I am attempting to install RedHat 7.3 on a 900mhz x86 machine with 512 mg SDRAM 20 GIG HD.

The monitor I have is an old samsung I picked up for 20 bucks, and I got a used Trident TGUI9680 2mb POS Vid Card for 5 bucks.

I am attempting to setup a local network (my XP machine and now this linux machine) to work with my ADSL modem.. I purchased a 5 port router, that according to instructions will allow both my machines (and OS's) to share my ADSL connection (one of those network in a box things). I am a web developer, and program C++ extensively, and I want to setup Apache, and a ProFTPD and stuff so I can use it as a test machine, before I upload to my vserver.

Here is my probolem.
1. I am not experinced in installing Linux.

When installing redhat It never asks me about my network card (I have a RealTek 8129 supposedly supported with linux and its NE2002 stuff), second.. after installation X server dies or something.. I see the text based login: prompt, then I think it tries to go into graphical mode, and all I get is a black screen. I belive its because of incorrect x server settings.. however I can't login so I cant run x86cfg to reconfigure x windows.

So I am attempting to re-install the OS from scratch again, this time I will choose text login so at least I can login (however I would like to get X up and running)

but my real problem is Network Card.. has anybody experince RedHat and this particular Network Card with some good sound advice? or can point me in the right direction..

Thank You. Sorry for making this post so long.
Please keep in mind I am not stupid with computers. I know Windows inside and out and have been programming Windows (MFC, and DOS) for over seven years. I have had a Virtual Server for last 2 years, so I am familiar with Linux to an extent. I can navigate my way around it. But when it comes to hardware and networks.. If I plug it in, install the drivers and it don't work.. I'm lost.


Thank you.
RShadow

There's no need to re-install.

The Trident cards don't have released specs, so the drivers are a hackjob, peek and poked together, I had one on a laptop that I could never get to work right except with a 3.x series X-windows, but the tguis aren't nearly that bad. Login in from the prompt as root and try the following:

/usr/X11/bin/xf86config

Its the text based walkthrough for configuring X. When you're done with it, just type "startx" to see if that worked. Warning, sometimes incorrect X settings to these annoying Trident cards hangs the machine.

Have your monitor specs handy and be conservative on the resolutions, try 800x600 at a depth of 16 to start.

Second, the NIC. If its a PCI card, and your sure about the model, try:

modprobe ne2k-pci

If that doesn't return errors, see if you can then get a connection with:

dhcpcd eth0 (if you have a dhcp server)

or for statics:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 up (insert your real IP there)
route add default gw 192.168.0.1 (insert real router IP there)
echo "nameserver 192.168.0.1" > /etc/resolv.conf (insert nameserver's real IP there).

I modprobe horks, and this is a PCI card, post back with the relevant goop from:

/sbin/lspci

If its ISA, post back, its a matter of feeding it the right settings, probably something like:

modprobe ne irq=7 io=0x300

Those old ISA cards can be a raging 2 ton headache.

Cheers,

Finegan

I got this to work. What I did was switch a NIC card that I had in my XP machine with a new model, and I went and purchased a used Diamon Stealth Vid card for $10 bucks.

I had to re-install because I selected boot graphicaly, so it was impossible to login because redhat would start, then auto go into X.

So anyways I trashed the system, re-installed. This time installation picked up the new NIC card, and xf86config probed my vid card correctly and it all works.

Only problem I am having now, is when I try and update my modules it tells me It can't opne RPM Manager , perhaps its in use.. so I need to figure that out.

Anyways thank you for the help.