I am trying to install lenny on my Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop. I am trying to do a netinst (boot from CD but get the packages through the Internet). I cannot get any network interfaces to work during the install, though.

I have one wired network connection and a wireless card. The hardware detection finds them. Network config asks me to select one to use for the installation:

Primary network interface:
eth0: Ethernet
wlan0: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MA

Neither one works, though.

DHCP succeeds on the wireless interface (wlan0). Running "ip addr" (in virtual terminal 2) confirms that the interface is up and has an IP address. Everything should work then, right?

But it's not. Running "wget" in the terminal yields "Network is unreachable". Continuing with install anyway, it's quickly clear that there is no Internet connection.

The wireless card is a Netgear WG511T. It uses the Atheros chipset, as shown above. Other computers are able to use the same wireless access point, so it's not a problem there.

As for the wired interface: DHCP fails on the wired interface (eth0). Examination of the syslog messages (virtual terminal 4) from DHCP shows that the interface is simply down ("send_packet: Network is down"). Running "ip addr" confirms that the interface is not up, has no IP address, and has no MAC address (00:00...).

The laptop's internal NIC died years ago, and I've been using a "port replicator" that plugs into a USB port, and has an Ethernet jack on it. The NIC on the port replicator uses the Pegasus II chipset. In Mandrake 9 all I need to do is "modprobe pegasus" and then "ifup eth0" to get it working. During lenny install, "modprobe pegasus" runs without error. "lsmod | grep pegasus" shows that the module was loaded, though nothing depends on it. Running "ip addr" shows nothing changed. DHCP gives the same results ("Network is down").

Any ideas on how to get either of these interfaces up during install? (Instructions for the wireless chipset assume a working system.)

Can you post the make/model of your port replicator? Chances are that ethernet adapter should show up as eth1 since eth0 is probably the dead internal nic. After loading the module, did you do an /etc/init.d/networking restart?

The port replicator is a Targus PA090.

Good thinking; that's what Mandrake always did. But, when I boot lenny install without the port replicator attached, no wired network cards are detected. So it appears that the hardware detection is ignoring the dead internal NIC, and naming the port replicator's Ethernet eth0.

As for loading the "pegasus" module, I just discovered that it is already being loaded. So, the hardware detection is identifying the port replicator's NIC correctly. (I tried running /etc/init.d/networking restart anyway, as you suggested, but the only thing in /etc/init.d is pcmciautils.)

And it is not loading b44, the module for my Broadcom 4400 dead internal NIC. So it seems to truly be ignoring it.