I'm trying to deploy an embedded system (NISE 110 by Nexcom) based on the Intel EP80579 (Tolapai) chip. Tolapai apparently integrates controllers for Ethernet etc. on a single chip (Intel homepage).

The machine can't get a network connection. Diagnosis as far as I could manage:

Drivers

• drivers from Intel compiled and installed without problems (version 1.0.3-144). Kernel version and Linux distribution (CentOS 5.2, 2.6.18) match the driver's installation instructions.
• drivers are loaded and show up in lsmod (module names are gcu and iegbe)
• interfaces eth0 and eth1 show up in ifconfig

ifconfig

• I can bring up the interfaces with fixed IP
• pinging the interface locally works
• ifconfig shows flag UP but not RUNNING

Link

• ethtool shows "Link detected: no", "Speed: unknown (65536)" and "Duplex: unknown (255)"
• Link LED is on
• on the other side of the cable, ethtool shows "Link detected: yes" and reports a speed of 1000 Mbps, which has allegedly been auto-neogotiated with the problematic device.

Network traffic analysis

• the device does not reply on ARP, ICMP echo or anything else (iptables is down)
• when trying to send ICMP or DHCP requests, they never reach the other end
• activity LED is off on the device, on at the other end.

I tried the following without any effect:

• Different cables (2 straight, one crossed), I get the link LED lit up on each.
• Three different devices on the other end (one PC, one netbook, one router)
• Fixed ARP table entries on both sides
• Connecting both network ports of the machine with each other, won't ping through the cable, but will ping locally. Tried straight and crossed cables for that.