, and you have a spare pc machine laying about, you are in luck. You can run a program called Stan's Own Server on the spare PC. First, configure the pc as a novell workstation with maps to the directories you want to nfs mount, then run SOS, and export those drive maps. SOS is available from spdcc.com:pub/sos/sossexe.zoo

Files get corrupted when running NFS over a network.

Certain vendors (Sun primarily) shipped many machines running NFS without UDP checksums. Great on ethernet, suicide otherwise. UDP checksums can be enabled on most file servers. Linux has it enabled by default from pl13 onwards - but both ends need to have it enabled...

Why are my NFS files all read only ?

The Linux NFS server defaults to read only. RTFM the `exports' and nfsd manual pages. With non Linux servers you may also need to alter /etc/exports

Can I use two slip interfaces ?

Yes. If you have, for example, three machines which you would like to interconnect, then you most certainly could use two slip interfaces on one machine and connect each of the other machines to it. Simply configure the second interface as you did the first. NOTE that the second interface will require a different IP address to the first. You may need to play with the routing a bit to get it to do what you want, but it should work.

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