Finding the right kernel modules for my network card.
 

Hello,

I've been trying to get Gentoo to work for some time, and it seems that hardware issues have always made me give up. Well, I'm not going to give up this time, and I want to get to the bottom of this.

I've got it to boot on the first try (impressive, eh?), but it won't recognize my network card. I think that finding the modules to go along with your hardware should be a newbie kind of topic. Where do I get these modules, and how do I know which ones to use?

I'm using a kernel that's a little ... different, and it only came with fifteen modules or so.

i guess the 15000 dollar question is ..
what kind of NIC card is it?

Run
lspci
this will tell you the make of the card as well as the driver it needs. If it is not compiled into the current kernel you will need to do this.

It's the controller that determines which module you need.
use /sbin/lspci and locate the line for your NIC card. Notice the PCI bus address in the first column. Match it with the output of the /sbin/lspci -n command.
example:
lspci
...
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
...

lspci -n | grep '02:01.0'
02:01.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)

The "10ec:8139 (rev 10)" is what identifies the controller, and what you look for in the HCL list.
Or use google with terms that include this number.

Ok, here are the important lines from lspci:
I've found the page for it in the HCL, and I've searched for 8086 and 2449, but I haven't found any drivers.

What do I do now?

Is your device on of these?
I think that you need the mii and eepro100 kernel drivers.
I found this in a lsmod list for someone this the same chipset using google.
eepro100 26512 0
mii 4608 1 eepro100