I'm stuck trying to install LAN/Ethernet drivers on a new system I just built.
The motherboard is an ASUS P5B-VM which has some pretty zoomy hardware, and has caused some headaches just to get the O/S loaded...............
But here's the question: I somehow have to get drivers installed for the
"Realtek RTL8111B PCIE Gigabit LAN controller"
I've downloaded the drivers from the ASUS site to my WinXP box, copied them to a floppy, and with some difficulty - finally got them copied to /usr/src and unpacked.
The directions from the driver README file are useless after that though.
I'm no expert at installing from source, but I've usually been able to get farther than this........
Here's the README if anyone would care to comment,


<Linux device driver for Realtek Ethernet controllers>

This is the Linux device driver released for RealTek Ethernet controllers, which are listed as following.
1. RTL8169S/SB/SC (Gigabit Ethernet with PCI interface)
2. RTL8168B (Gigabit Ethernet with PCI-Express interface)
3. RTL8101E (Fast Ethernet with PCI-Express interface)

<Requirements>

- kernel source tree (supported versions 2.4.x or 2.6.x)
- compiler/binutils for kernel compilation



<Quick install with proper kernel settings>

Unpack the tarball :
unzip r1000_linuxdrv_vxx.zip

Change to the directory:
cd r1000

If you are running the target kernel, then you should be
able to do :

make clean modules (as root or with sudo)
make install
depmod -a




<Force Media Speed>

The media can be forced to one of the 5 modes as follows.

Cmd: "insmod r1000 media = SET_MEDIA"
For example:
"insmod r1000 media = 0x04" will force PHY to operate in 100Mpbs Half-duplex.

SET_MEDIA can be:
_10_Half = 0x01
_10_Full = 0x02
_100_Half = 0x04
_100_Full = 0x08
_1000_Full = 0x10


Force media type for multiple cards could be performed as:

"insmod r1000 media=0x04,0x10"

which force PHY to operate at 100Mbps half-duplex and 1000Mbps full-duplex.



<Advanced feature>

- Supports Jumbo Frame
- Hardware Tx/Rx flow control

I really don't know where to go from here, so any help would be appreciated.

As an aside, I had to reboot the Slackbox everytime I wanted to mount a floppy disk, I searched a bit for the cause on that, but couldn't find any info really.
(?????)

First as I am quite new to Linux, Ill point out what I feel would be the easy thing: the floppy drive. Sounds like you have your etc/fstab file not quiteright to allow you to mount/unmount the drive. Some general rules (with exceptions): The user who mounts the drive, needs to unmount it. Chances are, in order to deal with these drivers, you will have to be either logged in as Root, or 'su' to Root in the terminal, so once you have root priveleges, use the following in a terminal:
mount /dev/fd0
to mount the drive. fd0 would be the name of your fd0 (floppy drive). To remove the disk use:
umount /dev/fd0
Look up 'mount' in the manual by typing 'man mount' or 'man fstab' in a terminal for further info on this.

Now, the drivers:
I guess you have got the package unzipped huh? If not, you'll want to type 'man tar' or 'man zip' in the terminal to see how to unzip/untar the package.
Now you must change into the directory or folder created by unzipping the stuff. It might just unzip right where you are, but either way, be inside the folder where the unzipped stuff is.
I've never yet used 'make clean modules' as a command, but I guess it is possible. Typically you would type 'make clean' first. Second, you would type (usually) 'make <something>' for example 'make rtl8111b' or something similar.. Obey the instructions as best you can if they make any sense at all.
Next, you will type a 'make install' and if everything goes OK, the drivers should end up installed in your kernels module folder, usually something like lib/modules/<kernel version>/drivers or something similar.
Finally, to 'plug the drivers in' and try them, with 2.4 kernels you use 'insmod', and with 2.6 kernels for the most part you would use 'modprobe', for example insmod -f <drivername> or modprobe <drivername> while in the terminal.
If it works, you wont see any errors or whatever, and the modules will be installed.
(Oh, and dont forget 'depmod -a' which will update module dependencies for the kernel after building and installing the drivers.)
It looks from your instructions that this is intended for a 2.4 kernel, so follow the insmod instructions provided above in your post.
If all this works then you should be able to see in your Control Center the device installed.
Finally, to get the drivers to install on each boot, you will likely have to modify one of the rc.modules boot scripts located in the etc/rc.d folder , either rc.modules, rc.local, or rc.modules.2.4.x.x.
Hope this helps you some; post again if you need further help
Sasha

Hey thanks GFTG ..............
The floppy is a weird one, I am a newbie also (well certaintly no expert), I am pretty much up on the fstab stuff, but only recently has that really started to make sense.
I'm not online with this box yet, and still doing system configuration - so root is the only account set up currently.
What the floppy does (and I'm using it from KDE) is this - On power up I can mount and read from a floppy disk one time.
That's it.
I unmount the media before removing the disk, but still if I put the same disk back in during that session it won't mount, and nothing can be read.
I had similar floppy problems with the (same) floppy drive in another system running Suse 10.1, but I really didn't use it that much so I just assumed I had somehow broken a desktop symlink or whatever (I don't know what), but never suspected the floppy drive.
Maybe I should though, It doesn't seem to be a common problem.
I just had to mess with it quite a bit to get anything done today, I wasn't sure if Linux was not seeing a disk formated on a M/S machine or what.
On the drivers - I may have put the tar ball in the wrong place, /usr/src isn't /lib/modules/<kernel version> after all..... And that's exactly the kind of stuff I tend to make mistakes on - I'm just learning the HFS structure as I go, but an awfull lot of it is still pretty murky to me.
I suspect your right on the "make clean" and other source compile commands, I've just not seen documentation written that deliberately wrong yet, and not knowing better I take the author at thier word.
I have one other approach I think I'll try with Kpackage as an automated installer, (I can hear folks laughing in the background as I say that).
I will post back though, and thanks for the ideas.
~B~

Good luck with Kpackage, but I think you may have better success with doing it yourself in Terminal.
As far as the floppy only mounting once: that is a bug in KDE related to either Pam, Hal, and/or DBUS. It is worse apparently with the 2.4 kernel. Here's how I have been working around it:
After I mount and then unmount a disk or a CD, mine won't remount either a lot of the time, but the trick is, it actually DOES remount, only the icon does not change to the 'mounted' icon.
Try mounting the drive, and then instead of waiting for your file-browser to take you to the mounted disk, go there yourself. You will likely find that it has infact mounted. For example:
I have my DVD player set in fstab to mount on /media/dvdrom. So after I mount it, and the icon remains in the unmounted state, I just navigate manually to the /media/dvdrom folder, and there is the disk. It's mounted, but it just doesnt tell me it is.
There are a number of threads on the subject around here, just do a search for more info on the subject.
Also, try to remember to UNMOUNT before ejecting and remounting; it might help.
On the drivers: They don't tend to write the instructions deliberately wrong, but depending on what OS and what kernel and what language they may have been translated from, they may be weird sometimes..
I have found that it usually doesn't matter where I put the tar file or tarball or whatever. It will 'usually' install itself to the right place.
You can often type 'make help' or just type 'make' and it will return possible make commands that the package expects. Another hint is to look at the install or configure scripts in a text editor and see what commands it is expecting.
Good luck

Just some idle musing here - after spending most of yesterday reloading Slack (not enough space on the root partition), fighting issues with Lilo not writing to the MBR after the install (still not sure why), and carting floppy disks back and forth between two computers trying to sort out LAN drivers.....I popped in another spare NIC card I had lying around.....and presto......hello world.
Is that in the A+ plus tutorials BTW? Just find a spare NIC card and that will be the magic bullet?
I was absent that day.
Ummmmmm, oh well.
Maybe someone will find this usefull.