Hi,

I'm new to this forum (and Linux in general), so please let me know if I'm leaving information out.

I'm trying to add Ethernet support into a system running Mandrake 9.2, kernel 2.4.22. Network Device Support is not configured, and the Packet socket and Packet filtering options aren't either.

I have setup eth0

1.) verified that modules.conf aliases the device

/etc/modules.conf

alias eth0 8139too

2.) added ifcfg-eth0 to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes

3.) Installed dhclient

urpmi dhcp-client

I can ping localhost, but I am unable to obtain an ip address. When I try to bring eth0 up ('ifup eth0'), I get an error message indicating I need to configure Packet socket and Packet filtering in the config file. From my reading, dhcpcd requires these as well.

I want to avoid rebuilding the kernel, as there are V&V consequences for doing so.

I would like to understand what Packet Socket and Packet Filtering really provide (I'm not a networking guy), and if there is a way around rebuilding the kernel. If so,
what is it, if not, why not?

if I need to post additional information about the system, please let me know.

Thank you in advance.

I think you're banging your head against a brick wall. If you leave the kernel networking code out of the kernel, you can't expect it to party. The kernel help lists dependencies, and things select & deselect each other in the Makefile. If you leave something essential out, it isn't built, and it's dependencies may not be either. Mandrake-9.2 and kernel 2.4.22 is quite old. You would probably need gcc-2.95-3, although gcc-3.3x might do it. If you have a cd/dvd you can probably grab the stock kernel from that.

Put at it's simplest, networks talk in packets. a socket is a way of communicating with a process. Filtering in this case is code for the kernel to make decisions about packets. I'm no programming guy.