Unable to Install Amahi or Fedora 10 - network issues

[neuroshell]

Hi,

I'm new to Fedora and Amahi. I didn't expect it would be so difficult to install.

Spent the last two weekends trying to do a fresh installs of Amahi and Fedora 10. If I follow the web steps and enter the Amahi server info http://f10.amahi.org during the Fed10 install, I get a network configuration error, no matter if I try to use DHCP or Static IP. The watch icon stays on for ever, no network activity and eventually I get an error and have to reboot the system.

I have successfully installed Fed10 by itself several times but I cannot get the networking to work at all. It doesn't collect DHCP information from my DHCP server (it self configures a 10. network and I'm 192), and when I configure networking manually I am forced to reboot/restart networking services and what I get back after then is junk for the IP, netmask, and DNS. It's never what I put in before. I've re-installed Fed10 at least 8 times and have tried everything I could find on various Fed10 forums documenting issues with networking. I've disabled the netmanager, I've entered the configs at the command line, but nothing ever works.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. The system configs: one Xeon Single core 3.0GHz with 4GB memory, a 100GB IDE install drive. MOBO is SuperMicro X5DP8-G2. Using the onboard ethernet 0.

[cpg]

ouch. from what you said, it seems clear that your network card is not well supported in f10.

you did not mention what type it is.

how about removing it (or disabling it in the BIOS), and put another card in?

[neuroshell]

I am using the onboard ethernet card. From the SuperMicro website:
Intel® 82546EB Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller

http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... dp8-g2.cfm

I have disabled Ethernet1 (from what I've read about Amahi it only binds to one ethernet port and 0 is the one it likes). I've also tried disabling E0 and using E1. Also tried disabling both and the reactivating E0 and trying that. None of these things worked.

I have not tried another card yet since I've never had a problem with the onboard Intels with any other projects in the past (VMWare, etc). I will try that later today, but all I have around here are Intel cards since they _usually_ are always supported out of the box by default.

The goal of this build is to create a large data server with a RAID card (not installed yet) and eventually up to 12 2TB SATA drives operating in RAID 1. I obtained a 12 SATA drive chassi and this motherboard combination for that in mind. I am installing F10 + Amahi on a 100GB IDE drive directly connected to IDE#1 on the MOBO.

Amahi promised to support more than just a data server with the various app pre-packages, that's why I wanted to try it. The alternatives seem plain or look to require a lot of manual command-line installs which I'd like to minimize for this home use. I've got a lot of extra juice on the system than will be required for just serving files and I thought I'd get some extra value out of the build with Amahi.

Thanks for looking at my post so quickly.

[moredruid]

you could try to download the driver from intel and installing that one first, see if the NICs work fine then.

By default Fedora should load the e1000 driver, if this is not the case (use lsmod to find out which modules are loaded) you can try insmodding it to your current loaded driver modules like this:
modprobe e1000

I've got the same NIC (albeit not onboard but a PCI card) and it works fine.

You stated you ran VMWare on that mainboard, which version? If it's ESX(i), the card should be supported fine since VMWare ESX(i) is a heavily tweaked RedHat 5.2 install.

[neuroshell]

Hi,

Thank you for the response and added insight.

I have run VMWare ESXi 3.5 and OpenFiler on that specific system in the past and both ethernet ports worked just fine.

I tried an old ethernet card earlier today and it wasn't recognized by Fedora 10 at all.

BTW: I did do a CD media check, several times, and it came out fine to install on every check.

Will try upgrading the ethernet driver within F10 later today and let you know if that did anything.

- -

[cpg]

you *could* try the fedora11 test release, however, keep in mind that there is one major incompatible change coming and you will need to reinstall in a few weeks after the release is done.

this seems like a fedora driver issue, but as you said, the intel nics should be supported easily.
(well, there was a major e1000 issue and some recent kernel where the cards got bricked(!) - aside from that minor detail, it all should work fine)

you have some major horsepower in that system.

[neuroshell]

Thank you for the tidbit regarding Amahi for Fedora 11.

I tried several options at reinstalling the Ethernet drivers and I'm at a point were I think I'm better off waiting the couple/several weeks for 11 to be released. I've read lots of posts regarding F10 LAN driver issues, so I'm not alone and it leads me to believe there is something fundamentally wrong or incompatible between my setup and F10.

Has anyone ever tried installing F10 + Amahi on an ESXi 3.5 server? I'll give that a shot just to close the loop. I have an ESXi server that I could try it on. I can always install OpenFiler again on the hardware and do an iSCSI connection back to Amahi on VMWare... I am certain none of that is officially supported, but would still be fun to try.

Yes, it's pretty serious hardware and I have room to expand with a 2nd 3GHz Xeon and lots more memory... if ever needed (which I doubt). EBAY can provide some very interesting finds for less than US$300!!

I'm looking at using Addonics Hardware Port Multipliers with built in hardware RAID-1 for the SATA drive connections. The'll be connected to an inexpensive PCI-X SATA drive interface since the motherboard does not have built in SATA connector. Saves the worries and complexities of software RAIDs.

Thank you for you help and very quick feedback.

I'll post back with the VMWare and the Fedora 11 / Amahi 11 install when I try them out.



E.

[lou1z]

i have it running on esxi 4 at home. boots from usb and i have separate dual intel gigabit nics.
never had an issue with it on esx/i 3.5 or 4 at home or at work. they support intels out of the box.
not sure what your server is going to be used for but:
1. most would use raid 10 instead of raid 1 for that amount of disks
2. if it's production and multiple vm's, sas rather than sata
3. transport & management network should be seperate and gigabit (especially if using iscsi or nfs)

to run:
1. create new vm
2. assign resources
3. change cd/dvd path to fedora32/64 iso.
4. boot and install fedora
5. let amahi do it's stuff.
6. turn off your dhcp server on the amahi network

i would hope that you are running vlans, subnetting etc and using a router that supports this otherwise you may have issues with other pc's and dhcp if you disable dhcp.

moredruid - don't tell them its a heavily tweaked redhat over on the vmware forums....... you'd be run out of town lol!