Linux

The network card on this mother board is: a Marvell 88E8056. What's a big s&*$% ;)

Here is the details using lspci -v:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 81f8
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 1278
Memory at feafc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at feac0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] Vital Product Data
Capabilities: [5c] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable+
Capabilities: [e0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Kernel driver in use: sky2
Kernel modules: sky2


This network card is well detected by kernel 2.6.26, but does'nt work. The issue is related to the speed of the card. After many hours spend on google, I find a magic command to solve this.

So in order to install Debian, I had 2 options.
1) Use another network card for the installation, the configure the onboard one, are remove the installed.
2) Install linux with the install CD instead of the NetInst version, then configure the card.

I choosed the 1st in order to not download all the CDs.

I installated an old 3com Etherlink card which is working verywell.

After installation, install ethtool package
apt-get install ethtool

and configure you network card
ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex full autoneg off

get it down, then up
ifdown eth0 && ifup eth0

And everything should works well after that.

Now, in order to have the card working fine after the next reboot, update your /etc/network/interface file like this.

iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.0.2
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 192.168.0.250
        broadcast 192.168.0.0
        pre-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex full autoneg off

(the last line is somecute cut. It's "pre-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex full autoneg off")

You don't need to reboot to test it, but I did it just to be sure everything will be fine next time I will restart.

It seems that it's because of the revision of the network card. Some over the net said we can get an update firmware from ASUS or Marvell. I have not yet ask but I will, in order to be able to use my card at 100 and not only 10.

I hope that it will help you the way it has helped me...

JM