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HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline install

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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codtex
Posts: 3
Joined: 2017-05-20 08:37

HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline install

#1 Post by codtex »

Hello there,
I'm new to this forum and this is my first topic here, I want to apologize if I made something wrong, just tell me and I will fix it.

I have a very old laptop HP Compaq 6730s which was running on Windows 7, but I decided to make it a home server running on Linux
and I choose Debian for this purpose because I know that it is the parent of most of Linux distributions.

1. Initially I downloaded https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... etinst.iso and burn a CD from it, expecting to install Debian via LAN network which has internet available (I plugged the LAN cable and the port start to light its lights)
2. Then I restarted the laptop and started the installation when choosing Install
3. Installer start and first it says that there is a non-free firmware that it cannot find - b43/ucode15.fw and b43-open/ucode15.fw. When I did a search I found that this is the wireless driver. Anyway I continue the installation with the thoughts that I will install this driver later.
4. I got error on Base system install step and I decided to continue tomorrow with the installation because it was too late.
5. On the next day Base system install succeed but then failed on Package manager configure step and I saw the LAN port was no more lighting it's lights
6. I thought that even LAN network is not working and I downloaded https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/cu ... so.torrent and made a bootable USB stick with https://rufus.akeo.ie/
7. Install from stick succeed and I had Debian as SSH server on my laptop.

THE PROBLEM
LAN Network is not working and I'm not able to make it work till now ...

WHAT I TRIED TO DO TILL NOW

Code: Select all

lspci | grep Ethernet
Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8072 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

lscpic | grep Network
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4314 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

ifconfig -a
eth0       Link encap: Ethernet      HWaddr 00:22:63:61:67:70
              BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500   Metric:1
              RX packets:0  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  frame:0
              TX packets:0  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:0  (0.0 B)      TX bytes:0  (0.0 B)
              Interrupt:17

lo           Link encap:Local Loopback
              inet addr:127.0.0.1     Mask:255.0.0.0
              inet6 addre:  ::1/128  Scope:Host
              UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536   Metric:1
              RX packets:0  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  frame:0
              TX packets:0  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0  (0.0 B)      TX bytes:0  (0.0 B)
First I was thinking that probably LAN card driver is not working and search for a driver on the web
and found one https://www.marvell.com/support/downloa ... Results.do, but a friend of mine that is much better with Linux machines
told me that I don't need any driver and it is already available, he told me to issue command modprobe sky2 and then do service network stop and
service network start

When I did service network stop I got:
Failed to stop network.service: Unit network.service not loaded.

Now he told me that I need to configure my LAN card properly and I read https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration
I went to /etc/network/interfaces I saw initial content of the file was:

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback


I added at the end this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp


and when i did reboot I get some errors and then system boots, this is how it looks:
Image

Anyway now I see also the following in ifconfig -a

eth0:avahi Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:22:63:61:67:70
inet addr:169.254.6.230 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
Interrupt:17



Next I try:
ifdown eth0
ifup eth0

Result:
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.1
Copyright 2004-2014 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
Listening on LPF/eth0/00:22:63:61:67:70
Sending on LPF/eth0/00:22:63:61:67:70
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in database - sleeping.


I tried also configuring the network with static IP - again same results ...

locate network.service is giving no results ...

Thank you for reading so far and will be really thankful to an advice how should I proceed,
I will continue to dig in the web and try different this, hopefully will find a solution

NOTE: LAN cable is tested and is working for sure. LAN port is still not lighting its lights ...

Thank you

User avatar
orythem27
Posts: 252
Joined: 2017-05-11 07:59
Location: P.R. China

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#2 Post by orythem27 »

locate network.service is giving no results ...
I believe the service(which itself is a systemd unit) you are looking for is networking.service
You can list all systemd units by `systemctl list-unit-files`.

I tried also configuring the network with static IP - again same results ...
If you configured the network with static IP in /etc/network/interfaces, I guess you shouldn't have seen those DHCPDISCOVER stuff. So how could it be the same results?
HP Compaq 6730s
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8072
No DHCPOFFERS received.
A quick search on google reveals that a lot of people are encountering this issue with an HP laptop equipped with Marvell ethernet card.
Possible workarounds are:
0) Play with ACPI related kernel parameters such as acpi_osi=Linux, acpi_os_name=Linux, or combined.
1) Disable "LAN Powersave" in BIOS;
3) Upgrade BIOS;

Take your time to do more research before actually start fixing stuff. Certainly we don't want to make things worse by guessing. :P
.
.

codtex
Posts: 3
Joined: 2017-05-20 08:37

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#3 Post by codtex »

Thanks for your reply.
I believe the service(which itself is a systemd unit) you are looking for is networking.service
Correct
If you configured the network with static IP in /etc/network/interfaces, I guess you shouldn't have seen those DHCPDISCOVER stuff. So how could it be the same results?
Correct, too. My fault, I wanted to say that its not working again.
A quick search on google reveals that a lot of people are encountering this issue with an HP laptop equipped with Marvell ethernet card.
I was searching for such a problem but didn't found information about problem about LAN card not working under Linux, probably not searching the right way ...
Possible workarounds
This BIOS is kind of a more visual, you even have a mouse and BIOS doesn't look like the regular one with the blue screen.
Anyway I tried searching for ACPI stuff in BIOS but didn't found anything on the topic ... Should I search for this in BIOS or in Linux?
Disable "LAN Powersave" in BIOS;
No such an option in the BIOS
Upgrade BIOS;
The official HP website does not offer any BIOS updates different from windows (https://support.hp.com/nz-en/drivers/se ... pc/3687778 -> https://support.hp.com/nz-en/drivers/se ... pc/3687778) , I'm pissed off with this Windows stuff ...

Can someone please suggest me with other workarounds. I am thinking to build a driver from


Other thing is that I found the wireless firmware and putting it to /lib/firmware seems is founding the wireless card under ifconfig -a but it doesn't want to start because of rfkill block - anyway this is out of the scope of this topic.

Thanks for your reply again.

User avatar
orythem27
Posts: 252
Joined: 2017-05-11 07:59
Location: P.R. China

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#4 Post by orythem27 »

codtex wrote:Can someone please suggest me with other workarounds.
Have you tried adding the kernel parameters mentioned above? Some people from seven years ago suggested this could work. See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/297263
codtex wrote:Correct, too. My fault, I wanted to say that its not working again.
Could you post the error message in this scenario? It might help.
codtex wrote:Other thing is that I found the wireless firmware and putting it to /lib/firmware seems is founding the wireless card under ifconfig -a but it doesn't want to start because of rfkill block .
I guess this has something to do with the kernel module hp_wmi, maybe you can try blacklisting it. But from past expierence, these sort of problem is usually harder to solve with HP than Acer and Asus, which are the other two brands that are prone to rfkill issues. With Acer or Asus, tweaking acer_wmi or asus_nb_wmi is almost guaranteed to work, whereas with HP it's usually not the case.

sgian
Posts: 24
Joined: 2017-04-10 16:37

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#5 Post by sgian »

Some observations...
1. Sometimes newer kernels will have firmware that doesn't exist for older kernels like 3.16 in Debian 8. https://wiki.debian.org/HowToUpgradeKernel This is the first thing I usually try, after plugging in the device with an ethernet cable temporarily.
2. The picture you posted tells you what is wrong. You need the non-free firmware. Debian by default only installs open source drivers, you have to manually enter non-free firmware into the sources.list, or do what I do which is to install from the non-free net installation discs.
3. A laptop as a server will probably not last as long in my experience as a desktop because of heat, but it is fine to experiment with to see if you like the OS.

User avatar
orythem27
Posts: 252
Joined: 2017-05-11 07:59
Location: P.R. China

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#6 Post by orythem27 »

sgian wrote: 2. The picture you posted tells you what is wrong. You need the non-free firmware.
That picture only indicated missing firmware for b43 and radeon modules, which has nothing to do with OP's problem with his Marvell Ethernet Controller, whose driver 'sky2' needs no firmware.

codtex
Posts: 3
Joined: 2017-05-20 08:37

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#7 Post by codtex »

Hello again,
Have you tried adding the kernel parameters mentioned above? Some people from seven years ago suggested this could work. See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/297263
This link really gave me some light how to play with those parameters. First I tried editing in the first blue screen of GRUB Loader when pressing e. I added acpi_os_name=Linux on row:

Code: Select all

linux    /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64 root=4ebf565d-3aba-4ea1-abdb-389979a953bd ro acpi_os_name=Linux quiet
This doesn't work and then I start searching for the grub configuration file and I found /boot/grub/grub.cfg which had exact same line of code as upper code without acpi_os_name parameter. I added the parameter before ro after ro after quiet - I tried every possible place for this parameter and do a reboot after each try but nothing ...
Okay, fine now I found this other place that they suggest to add this paramter -> /etc/default/grub which has this line of code GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet". I've changed it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_os_name=Linux" -> save -> reboot -> nothing again, LAN is not working ....

I am trying all with /etc/network/interfaces configuration of:
auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp


and after each reboot trying:
modprobe -r sky2 && modprobe sky2
ifdown eth0
ifup eth0


and always getting this message ending with No DHCPOFFERS received.

I saw that people are having trouble on their laptops because of the battery and my laptop is really without a battery. Somehow I found it's battery which is a total just but place it on it's place and test again passing this acpi_os_name=Linux on the different places but no positive results again ...

when I do lsmod I see:
Module___|___Size____|___Used by
b43________|__378288___|___0
rfkill_______|__18867____|___1 cfg80211
wmi_______|__17339____|___0
sky2_______|__57751____|___0


and many more but this are the most strange to me ...

Note: with this configuration of interfaces I always get stuck on the loading screen for 90 seconds with the message:
[ *** ] A start job is running for LSB: Raise network interface
==============================================================================================
I changed the configuration of interfaces file to:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.71
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1 <------ the IP address of my router

Now I don't get stuck on the loading screen and I see following from netstat -rn
Destination____Gateway___________Genmask_______Flags___MSS____Window___irtt___Iface
0.0.0.0_______192.168.0.1_________0.0.0.0________UG_____0______0_________0_____eth0
169.254.0.0___0.0.0.0_____________255.255.0.0____U______0______0_________0_____eth0
192.168.0.0___0.0.0.0_____________255.255.255.0__U______0______0_________0_____eth0

but when I do ping 192.168.0.1, I get:
icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable

next
modprobe -r sky2 && modprobe sky2
ifdown eth0

RTNETLINK answers: No such process


I think the problem is somewhere before all that because the LAN port is not lighting - its like not even working ....

Off the topic:
I guess this has something to do with the kernel module hp_wmi, maybe you can try blacklisting it.
I tried this but didn't help for the wifi to start working. The file where I put blacklist hp_wmi was looking really suspicious
/etc/modprobe.d/fbdev-blacklist.conf but din't found any other blacklists ...
1. Sometimes newer kernels will have firmware that doesn't exist for older kernels like 3.16 in Debian 8. https://wiki.debian.org/HowToUpgradeKernel This is the first thing I usually try, after plugging in the device with an ethernet cable temporarily.
Can I do this offline?


Thanks for your help and for your time, I continue to investigate this problem ....
I'm open for suggestions :)

sgian
Posts: 24
Joined: 2017-04-10 16:37

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#8 Post by sgian »

According to the debian wiki on the b43 wireless chipset, you MUST enable the non-free firmware as I said earlier. However, I appear to have been wrong on the newer kernel because the linux kernel dropped b43 support after kernel 2.6.26. You will need an internet connection to install the non-free firmware, so I hope you have an active ethernet port. The instructions at https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx#b43_and_b43legacy are for debian wheezy by the way, which only has one more year of LTS support.

So this might be worth a try, based on the above

Code: Select all

su
nano /etc/apt/sources.list 
use the cursor to get through the editor and make sure there is a line like

Code: Select all

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main non-free contrib
Then exit with Control-X, save the changes, and enter the following

Code: Select all

apt-get update
apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
If this doesn't work, then the easiest recommendations (other than using an ethernet cable and installing firmware-b43-installer after enabling contrib non-free in sources.list) I can think of would be to get a Panda Wireless USB card https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1? ... 2941120011 and disable the b43 card, or to go to Ubuntu server 14.04 which according to an Ubuntu wiki I saw should still support the B43. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... er/bcm43xx.

sgian
Posts: 24
Joined: 2017-04-10 16:37

Re: HP 6730s laptop - LAN network not working - offline inst

#9 Post by sgian »

It looks like orythem27 and I are trying to solve different problems. I thought that the ethernet works and you are trying to get the wifi to work? If the ethernet does not work, I suspect that changes to try fixing wifi may have interfered with the ability to connect at all and that orythem27 would be the one on the right track.

As for a static ip, my tp-link router has a setting for assigning a static ip for specific MAC addresses, so I don't mess with the server software. Doesn't your router have a setting for assigning static IP addresses?

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