Arch Linux - Installing a Realtek 8139 NIC
 

hi, i just installed Arch Linux yesterday, the installation went all well. I have dont kno how to set up my NIC card. I added the 8139 drivers as a module in the 2.4.23 kernel and when i use modprobe to load the modules, /dev/eth0 does not show up. what else do i need to do in order to setup my NIC?

"ifconfig eth0 <ip address> netmask <netmask>" is almost certain to work.

/dev/eth0 doesnt even exist. i tried

ifconfig eth0 dhcp

says something about eth0 not existing

On certain occasions I've had problems that I've solved by a shotgun approach of taking the interface down, unloading the module, reloading it, and reconfiguring the interface.

Not sure which of these steps are the necessary ones, but it always works.

Also I'm using the rtl8139 module, not 8139too (Donald Becker seems to think more highly of it ;) )

Also normally "says something about" is not the kind of detailed error reporting that gets problems solved quickly.