How to customize hardware ethernet settings in FC5?

[Patrick Doyle]

I have a somewhat problematic ethernet NIC in my laptop and have found
that the most reliable way to make it work is to force it to operate
in 10 Mbps, half duplex mode.  Each morning I arrive at work, attach
my laptop to the network, boot up, and type

$ sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half

and the network works fine all day long.

Now, I'm getting tired of this, and I think I ought to be able to
force this configuration somewhere.  The problem is, I haven't the
foggiest idea where to do it in FC5.  On Debian, I could edit
/etc/network/interfaces and specify a "pre-up" command.  In FC5, there
is probably some file in /etc/sysconfig/... that I can edit (either by
hand, or via a GUI application -- although, I don't see it under
System|Network...) to change this, I just don't know where to begin to
look.

Any pointers?

Actually, as long as I'm on the subject, where would be a good place
to start to understand the design, concepts, intent, and overall
operation of the data stored in /etc/sysconfig?

(Please feel free to tell me to read the manual for the answer to
that, although "man sysconfig" and "man -k sysconfig" don't tell me
anything).

--wpd

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, Patrick Doyle wrote:
> I have a somewhat problematic ethernet NIC in my laptop and have found
> that the most reliable way to make it work is to force it to operate
> in 10 Mbps, half duplex mode.  Each morning I arrive at work, attach
> my laptop to the network, boot up, and type
>
> $ sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half
>
> and the network works fine all day long.
>
> Now, I'm getting tired of this, and I think I ought to be able to
> force this configuration somewhere.  The problem is, I haven't the
> foggiest idea where to do it in FC5.  On Debian, I could edit
> /etc/network/interfaces and specify a "pre-up" command.  In FC5, there
> is probably some file in /etc/sysconfig/... that I can edit (either by
> hand, or via a GUI application -- although, I don't see it under
> System|Network...) to change this, I just don't know where to begin to
> look.
>
> Any pointers?

You might use an "options" line in /etc/modprobe.conf.  The options are 
documented in kernel-doc.  For example,

$ more /etc/modprobe.conf
     alias eth0 e1000
     alias eth1 e1000
     options e1000 Duplex=2 Speed=100
> Actually, as long as I'm on the subject, where would be a good place
> to start to understand the design, concepts, intent, and overall
> operation of the data stored in /etc/sysconfig?
>
> (Please feel free to tell me to read the manual for the answer to
> that, although "man sysconfig" and "man -k sysconfig" don't tell me
> anything).
>
> --wpd

[Joshua Paye]

On 8/10/06, Matthew Saltzman  wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, Patrick Doyle wrote:
> > I have a somewhat problematic ethernet NIC in my laptop and have found
> > that the most reliable way to make it work is to force it to operate
> > in 10 Mbps, half duplex mode.  Each morning I arrive at work, attach
> > my laptop to the network, boot up, and type
> >
> > $ sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half
> >
> > and the network works fine all day long.
> >
> > Now, I'm getting tired of this, and I think I ought to be able to
> > force this configuration somewhere.  The problem is, I haven't the
> > foggiest idea where to do it in FC5.  On Debian, I could edit
> > /etc/network/interfaces and specify a "pre-up" command.  In FC5, there
> > is probably some file in /etc/sysconfig/... that I can edit (either by
> > hand, or via a GUI application -- although, I don't see it under
> > System|Network...) to change this, I just don't know where to begin to
> > look.
> >
> > Any pointers?
>
> You might use an "options" line in /etc/modprobe.conf.  The options are
> documented in kernel-doc.  For example,
>  $ more /etc/modprobe.conf
>  alias eth0 e1000
>  alias eth1 e1000
>  options e1000 Duplex=2 Speed=100

Alternatively you can add the line.
"/usr/sbin/ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half"
to
"/etc/rc.d/rc.local"

Minus the quotes and assuming that ethtool is located in /usr/sbin.  I
do essentially the same thing to set Wake On Lan to on at boot.

[Patrick Doyle]

> You might use an "options" line in /etc/modprobe.conf.  The options are
> documented in kernel-doc.  For example,
>  $ more /etc/modprobe.conf
>  alias eth0 e1000
>  alias eth1 e1000
>  options e1000 Duplex=2 Speed=100

Thanks for the excellent idea... hmmm... looking at the natsemi driver
it appears that I can't set the speed via an external option.  I'll
have to poke around some more, but my quick check doesn't look
promising.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your response and your idea -- in my
heart-of-hearts, its the right answer, but, until I poke around some,
doesn't seem feasible in my situation.

I guess there's always rc.local, but I'll save that for a last resort.

--wpd

[Anthony Joseph Messina]

Patrick Doyle wrote:
> I have a somewhat problematic ethernet NIC in my laptop and have found
> that the most reliable way to make it work is to force it to operate
> in 10 Mbps, half duplex mode.  Each morning I arrive at work, attach
> my laptop to the network, boot up, and type
>
> $ sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half
>
> and the network works fine all day long.
>
> Now, I'm getting tired of this, and I think I ought to be able to
> force this configuration somewhere.  The problem is, I haven't the
> foggiest idea where to do it in FC5.  On Debian, I could edit
> /etc/network/interfaces and specify a "pre-up" command.  In FC5, there
> is probably some file in /etc/sysconfig/... that I can edit (either by
> hand, or via a GUI application -- although, I don't see it under
> System|Network...) to change this, I just don't know where to begin to
> look.
>
> Any pointers?
>
> Actually, as long as I'm on the subject, where would be a good place
> to start to understand the design, concepts, intent, and overall
> operation of the data stored in /etc/sysconfig?
>
> (Please feel free to tell me to read the manual for the answer to
> that, although "man sysconfig" and "man -k sysconfig" don't tell me
> anything).
>
> --wpd

you should be able to add a line to
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 10 duplex half autoneg off"

and the change will take place at boot up, or anytime you restart the
interface.

[Patrick Doyle]

> you should be able to add a line to
> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
>
> ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 10 duplex half autoneg off"
>
> and the change will take place at boot up, or anytime you restart the
> interface.

That's _exactly_ the answer for which I was looking.  Unfortunately,
it begs a couple of other questions...

1) How did you know that?
2) How could I have known that?
:-)

3) If I add my own text to ifcfg-eth0, will the network configuration
GUI deal with it properly?

--wpd

[Anthony Joseph Messina]

Patrick Doyle wrote:
> > you should be able to add a line to
> > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
> >
> > ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 10 duplex half autoneg off"
> >
> > and the change will take place at boot up, or anytime you restart the
> > interface.
>
> That's _exactly_ the answer for which I was looking.  Unfortunately,
> it begs a couple of other questions...
> How did you know that?
> How could I have known that?
>
> :-)
> If I add my own text to ifcfg-eth0, will the network configuration
>
> GUI deal with it properly?
>
> --wpd

unfortunately, the gui doesn't incorporate ethtool options. i don't
remember how i found that; though it was a long time ago when i was
having trouble with my broadcom gigabit controller. i think it was just
lots-o-searching.

[Mikkel]

Patrick Doyle wrote:
> > you should be able to add a line to
> > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
> >
> > ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 10 duplex half autoneg off"
> >
> > and the change will take place at boot up, or anytime you restart the
> > interface.
>
> That's _exactly_ the answer for which I was looking.  Unfortunately,
> it begs a couple of other questions...
> How did you know that?
> How could I have known that?
>
> :-)

Look at the sysconfig.txt file in initscripts directory off of
/usr/share/doc.
> If I add my own text to ifcfg-eth0, will the network configuration
>
> GUI deal with it properly?

No idea - I don't usually use the GUI tools for network configuration.

Mikkel

[Patrick Doyle]

> Look at the sysconfig.txt file in initscripts directory off of
> /usr/share/doc.

Fabulous... thanks
> > If I add my own text to ifcfg-eth0, will the network configuration
> >
> > GUI deal with it properly?
>
> No idea - I don't usually use the GUI tools for network configuration.

I laugh at myself for having written that, especially in light of your
response.  Most folks that have ever worked with me regard me as being
insanely anti-GUI.  However, when it comes to modern desktop
distributions of Linux, I've started using the GUI for simple
configuration maintenance.  I do this because a) I assume (oops --
that could be a bad thing) that the GUI gets a fair amount of testing
and attention; and b) without knowing what's going on under the hood
on on modern distros, I worry that if I manually change something
(/etc/resolv.conf comes to mind) some automation will come along later
and undo my changes.

Anyway, thanks for the answer...

--wpd

[Aaron Konstam]

On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 11:04 -0400, Patrick Doyle wrote:
> Actually, as long as I'm on the subject, where would be a good place
> to start to understand the design, concepts, intent, and overall
> operation of the data stored in /etc/sysconfig?
>
> (Please feel free to tell me to read the manual for the answer to
> that, although "man sysconfig" and "man -k sysconfig" don't tell me
> anything).

Try /usr/share/doc/initscripts-8.11.1/sysconfig.txt