Question:
I recently installed debian, and once I got the hang of it, I tried to
recompile the kernel. Problem is, the network stops working. This occurs
both going from a 2.2 kernel to a 2.4 one, and both using "make-kpkg" and
"make bzlilo". What's weird is that "eth0" is still there, but it can't ping
any external address.
I can think of 2 possibile culprits:
- There's a command that I'm forgetting to run after compiling the kernel
(maybe to reconfigure DHCP), or
- When I recompiled, I simply changed all of the modules that I need to be
built-in, including the tulip driver. Maybe I have to do something extra to
get this to work?
Answer:
There is no need to re-configure user space after a successful kernel
compile.
Check that the tulip driver is loading on boot up. It should output some
message on startup. Use 'dmesg' to do this.
It is most likely to be your kernel configuration. Post the config file
and someone on this list will be able to spot whats wrong (It will be in
your /boot directory, named something like config-versionnum.)
I checked "dmesg | grep tulip" and "dmesg | grep eth0", and the returned
lines looked the same as what I got with the default kernel. Besides,
wouldn't "ifconfig -a" not find eth0 if the tulip driver wasn't working?
I also installed the dhcping package, which checks to see if DHCP is
working, and while it worked with the default kernel, there was no response
in the recompiled one.
I've attached the config file for the kernel like you asked - you're
probably right in saying it's the config file, since I'm pretty new at this
and so had almost no clue what I was choosing when I configured it.
