IBM Thinkpad network problem
 

I have just installed Red Hat 9 on my IBM Thinkpad 2648-ED1.
The install went very smoothly and everything seems to work, except when I plug in the network cable! The machine will then hang indefinitely trying to enable eth0.
I normally use an IBM port replicator with this machine, but it also has an internal card which I believe is an Intel Pro/100 (it has been running Win 2K, but is now dual boot). It doesn't matter where I plug the cable in the same thing happens...I can only boot if I take the cable out.
I looked around a few sites and found some linux drivers for the Intel Pro/100. The file was e100-2.3.40.tar.gz, which I installed (my first time installing a package, and I learnt all about mounting a floppy too, but it seemed to go OK). I then deleted the previous ethernet device, installed the new one, activated it....and it hung indefinitely! No ethernet.
Has anyone else had this problem? (And hopefully solved it)
Is there anything I can do?...Other than buy a new linux friendly PCMCIA card that is!

Thanks,

Mike

I don't think you have the correct driver for your T21. The "A" series has eepro100 cards but, from what I can tell, the T21 has a 3com ethernet/modem card. If I was you I would recompile my kernel to include the vortex/boomerang card. You can compile it as a module if you want but I would just compile it into the kernel itself.

Thanks Joseph. The only reason I thought it had the Intel pro/100 card in was because that's what it said in W2K.
Sorry to be ignorant, but how do I recompile my kernel? I'm brand new to Linux...but enjoying it so far! I will even more when I can get to the Internet!

Hmm, I also have a IBM laptop, an X21 and RH9 runs on it like a champ, network works better than it has ever done on windows.

Looks like IBM is changing network cards and producers really frequently.

Some more troubleshooting for you that might show where the problem lies:
Check out knoppix, www.knoppix.com

It's a CD you can download and burn. Like this you can run linux off the CD.

Why I mention it? Because Knoppix is world famous for working on ANY HARDWARE. If it works on your, i.e. you get networking, you can see which driver it uses and maybe copy it.

You can order Knoppix per mail, if you cannot download it.

Good luck, hope it works for you. Knoppix has never failed me so far (funny fact: Just installed a brand new Benq TFT LCD monitor at a friends, windows XP did not recognize it, knoppix did)

If it works, would love to hear about it (also if it doesn't of course)

Markus

Thanks Markus!

Actually I already have a Knoppix CD. Someone gave it to me to solve another problem on a different machine a few months back, and it never occured to me it could be useful here as well!
I shall give it a go this evening.

Mike