X21 does not connect via ethernet (or pcmcia wireless)

[rdnelson]

I have an X21 that is quite nice in most respects, but I cannot get it to connect to the Internet. I have tried both wired ethernet and wireless using a pcmcia card, with no success. I wonder if anyone has suggestions about what might be broken or amiss. When I look at the hardware in the device tables, I can see reference to an Ethernet device, but I am not sure this means there is a functional device.

Any suggestions about how to troubleshoot, or what to look for will be welcome.

I should mention that the OS is Linux, but it had a Windows XP installed when I got it, and the Windows also did not make any ethernet/Internet connection.

Thanks in advance.

Mod Edit - Moved to Linux conference - Harryc -

[Harryc]

From a console, run the following commands (as root / su) and post the results here;

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lspci

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ifconfig

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route

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cat /etc/resolv.conf

[ajkula66]

Does your X21's BIOS screen show a MAC address? If not, you don't have wired LAN installed/enabled.
Start there and let us know...

[rdnelson]

The BIOS does show a MAC address, and I see it also in ifconfig.

I can't copy the output of lspci readily (I cannot connect with the X21)
Here are the most germane answers I think:

00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp 82557 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev0c)

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co. Ltd.: Unknown device 8180 (rev 20)

ifconfig shows eth0 and has HWaddr, and inet addr: which is a static IP assigned in my LAN. It says

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:9
TX packets:142 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0b) TX bytes:5976 (5.8 Kb)

The lo looks normal to me, with the same number of RX and TX bytes.

route gives the same output as a working system, except on the X21 there is a line for local loopback, and on the working system there is an extra line that has this content (the X21 doesn't have it):
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0

/etc/resolv.conf has three nameservers, a search line for my domain, and an option timeout:1, all copied from my working system

I can't see what's wrong, but maybe the information above will be meaningfull to you. In particular, the one thing I notice that clearly is amiss is the imbalance of RX and TX bytes in ifconfig.

Roger

[Harryc]

Disable the firewall in your Linux and ping your router. Can you ping it successfully? From a console -

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ping 192.168.1.1

change 192.168.1.1. for the IP address of your router.

[rdnelson]

I cannot ping out to my gateway machine, nor into the X21 from the gateway. I have the suspicion that there is some hardware problem, rather than a configuration problem. I have edited and checked the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file in addition the the resolv.conf file, and I have done an ifdown,ifup sequence for eth0.
There may be some other file that is relevant? But maybe not.

Do you have any suggestion about what might be wrong with the hardware, even though the lspci command indicates the ethernet controllers are there? For example, since I can't get a connection with the pcmcia wireless either, what would be the common element? Is there something on the motherboard that might be broken?

[Harryc]

Cable, router, router port, ethernet jack or chipset. Those are the things I'd suspect. Personally I'd try a PCMCIA Ethernet card as a test. They are VERY cheap, particularly on EBay. Wireless could be any number of things, usually related to router configuration and wireless config in Linux. So, you could very well be looking at more than one problem.

[rdnelson]

Thank you very much for the suggestions and pointers.
I have tried with the pcmcia card, with no success, and several of the potential break points on your list are not in question because they are fine with other systems/computers. The most likely breakdown is with the chipset, I think.

In any case I appreciate your help. At this point I think I'll have to move on to a different solution to my lightweight travel needs -- a thinkpad I'm sure, but maybe not this one.