I spent the time to type this up for a friend and didn't see any other walkthroughs so I figured I'd post this to help anybody who might need it.

Note any text that does not have a # in front of it is a command you should type. Anything that is enclosed in () is something you need to modify for your own environment.

It is also assumed that this is a fresh install of Cent OS 5.4 with the minimum amount of packages installed. These instructions should work for any RHEL 5.x distribution but the file versions you need to install will probably need to be modified. Just reference the CD you are using to install from.

Hope this helps somebody.

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# THIS IS NOT A SHELL SCRIPT
#
# Dell 1850 Linux NIC driver installation
# walkthrough for NetxtremeII on
# Centos 5.4
# Created 11/18/2009 by Mike Willis
#
#
#
#
#
#
# Insert CentOS installation disk you used
#
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
cd /mnt/cdrom/CentOS

mkdir ~/rpm-build
mkdir ~/gcc
#
#Your versions may differ from these
#
cp rpm-build-4.4.2.3-18.el5.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp bzip2-1.0.3-4.el5_2.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp elfutils-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp elfutils-libs-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp patch-2.5.4-29.2.3.el5.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp unzip-5.52-3.el5.i386.rpm ~/rpm-build
cp cpp-4.1.2-46.el5.i386.rpm ~/gcc
cp glibc-devel-2.5-42.i386.rpm ~/gcc
cp glibc-headers-2.5-42.i386.rpm ~/gcc
cp kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.el5.i386.rpm ~/gcc
cp libgomp-4.4.0-6.el5.i386.rpm ~/gcc
cp gcc-4.1.2-46.el5.i386.rpm ~/gcc
#
#Install GCC
#
cd ~/gcc
rpm -i cpp-4.1.2-46.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -i kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -i glibc-headers-2.5-42.i386.rpm
rpm -i glibc-devel-2.5-42.i386.rpm
rpm -i cpp-4.1.2-46.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -i gcc-4.1.2-46.el5.i386.rpm
#
#install rpm-build
#
cd ~/rpm-build
rpm -iv bzip2-1.0.3-4.el5_2.i386.rpm
rpm -iv elfutils-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -iv elfutils-libs-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -iv patch-2.5.4-29.2.3.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -iv unzip-5.52-3.el5.i386.rpm
rpm -iv dkms-2.1.0.1-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -iv rpm-build-4.4.2.3-18.el5.i386.rpm
#
# Finished unmount CD-ROM to change disks
#
umount /dev/cdrom
#
#
# Go to http://linux.dell.com/dmks and download DKMS
# Go to http://support.dell.com find your NetExtreme II noarch driver and download
# burn those files to a cd
# switch to disk you just made
#
# Requires dkms-2.1.0.1-1.noarch.rpm or higher
# Requires DKMS noarch driver rpm from Dell
#
mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
#
cd /mnt/cdrom/(where-ever-you-put-dkms)
#
mkdir -p ~/nic-drivers/dkms
#
cp *.* ~/nic-drivers/dkms
#
mkdir ~/nic-drivers/net1
#
cd /mnt/cdrom/(where-ever-you-put-NIC-rpms)
#
cp *.* ~/nic-drivers/net1
#
# Install DKMS
#
cd ~/nic-drivers/dkms
rpm -i dkms-2.1.0.1-1.noarch.rpm
#
# Install driver
#
cd ~/nic-drivers/net1
#
rpm -i netxtreme2-(VERSION-NUMBER-HERE).dkms.rpm

/sbin/service network restart

#
#You should now be able to configure your NIC
#