Cannot get Ethernet to work on Ιntel Pentium J4205 mini pc

I am at my wits end on getting the ethernet to work on a new Openwrt install using the latest stable x86 release 64
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02.3/targets/x86/64/ .

I have Openwrt installed on an Ιntel Pentium J4205 mini pc. I am able to terminal access it by connecting a monitor to it, but I cannot get access over ethernet.
The only interface shown is the loop back address.

If any one could help troubleshoot, it would be appreciated.

lspci -knn and dmesg should provide more insight about your hardware. If in doubt, loading a general purpose linux (-live) distribution (which ships every imaginable kernel module in the live medium) often helps as well.

is there a possibility that I need to load the ethernet drivers? if so, is there a kmod command to load them?

Yes, that is a possibility (although I would be rather surprised if your mainboard doesn't either have realtek or intel ethernet cards, both of which should be preinstalled) - but to know which module to install, you first need to determine the ethernet hardware on your board (e.g. via the commands mentioned above).

I can confirm it has both an intel gigabit for ethernet, and an intel wireless. Atleast that is what IPFire reports when I load IPFire on it.

There's no point discussing this any further without that information.

I cannot get any information from openwrt, it seems it no longer loads to terminal screen it just freezes
here is what i get from IPFire.

maybe i should'nt be using the x64?

That is not lspci -knn (or at the very least lspci -nn), which is important to get the actual device IDs to map against.

On the contrary, you should be using x86_64 - legacy i386 images contain less (of the modern-) network drivers than the 64 bit images, in case of relatively new hardware 22.03~rc is also probably easier than 22.02.x or older (newer kernel, newer hardware support).

I wonder if it comes with kmod-igc

Here is more information per your request

Per the image suggestion, it says i need the driver igc, (or kmod-igc). I don't know if this is defaultly included in the x64, but if it is, then my ethernet should work.

Correct, it needs kmod-igc, which is not preinstalled by default - but is available from the repositories.

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02.3/targets/x86/64/kmods/5.4.188-1-db222399ef90ea6bd3453fe08b323a74/kmod-igc_5.4.188-1_x86_64.ipk
or
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.0-rc2/targets/x86/64/kmods/5.10.116-1-6703dcafaa268bc75821eea0f02b92ca/kmod-igc_5.10.116-1_x86_64.ipk
respectively, you can either use the (online-) imagebuilder to include it into your image, or install it at runtime using opkg and a USB stick.

1 Like

do you know the stable link to the latest wireless driver as well? might as well install them both at the same runtime. kmod-iwiwifi ? i think it says.

iwlwifi-firmware-iwl7265 or maybe iwlwifi-firmware-iwl7265d, be aware that these Intel wireless cards are not usable in AP mode (so pretty useless for a wireless router).

1 Like

Thank you for your advice. I was able to get the ethernet working. I should be able to setup a router out of this my next day off. :partying_face:

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.