Re: PPPoE and ADSL problem (1 solution)

From: Tero Pihlajakoski (tepihlaj_at_nopaju.spamoulu.fi)
Date: 12/03/03 

Date: 3 Dec 2003 00:06:56 GMT

Stephen Harris <cyberdiction@hotmail.com> wrote:

> "Jacob Westenbach" <westy528@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:K85zb.73721$do1.66364@twister.austin.rr.com...
>> "Tero Pihlajakoski" <tepihlaj@nopaju.spamoulu.fi> wrote in message
>> news:bqief1$21f$1@ousrvr3.oulu.fi...
>> > ---
>> >
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I recently re-installed linux as a second operating system along WinXP.
> I
>> > had huge problems getting up the internet connection (For finnish
>> > googlers: Baana, Cisco, 575 LRE). I managed to connect exactly 2 times
>> > (both with perfect connections). But after I'd shutdown and restarted,
> the
>> > system, it failed to connect with _any_ the PPPoE clients I found on the
>> > net.
>> >
>> > Ok, the solution:
>> >
>> > I never turned off (complete shutdown) the computer _and_ the ADSL
> modem.
>> > It seems that XP puts the modem or the network card to some sort of
>> > hibernate (or powersave) when it terminates (sigh). Linux then doesn't
>> > automagically reset the setting... On my modem this is apparent from the
>> > fact that the eth - light on the box "can't be lit" with normal means
>> > (like ifconfig or ifup).
>> >
>> > So it was Windows after all...
>> >
>> > Does anyone know a more flexible way to solve this? I want to be able to
>> > 'restart' windows and boot directly to Linux.
>> >
>> I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll have to do a complete
>> shutdown from Win and then boot into Linux. As you've already discovered,
>> Win leaves the NIC in a state of limbo that I've never found a way to
>> resolve w/o a cold start of the machine. Fortunately, going from Linux to
>> Win does not have the same problem.
>>
>> JW
>>

> These conclusions don't seem quite right to me. You will find plenty
> of evidence of win xp and linux dual booting and linux having connection
> problems of a more advanced nature such as can only use numerical
> ip addresses not alphabetical, which means the connection is made but
> there is a hosts file un/mis configured. There is no need to turn off
> computer.

That was not the issue here. Oh, and if that's a hint of merealizing that
unlike windoze, linux can be configured without extensively rebooting the
system, then... ;-)

> I think the most likely reason is that the dsl service has not been
> stopped. I think it is worth exploring. The win xp pppoe driver
> works excellently and is easy to setup. Try clicking on "disconnect"
> before restarting the computer and booting into linux.

This may help, but restart, shutdown or hibernate should definitely ensure
no devices are left to 'limbo' (standby, that I understand ;). I use
hibernate extensively since I have five to ten UI apps running most of the
time and it's a pain to resume the work after an actual reboot, so not
terminating the connection and hibernating might be the _actual_ cause for
this phenomenon.

> In linux I've
> seen scripts for adsl start and asdl stop which I think follows the
> idea of ppp-on (pon) and ppp-off (poff). I may be wrong, but I
> think turning off the computer terminates the active dsl connection
> which is properly terminated by "disconnect" or similar. Whether
> this is a bug or not?

Well, I definitely wan't no-one to screw my system up so that I need to do
a hard-power off before the components work... So let's say it's an honest
bug :-)

In fact, wouldn't you call this a bug?:
- Put the plug in.
- Boot windows.
- Connect, play around, get some work done.
- Hibernate
- Press soft on and boot to linux
- _No_ network
- shutdown
- Pull the plug, wait a second, put it back in. (Or just flick the switch
,if you have one, on the power unit)
- Press soft on and boot to linux
- _Network_

> Most ISPs now offer "Instant On" pppoe
> connections by default rather than Always On. I haven't come
> across enough information to say this situation is a windows bug
> rather than an inconvenient default setting for one personally.

> For instance the swat file in Samba is generated automatically
> with disable = yes (in Samba 3pre+) when in order to use
> swat that entry should read disable = no One would think
> that most new users would want to use swat and that older
> users don't use swat at all so that the default should be set
> to disable = no which means swat is enabled. It is hard to
> say if that is a bug or mistaken judgment, without having all the
> information available to the programmer who makes the decision.

> This may bring up issues with static and/or fixed IP addresses.
> On my machine, I dual boot win xp and RH9 with one shared
> Nic card without a problem. So do countless others. This leads
> me to believe it is not the Nic card itself but due to user practice.

> When the linux connection is working you could print out all
> the relevant configuration files for the connection. Then create
> the problem by booting into windows xp. Print out all the relevant
> configuration files and see if they are identical to the working ones.

Tried it, they were. Everything seemed just perfect at first. The funky
stuff I got in this situation was with pppd not being able to use eth0
properly -> ppp0 not appearing (or appearing for the duration of
connection attempt == adsl/pppoe/...-start) in ifconfig.

> If they are not identical it is a linux config problem. If they are
> identical then it points to the Nic card still in use because the
> service on the card has not been terminated.

Couldn't figure this out myself since ifconfig and others let me set the
ip addr, bring it down, set it up etc. just fine.

> A bit of a pain which
> is why I think you should skip to troubleshooting the benefits or
> not of turning the service off (disconnect) in windows first and
> see what happens. It is an easy step to try.

Yeah, well, I admit I was a bit enthusiastic after getting it to work
after many hours of trying.

And hey, maybe someone has exactly the same problem and uses this as a
partial or temporary solution. (Possibly even finds that
H_KEY_WHATEVER.DisconnectOnHibernate = 0 from the windows registry)

Anyways: IMHO it's a win bug. Not a serious one, but definitely
frustrating: I tried to hack the linux for hours, but not hard-restarting
or using windows and thus disconnecting. It never occured to me that
hibernating (i.e. not disconnecting from win) could've caused the ppp0
creation to fail. Besides, after you reboot win from hibernation, the
connection is, of course, down...

> Regards,
> Stephen 

--

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