Problem installing on Jetway NF99FL-525

Well, to quote another famous computer, "I'm sorry, ArcEye, but I can't do that".

The system shuts down rather than hangs, so the console window only shows up for a second before the system powers off.

I did notice that the last bit of text on screen seems to be something about the network manager, though. After that I get a blank screen with a mouse icon in the middle, then it goes to the text screen with the shutdown details.

Not sure if that is helpful, but there you go.

Well, to quote another famous computer, "I'm sorry, ArcEye, but I can't do that".

If only it was a HAL 9000, it could tell us what was wrong

The fact that it shuts down in normal boot suggests there is something terminal with the network driver.

I would be tempted if it were me, to go back to plan A), albeit for a different reason and try an install of a standard Debian Wheezy distro

If that does not work, it is a debian thing, if it does it is something different in the way the 3.4.9 kernel was built possibly.

At least we will know what way to look

As I said, just a cursory search threw up some quite major bugs in the driver with debian, some 2012 but others the summer of this year

Before doing that however, boot into recovery mode
Then from the terminal
/etc/init.d/networking restart
and see what that produces

Also the output from
ifconfig

regards

Hah, if it was Hal, it would work, but use the CNC to try and kill me as soon as it was running, then tell me to take a stress pill afterwards.

Okay, tried the network restart thing. Got two things: a message about restart being deprecated because it may not re enable some devices and another msg about "reconfiguring network interfaces...done".

Config shows just the loopback interface.

I will try the vanilla Debian install later on today.

Okay, I tried the standard debian install (from www.debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/) and it installed fine with no issues. Network works, no halts or crashes and no explosions.

So, i am guessing that this has newer drivers or something similar. How do I check that?

I'll have a look at the two kernels and their modules.

It may have to go to the developer who maintains the kernel part of the .iso, no point doing a local fix if it affects all such chips

regards

EDIT
PS
For completeness please do a lspci -vv > lspci-stock.txt with the stock Debian install, just to check it is the e1000e driver in use etc and ls -R -l /lib/modules > modules.txt && ls -R -l /lib/firmware > firmware.txt

Probably best to zip all 3 prints into one archive and attach that

Sure, here you go. Please let me know what you think: I am eager to get this system up and running.

Hi

Got those thanks.

Interestingly the video chip is not the one the spec sheet detailed and is dealt with by the normal Intel i915 driver,

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Kernel driver in use: i915

Both ethernet chips are using the e1000e driver and you seem to have the right drivers built in /lib/modules

You have very few entries in /lib/firmware
If you have an intel processor, you probably need to install firmware-linux-nonfree anyway, because it contains the intel-microcode.
None of this affects the ethernet chips though.

I have contacted the developer who built the kernel and am waiting on a reply.

Over the weekend I will try to build the Intel update code and the kernel 3.2.0-4 code against the 3.4.9-rtai kernel, so that you can substitute them for your existing ones and see if they work

regards

Sounds good. This MB is really designed for networking stuff, so I it only has a VGA output. But it is what I have to hand, so in it goes. Let me know when you have a new build and I'll be happy to test it.

Hi

Attached is the e1000e driver I built with the 3.4.55-rtai kernel recently.

3.4.55 is essentially the same kernel as used for the 3.4.9-rtai kernel in the debian.iso

I have tested loading it under 3.4.9-rtai and it loads OK
[ 1629.540973] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 1.9.5-k
[ 1629.540976] e1000e: Copyright(c) 1999 - 2012 Intel Corporation.

Of course I do not have the ethernet chip to test it with though.




I tried building the latest Intel driver from their site, but it errored on loading with an undefined reference to functions that should be integral to the driver, so not sure what they have done there.

Reinstall the 3.4.9-rtai based distro and boot in through recovery mode

Rename /lib/modules/3.4-9-rtai-686-pae/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000e/e1000e.ko to e1000e.ko.old

Copy the e1000e.ko driver in the zip to that location in its place

Given the problems you had, only proper way to test will be to reboot , select the normal boot option and see if it stays up and the ethernet link comes up

regards

This is the e1000e driver built from the kernel 3.2.0-4 sources ( the stock debian kernel that worked )

Again built against my 3.4.55-rtai kernel and tested on the 3.4.9-rtai kernel in the debian distro and loads OK

Instructions same as for the previous one

regards