Howdy,

I've read plenty of posts, but none have exactly my specifications. I'm running Slackware 11 on a Dell 5100C (discontinued) with an integrated PCI/motherboard set (Intel 82801). I'm running the 2.6 generic kernel.

I just got RCN Cable internet installed, and it's plugged in to the regular ethernet port. I know that there are two ethernet cards, one with a regular port and one with a 1394 port. I have been using a wireless USB adapter provided by my landlord, but now we have our own connection, so I should use the ethernet connector.

When I first installed, netconfig detected "eth0", and I turned it off somehow, as it was useless, and used a module to load the RT73 usb wireless adapter.

I unloaded the RT73 module, commented the lines for the usb adapter in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and then ran netconfig. All it told me was that I did not have TCP/IP running and that there was nothing it could do. IT DID NOT PROBE FOR A NETWORK CARD.

I looked through lists of modules (filenames, that is) and found one called eth1394. I did "modprobe eth1394" and "modprobe e1000" and they both said "FATAL...device not detected" or something to that effect. However, when I ran ifconfig, there was an "eth0" interface. It didn't do anything, of course.

I checked lsmod, and there are no modules named "eth" of any kind; I ran lspci, and the card is definitely there. However, somewhere in the process a bunch of modules got "unloaded" because future runs of lsmod turned up only the cisco VPN client. That was frustrating, even after a reboot.

I reinstalled the modules, and still got only the Cisco VPN module...did I trash the modules somehow? Is there a way to load all of 'em?

I've read plenty of posts, including one who said he just bought a new network card (seems like a waste of time and money), and someone who suggested compiling a new kernel (I have the same chipset and the same kernel here at work and it did not require any tweaking -- it just detected the card and the network right away).

Is there a way to force netconfig to probe for the card?

What happened to my modules? (i did run "depmod eth1394" and "rmmod e1000") How do I get them back?

Thanks,
Joel

Have you tried the e100 module? I have the 82801 device, with onboard Intel Pro 10/100 ethernet NIC too, and I use the e100 driver.
To get the modules 'back' as in 're-inserted' just use 'modprobe modulename' where modulename is the name of the module you want to insert.

Thanks for the suggestion about the network card.

That occurred to me...do you mean for all of them? (a) it seems like that would take a while and (b) I don't know what most of them were called -- that's why it was somewhat confusing/distressing. There were about fifty originally, and last I checked there were two.

Joel

LOL.. Umm, well you have a few options:

1 - reboot
2 - run your startup script(s) again.
4 - modprobe -l will list them all by name/location
5 - modprobe -a inserts all modules you name on the command line; it might work with a * wildcard, like 'modprobe -a *' but not sure..

check 'man modprobe' for the full info on modprobe.

Hmmmm, okay, I will reboot again. I'm pretty sure I rebooted last night and the modules list was still screwy -- I think I messed up the startup scripts and that's what did it. I know they were not loaded at boot time because the boot messages were complaining about e.g., ALSA not loading correctly and other stuff "not found."

modprobe -l should tell me if there's an appropriate ethernet driver, right? I'm also going to try e100 like you suggested.

Joel

Are you sure you're running Slackware 11.0? Have you upgraded some of the stock (included) packages from somewhere besides the 11.0/patches directory on the mirrors?

Sheesh -- Rob's post got me thinking: If you used the 2.6 kernel from the SLackware 11 CD/DVD, you need to install the modules manually, from the CD/DVD over to your installation folder.
For example, if you use kernel 2.6.17.13, then you need to copy the lib/modules/2.6.17.13 folder and contents over to the same location in your hard-drive installation (or whatever the folder's exact name is). Did you do this?
LOL I never even noticed your mention of the kernel you were using.
If you didn't do this, it would explain where all your modules went.

@rworkman: yes, I'm sure I'm using Slackware 11 as opposed to -current. The installation is only a week-and-a-half old, and the most I've upgraded is

from a Slackware 11 mirror. If this does something different from what I think it does PLEASE let me know and I'll stop doing it

@GFGirl: I've never done any such thing I kinda thought

would install the modules. They all worked just fine before (there's that wink again)

Thanks for the good suggestions, I'll try 'em out tonight.

Joel

Yup, but there's a DASH in there right? like:
Slackpkg update
then
slackpkg upgrade-all

Right on baby!!!!

I installed the 2.6 generic kernel, only this time I did it right! Then I did modprobe e100 and guess what...

I'm now writing to you over my super-sweet cable connection.

See, this is what I love about Slackware, I can beat it to pieces and it will always come out right in the end. Eventually I'll do the right thing ...


Thanks for you help,
Joel

PS Time to change that pesky signature...

Awesome, I luv it when a plan comes together! Will you share that sweet cable connection with me? I'm stuck in slow-mo over here

Happy Slacking!

Another way of saying "this is what I love about Slackware" is that I was using a wrongly-installed kernel for two weeks and everything still worked. It didn't work quite right -- I still knew something was wrong -- but it was still functional.

Now I just wonder what happened the first time I installed the kernel. I swear I followed the same steps both times, but only the second time it worked right.

Joel