Hey folks. Okay..

I just finished installing Red Hat 9 on my machine, which is running off of an AMD/NVIDIA nForce2 chipset mobo that has integrated ethernet. I was trying to set up my network connection, but was unable to locate the nvida ethernet controller in the Network app/Network Configuration Wizard. So I went on to nvidia's site and downloaded the x86 linux driver (using my other machine) and used a cd to pop it into the other comp... Saved it to the desktop,

then terminaled: sh NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0310-pkg1.run.

It took me through a setup screen where I 'installed a audio and ethernet driver'. I checked the Network wiz again, still no entry for it. So I randomly clicked the hardware browser, and IT lists the 'nForce2 Ethernet Controller' under network devices, but I can't configure it from this screen. Anyway, I would seriously appreciate any help with this. I need to get internet access on this machine quick, so this is drivin' me crazy.

Thanks in advance.

the forcedeth driver has been providing solid network support for the nforce2 chipset for a long while now, but you'd have needed to update your kernel from the default (ancient) rh9 one... (you do realise how old rh9 is??) personally i could never get the "official" nvidia drivers to work...

So uh, hmmm...

A) How would I go about updating my kernel, assuming I don't have internet access on the machine that needs to be updated, and..

B) How would I load the forcedeth driver?

Thanks.

if you only jsut finished installing it, i'd really suggest downloading something else or if bandwidth is an issue, buying some cdr's of somethign else online, fedora core 5 is the direct descendent of rh9, and has a huge array of newer and better things on it, that new hardware really needs to do what you paid money for it to do.

Eh, thanks.. I guess I'll do that. I really only installed Red Hat because I had the discs on hand, and time was more of an issue than bandwidth.. I guess I'll just download Fedora than, or Ubuntu. Thanks.

I've got the same problem...not ethernet working on my nforce2 board...the sound does work thought but I haven't exactly tested it a lot.

I have my machine open and read RTL8110S-32 on the chip on the mobo. Is the forcedeth driver better than what I can get from the [extremely slow] Realtek website? It is labelled "Linux driver for kernel 2.4.x and 2.6.x", FYI.

I have never swapped drivers before in linux as i'm still pretty new on the open-source scene...I am still not sure how drivers are associated to the hardware in linux...that in mind: HOW do I force the driver I choose?

1,000,000 in advance!

forcedeth is a replacement for nvidia's closed source nvnet driver, it has nothign to do with realtek. google suggests you should use the rtl8169 driver that's part of the stock kernel. i might be wrong there though, but it appears to also suport the 8110 chips.

woops, my bad. I got the sound issue sorted out and was getting things a bit mixed up.

I was meaning to ask about the forcedeth driver. There is currently a driver loading automatically for the ethernet but it does not work. I haven't been able to find a walkthrough showing how to install the forcedeth driver. I've never swapped drivers in linux before so I am unfamiliar with how this works.

under redhat just change the entry in /etc/modprobe.conf for eth0 to use forcedeth, that's it.

This worked but it seems to revert back to the RTK8169 driver everyone once in a while. I carry the box home every couple days to burn the midnight oil and things work fine there.

Yesterday and this morning I fired up the box and it had reverted back to the old driver. I changed the modprobe.conf file and restarted the network service...nothing. Then I ran >/sbin/modprobe forcedeth and >/etc/init.d/network restart ...nothing. Then out of the blue about 5 min later I see that that is an active connection and an ip address and everything works!

Any insite on why there seems to be reverting and lag between me runnnig the commands and things actually happening. FYI it's an athlon 2500+ processor with 1GB ram so it's not because it's a slow machine.

Thanks for the help.