Thank you, Per Jessen, and others, for your suggestions. The link connection status is shown with 'ethtool', however that tool is not part of the Rescue session on the install DVD. The command 'ip addr show' has 'state DOWN' even with the nics cabled and connected to the network. Definitely getting closer to a solution.

Did you try "ip link show", as somebody sugested? I think it works on mine. ~~~~ 'ip link show' and 'ip addr show' have the same results as above. The nics show 'state DOWN' when they are connected to the network. Best regards, James -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

'ip link show' and 'ip addr show' have the same results as above. The nics show 'state DOWN' when they are connected to the network.

Try enabling them with 'ifup ethx' - that really should give you the cable-connected status in the 'ip addr' display. ~~~~~~~ None of the nics have addresses yet and I am running in Rescue mode. Using 'ifup eth0', for example shows 'no configuration found' and 'ip addr' still shows 'state DOWN'. What I am trying to accomplish is; from the rescue mode on the DVD, on a computer that has multiple nics with only one of the nics cabled to the network and none of the nics set up with an IP address (since I don't know which of the several eth* devices is actually connected to the network), use a command that can give some result that reveals which eth* device has some network activity so I can assign an address to that specific eth* device. Thanks again, James -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

None of the nics have addresses yet and I am running in Rescue mode. Using 'ifup eth0', for example shows 'no configuration found' and 'ip addr' still shows 'state DOWN'.

What I am trying to accomplish is; from the rescue mode on the DVD, on a computer that has multiple nics with only one of the nics cabled to the network and none of the nics set up with an IP address (since I don't know which of the several eth* devices is actually connected to the network), use a command that can give some result that reveals which eth* device has some network activity so I can assign an address to that specific eth* device.

The answer is ethtool - if it's not available on the rescue CD, maybe copy it over via a USB stick? ~~~~~~ Well, this was an interesting exercise and I appreciate all of your responses. Perhaps 'ethtool' will be included in the next Suse 11.* release within the rescue mode. Many thanks again, James -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hans Witvliet wrote:

sorry to disapoint, but ethtool is often not such a big help....

# ethtool eth4 Settings for eth4: No data available

Very unusual - maybe an old NIC without the proper interface? Here is one of my examples: (Intel Pro 100). # ethtool eth0 Settings for eth0: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 100Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: MII PHYAD: 1 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: g Wake-on: g Current message level: 0x00000007 (7) Link detected: yes -- Per Jessen, Zürich (19.7°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Hans Witvliet wrote:

On Sat, 2010-04-24 at 16:11 +0200, Per Jessen wrote:

...

Hans Witvliet wrote:

...

sorry to disapoint, but ethtool is often not such a big help....

# ethtool eth4 Settings for eth4: No data available

Very unusual - maybe an old NIC without the proper interface? Here is one of my examples: (Intel Pro 100).

No, brand new mobo (asus P5Q Premium), with four Gb interfaces on it. They all work perfectly, but only ethtool fails to see them correctly

The NIC appears to be the Marvell Yukon 2, for which the driver is sky2 - afaict, the driver does have mii support, so why it doesn't work, I don't know.

Even hwinfo --netcard sees them ok:

Yes, it uses a different interface (PCI information).

So, waht i mean to say, is that here also the unix principle rules, that there are many ways that will produce the needed result, not just "ethtool"

Yes, a few other options were already suggested, but I think the OP said that he needed to get the information about the cable without having the cards configured. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (13.9°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 04/22/2010 09:33 PM, James D. Parra wrote:

Unfortunately there are multiple methods to check the link status and different drivers use different mehods and some cannot check the link status at all. The program ifplugstatus I suggested uses all all known methods for the check. ~~~~~~~~~~~~

It does, yet that command is not available when running in Rescue mode from a DVD.

Copy it to a usb stick and use it? :-? -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.3 i586 "Teal" Factory-M5 (at Minas Anor)) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Am Donnerstag 22 April 2010 21:40:37 schrieb Carlos E. R.:

On 04/22/2010 09:26 PM, Herbert Graeber wrote:

...

Unfortunately there are multiple methods to check the link status and different drivers use different mehods and some cannot check the link status at all. The program ifplugstatus I suggested uses all all known methods for the check.

Minas-Anor:~ # ifplugstatus lo: link beat detected eth0: link beat detected wlan0: link beat detected

That's buggy, there is no cable connected on my eth0. How can there be a beat?

Minas-Anor:~ # ifplugstatus -v lo: SIOCETHTOOL: link beat detected SIOCGMIIPHY failed (Operation not supported) Wireless failed. IFF_RUNNING: link beat detected SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (Operation not supported) eth0: SIOCETHTOOL: link beat detected SIOCGMIIPHY failed (No such device) Wireless failed. IFF_RUNNING: unplugged SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (No such device) wlan0: SIOCETHTOOL: link beat detected SIOCGMIIPHY failed (Operation not supported) Wireless: link beat detected IFF_RUNNING: link beat detected SIOCDEVPRIVATE failed (Operation not supported) Minas-Anor:~ #

Looks like the driver does not support link beat detection and simply reports "link beat detected" to not break other things. BTW: there even exists hardware, that cannot report this. Herbert -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org