[Sunhelp] NIC setup

Thu Jun 24 21:17:45 CDT 1999

DETAIL DESCRIPTION:

When a workstation is placed in service without a network card, or none
is recognized during initial software installation, several files and
directories will not be available to the operating system if future
networking support is desired. 

SOLUTION SUMMARY:

Solaris will not presume upon any particular network configuration if it
is unable to identify supported network hardware at the factory default
addresses.  Hence, the installation scripts will not prompt the user for
network-specific configuration items like ip address, netmasks, hardware
settings, subnets, etc. 

All of these can be added by hand after the machine has had Solaris
installed on it. 

Workaround - Adding support for a network card to an existing system

To add network support to a Solaris workstation previously installed
without a supported network card driver requires adding/changing certain
files in the OS according to which network card is to be added.  A
network card that is listed in the Hardware Compatibility List for that
platform (x86, Sparc, or PowerPC) must also be present on the system bus
and identified by the operating system to reside at supported addresses. 

The following instructions for identifying a card will apply to x86 and
PowerPC platforms, for the most part.  For the Sparc platforms the Open
Boot Prom is able to identify any SBUS card and, in future versions, any
PCI or PCMCIA (PC Card) device that is installed.  Note also, that for
PCI devices, some ISA, MCA and EISA devices, as well as some PCMCIA
devices - the addresses, IRQs, memory, and DMA resources will be
assigned by the BIOS or a configuration utility and the driver will be
able to read the info for the device when it is loaded.  Check the
Driver Configuration Guide for how to configure your particular device. 

First, identify the make and model of your network card and write down
which addresses it occupies in terms of interrupt vector (IRQ), port
address range, DMA channel (if any), and shared memory address range. 
Then find the driver configuration file in the /kernel/drv sub-directory
and examine this file to make sure that the addresses on the card will
be seen.  For example, on Solaris 2.4 and earlier, the SMC (WD) Model
8003 or 8013 configuration file is /kernel/drv/smc.conf.  It should look
similar to the following:

    #ident "@(#)smc.conf 1.8        93/04/02 SMI"
    # Factory default setting.
    name="smc" class="sysbus" intr=5,3  ioaddr=0x280 
reg=0x280,0xD0000,0x2000;

This means that the factory default for this card is at interrupt 3,
priority 5 and port address 280 hex, at memory address D0000 hex with an
8k memory range. 

If you are instead using a supported 3COM or token-ring adapter, the
driver names for these are "el.conf" & "elx.conf" for 3COM,
or "tr" for
token- ring.  Note that as of Solaris 2.5 some drivers that are unique
to a platform (i.e.  - not common to all the Solaris platforms, like
ISA), will be found in /platform/{PLATFORM_NAME}/kernel/drv instead of
/kernel/drv.  For the x86 you use i86pc in place of {PLATFORM_NAME}. 

Secondly, when logged in as root, bring the driver into service.  Do
this by typing drvconfig, devlinks, and touch /reconfigure at successive
"#" prompts.  Type "prtconf" to test for the existence of the
0th
instance of the driver. 

Workaround - Configuring the system to use the network card

You are now ready to modify the filesystem as required.  Ensure that the
following directories, files, named-pipes, and symbolic links are
present and have the designated permissions, owner, and group.  Those
with a file size of zero can simply be created with the touch command
(if they do not already exist).  The sizes may vary with different
versions of Solaris, so don't worry if your sizes don't match these:

dr-xr-xr-x   1 root  root     2  /home
dr-xr-xr-x   1 root  root     2  /net
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  other   12  /etc/hosts -> ./inet/hosts
-r--r--r--   1 root  sys     62  /etc/inet/hosts
-r-xr-xr-x   1 bin   bin     55  /etc/netid
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  other   15  /etc/netmasks->./inet/netmasks
-r--r--r--   1 root  sys    252  /etc/inet/netmasks
-r-xr-xr-x   1 bin   bin    571  /etc/publickey
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  root    14  /etc/umount -> ../sbin/umount
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  root    17  /etc/umountall->../sbin/umountall

Lastly, make the necessary changes to the following files:

o  Add your system's host name (use "uname -a" to find or "uname
-S" to
   change) to the "/etc/hostname.<driver>n" file:

-rw-rw-rw-  1 root root  /etc/hostname.smc0 (or el0, elx0, or tr0, etc.)

The "n" is normally "0", as in the examples above.  If you are
adding an
additional card (second, third, etc.) you would put the next higher
number there (1, 2, etc.).  For each additional card, you will have a
unique hostname in the hostname.<driver>n file.  See info on how to set
up a gateway system if you are doing this. 

o  Change the "/etc/inet/hosts" file by adding your system hostname and
   your ip address (NOTE: this is only an example):

FROM:                                  TO:

127.0.0.1 localhost loghost hostname   127.0.0.1     localhost
                                       128.152.62.55 hostname loghost

o  Add the file "/etc/inet/netmasks" to delineate a sub-net for the
   interface configuration program (NOTE: this is an example for a
   class C network):

Example:  128.152.0.0                255.255.255.0

o  Define your fully qualified domain name, if you have one, with the
   following commands:Example:     domainname domain.company.COM
             domainname >/etc/defaultdomain

o  Shut the system down and re-boot with the reconfigure option (b -r)
   When the system is back up, test the interface with the following
   commands (NOTE: expected responses are in braces {}):

    ifconfig smc0
    {smc0: flags=863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu
1500}
    {inet 128.152.62.55 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 129.153.76.255}
    ping localhost
    {localhost is alive}
    ping 128.152.62.55
    {128.152.62.55 is alive}
    ping <hostname>
    {<hostname> is alive}

If your ifconfig command gets an error, as it may with a card whose
driver has been added after the machine was booted, you should try using
the "plumb" option after the <driver>n argument

Hope this helps

Marcus Nand

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: [Sunhelp] NIC setup
Author:  jmb (jmb at merlin.vipxlnet.com) at unix,mime
Date:    23/6/99 23:07

Good day,

My first guest would be that Solaris did not detect the Network card.

I got the same problem once with a NE2000 compatible card and founded out 
that Solaris (and most other Unix flavor) do not like stuff that is not 
Brand Name.

To fix this you may want to look at the jumper settings on the NE2000 card 
and set it a way that it would not conflict with any other piece of 
hardware on the machine (3COM settings are good, for example). 

Note: NE2000 are known to share the same IRQ than COM2 which creates a 
conflict.

Or...get a netword card that solaris would see (see the Hardware 
compatibility list at the sun web site).

Hope this helps,

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, sr wrote:

> > Hello everybody, 
> > 
> >  Anybody know how in the world to get the network card setup after Solari 
> > is installed. I am on a x86 platform and have a NE2000 card. But at the
> > installation it did not ask me to configure it or anything. Maybe I missed 
> > a step, I can re-install again but just wanna know if there is any
> > commmand inside of solaris to do it. 
> >
> > Well thank you,
> >
> > Paul Zimdars
> > zimCity
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________ 
> > SunHELP maillist  -  SunHELP at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sunhelp 
> >
> man ifconfig, read about it on the web, too, thats what you will use. 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
> SunHELP maillist  -  SunHELP at sunhelp.org
> http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sunhelp 
> 

________________________
Jean-Marc Beaudoin, T.P.
V.I.P. ExcelNet Inc.
jmbeaudoin at vipxlnet.com
________________________

_______________________________________________ 
SunHELP maillist  -  SunHELP at sunhelp.org 
http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sunhelp

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