Does Red Hat Linux 7.2 have any plug and play ability? I deleted the network card manually. How do I ask Linux to plug and play detect the card and automatically set up it's IRQ and IO addresses? Thanks.

Also, when I click to logout, there is a checkbox that reads "Restore session when logging in next time". What does this checkbox option mean?

OK, firstly, let me assure you that I don't use RedHat, but I believe that the Mandrake programs are probably very similar.

You should run kudzu. This will detect any added/removed devices and do a minimal configuration for them. You will probably want to run something like linuxconf to adjust your IP address and so on. I think that if you do a search on this forum for ipconfig you should probably get plent of info, but I think that ipconfig is a command-line program. Not sure.

As far as the 'restore session' bit, this just means that when you log back in, all the windows that were open last time, will be open again this time. Say, for instance, you had a window open showing the contents of your MP3 directory, when you log off without that 'restore session' option, you would have to navigate back to that directory manually. If, however, you enabled the option, when you log back in, viola - the MP3 directory is already open and ready for use! That's all it does. Nothing fancy, really.

Oh, forgot to mention, you shouldn't need to manually set the IRQs and IO addresses unless the card in question is *old* (just wanted to stress that: old) an 8-bit ISA card. Unless there is a real necessity for it, I would advise you to fork-out a few pennies and either get yourself a 16-bit ISA card (which should be PnP compatible) or preferably a PCI card (but, obviously, only if you've got a spare PCI slot).

Thanks Thymox.

Kudzu runs on each boot of Linux, but it doesn't do anything with my network card.

When I run my network configuration utility, it shows that the network card is installed, but it does not have any critical resources assigned. That is, IRQ and IO addresses have not been assigned. How can I set up my network card?

This is a modern PCI Plug n Play Network Card. In fact, it's a Realtek 8139 type ethernet adapter.

Sorry buddy, erm, have you tried actually physically removing the device, booting Linux and letting Kudzu do it's thang by removing all configuration jobbies, switching off, re-inserting the card, rebooting Linux and again letting Kudzu do it's thang!

I know that this seems like a bit of a cheap work-around, and I don't know if it will work, but in my opinion, it should work. If it doesn't may I suggest that this thread be moved to the networking forum?

Thymox, thanks for that suggestion. That is a good idea, I'll try that and let you know if it worked.

I suspect there is probably a way to reconfigure my network card without having to power off the system, maybe someone else can offer a solution? Thanks again.

Yes it worked; I'm on the network now.