fit-PC2 FreeBSD 8.2 Install Crashes on Network

M

mit-physicist

Hi! I've installed FreeBSD 8.2 from CD-ROM onto a fit-pc2. All goes well until I try to do the standard "sysinstall -> Configure -> Networking > Interfaces" step. That results in:

Code: 
"Fatal Error: Unable to create network device menu!  Argh!  PRESS ANY KEY TO QUIT

Am I missing a necessary driver? If so, anyone know where one might find it?

-Lyman
 
Don't use sysinstall for the configuration. Use it only for the initial install and forget it ever existed after that.

Find out what hardware is detected, have a look with dmesg(8) and, for the network, ifconfig(8).
 
I'm running 8.2 on a Fit-PC2, it's working fine, but it wasn't installed via sysinstall.
The driver for the network card is 're', just in case.
 
SirDice said:
Don't use sysinstall for the configuration. Use it only for the initial install and forget it ever existed after that.

Find out what hardware is detected, have a look with dmesg(8) and, for the network, ifconfig(8).
Click to expand...
Hello, SirDice. Sorry I didn't get back to you on my progress. Got slowed down by a severe case of the flu. Anyway, what I get on this from dmesg is:
Code: 
re0: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0x2000-0x20ff at device 0.0 on pci2
re0: 0x1000 bytes of rid 0x18 res 3 failed (0, 0xffffffff).
re0: Using 1 MSI messages
re0: reset never completed!
re0: Chip rev. 0x7c800000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00400000
re0: PHY write failed
re0: PHY write failed
re0: attaching PHYs failed
device_attach: re0 attach returned 6

Can you please point me to documentation on how to install the driver manually or tell me how to do so? I may be able to take it from there. I'd really like to get this little computer working with FreeBSD.

-Lyman
 
There have been updates to the re(4) driver since 8.2-RELEASE. However, I don't know if there's a snapshot with them. The only other way would be to update to 8-STABLE, which could be challenging without a working network driver. Installing FreeBSD-9.0 is another option.
 
I have other machines running 8.2, so I could download the updated driver and put it on a stick to move it to the fit-PC2. Do you think that would work? Otherwise, I guess I better get 9.0.
 
Rather than just the driver, I'd suggest getting the full source for 8-STABLE and just updating to that with a buildworld/kernel/installworld. Still can't guarantee it will fix the problem, but it's a fair chance.
 
Mark this one as SOLVED!

I downloaded 9.0-RC, burned it to a CD and installed it. It worked like a CHARM! I like the new installer, too. Can't thank you all enough for this.

-Lyman
 
Well, maybe I spoke too soon. The install worked perfectly, as far as I can tell, and the network appears to come up on re0. I assigned the local address of 192.168.0.25 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and the default router is 192.168.0.1. All my other machines on this local net work just fine. The interesting thing is that I can ping the local address (192.168.0.25) and it works. However, pinging anything else results in 100% packet loss and a message that reads:
Code: 
re0: watchdog timeout
Any idea what this is about and how to fix it?

-Lyman
 
OK, so I did more "homework" and found that this timeout message means the network interface went down. Question is, why? The following is the result of ifconfig(8) on this interface:
Code: 
re0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
options=389b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC>
	ether 00:01:c0:06:8f:a0
	inet 192.168.0.25 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
	inet6 fe80::201:c0ff:fe06:8fa0%re0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
	nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
	media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
	status: active

To my (extremely uneducated) eye, this looks perfectly healthy. Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated!

-Lyman
 
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