Can't get slack to recognize onboard lan
 

Hello all. This isn't my first time playing with linux, but I decided to try it again, this time as a full-time system. I have it set up and running, but I still have some problems to work out. One major one is that the system won't find my onboard lan. I have an asus a7n8x with the dual onboard ethernet, and I downloaded and attempted to install the drivers for my chipset. The system found the audio drivers that came in the bundle, so the drivers apparently work, but they must not have installed correctly for the network. Anyone have any ideas what I should do? In about two weeks I'm moving to a t1 line, so I really need this working. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

give us the output of lspci please.
it will tell you (us) wich chipset your Ethernet has, so you'll be able to select the correct one in the kernel.

Here's the output. I'm still not sure how to go about selecting the right one in the kernel, though.

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01e0 (rev c1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01eb (rev c1)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01ee (rev c1)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01ed (rev c1)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01ec (rev c1)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 01ef (rev c1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce MultiMedia audio [Via VT82C686B] (rev a2)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 006c (rev a3)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 006d (rev a3)
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)
01:07.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX 100 DDR/200 DDR] (rev b2)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3C920B-EMB Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 40)

Hum... 3Com network card. Nice one, but I don't know that chipset. I suggest you to recompile your kernel and to add every 3Com card support as module and to try every modules one by one.

Goto nvidia.com and download drivers for nvidia chipset

Can you tell me what the hell NVIDIA has to do with a not working network card?

You have Nvidia chipset:
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
Ethernet controller inside :)

You need chipset driver from nvidia

ouuufff
yeah I missed that one, sorry (damn onboard thing!!!)

is NVIDIA made onboard driver for nux?

Try to use a new kernel (latest is 2.6.0-test2).

Oh joy. I really wasn't hoping to recompile my kernel, though I do need to put in APM support anyway. I already got the Nvidia lan working just yesterday, but this board has dual lan, and the 3Com is the one I'm having trouble with. I don't think I want to go to the 2.6 yet, since I need to rely on this computer entirely. What's the latest stable version people have been having good luck with?

Ok, I found the 3Com drivers that are supposed to work -- 3c90x, but I can't get it to compile, and I can't find a precompiled version. Any ideas?

recompile your kernel, there's no others options :)

>Ok, I found the 3Com drivers that are supposed to work -- 3c90x, but I can't get it >to compile, and I can't find a precompiled version. Any ideas?
In Slackware no this driver ? Its impossible!

ps
https://listman.redhat.com/archives/.../msg00893.html

as this link stats, 3Com 920x has been added to kernel 2.5 and 2.6
I suppose you may want to try kernel 2.6.X even if it is not released yet (some fun in sight!).
Also, there is maybe a patch about that card for 2.4 kernels.

Ooh. Ok... How confident are you in the stability of 2.6? Is anybody using it that can give me advice on this? This is my primary machine, and with college classes starting again in a couple weeks, I'm cautious about doing anything that could make my system unstable. I have no problem switching kernels as long as I can be fairly confident it'll work.