I am fairly new to linux, and i own the 7 cd/1 dvd set for suse linux 8.0 professional, and i used the dvd version to install it on my dell inspiron 5100 laptop, which seemed to install perfectly. then i went into the Yast2 thingie and configured my integrated 10/100 ethernet card as normal with dhcp and whatnot. i even had one of my teachers that is very proficient with linux verify that i had all the settings correct and such. when i got done it said that my network card (which is the broadcom 440x) was configured and such using dhcp. so i tried to go online and it kept saying that it couldnt find any websites that i was trying to go to, like yahoo and such. then my instructor told me to try pinging another computer on the network that i was connected to. it said it couldnt find it or something of the sort, but did sucessfully ping the local machine, 127.0.0.1 without any problems. that makes me think its probably something to do with a driver problem?? oh yea, i forgot to metion that when i boot into linux as its trying initialize the hardware, and it gets to the part to initialize the "eth0" it says failed, but everything else always says done or passed or whatever. i cant figure out what to do. one other minor issue im having is my sound card not working. i think my sound card is by sigmatel or something like that. it shows in the control center that its detecting it as being an intel device, and said something about dell computer corp. as well, but then in yast2 it doesnt show any sound cards installed at all, and i tried to add one, but it doesnt have anything even similar to mine listed to install. any help on either of these matters would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

mike

sounds like you need to:

1. Find out for sure what driver module that card requires.

2. Check /etc/pcmcia/config file. Locate the name of your NIC in the list and verify that the line which says "bind modulename" matches what your card needs. If not, simply edit in the correct module name.

Not positive that's your problem, but a good place to start. Definately sounds like a driver module problem to me.


*edit* I did a little googling and it looks like the correct module for that card is BCM4400. do a lsmod and see if that is listed as being loaded. Also, as above, check to see if it's correct in /etc/pcmcia/config

Hope that helps

i ended up getting fed up with suse linux and said screw it and formatted the drive again, and downloaded mandrake linux 10.1 3-cd version. now everything works perfectly and i love it. i definately have learned a lot from it about how to get simple things like java and stuff installed since its not as easy as im used to with windows as just click some buttons and its done. very fun when it all works ill give it that.

mike