Install probs - NIC
 

Howdee,
I'm having some issues installing deb 3.0. The install itself goes fine, but once I reboot it seems my NIC is no longer detected. During the first stage of the install there's no hassles setting up via DHCP, so the NIC's obviously working there.

I've got an SMC 1211TX card that uses the RealTek RTL8139 chip. I figued that (for some reason) I might have to explicity install the driver for it, but I can't find it in the list.

So a couple of questions: Can anyone explain why my NIC is fine during install, but is not after rebooting. Second, how do I get it working? If I've got to install a driver, which one?

Thanks

Ben

By default, driver for RTL8139 is included, so it should work. Look into your logs (/var/log/messages). Is there something interesting (errors, maybe)?

Although I can't find it in /var/log/dmesg or /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog, here's the error I see when booting: Ben

So I guess it doesn't show when you type the command lsmod as root. Try modprobe nicdrivername, to see what happens!

lsmod gives me nothing but the column headers.

modprobe RTL-8139A gives me the same error as before - can't open lib/modules/2.4.20/modules.dep

Ben

Does it show when you view the directory, /lib/modules/2.4.20/modules.dep?

Also, I think the nic module name should be something else. You Need to find out the exact name

AHHHHHHH! There is no 2.4.20 directory - it's 2.4.18-bf2.4!

So, can I *safely* rename the dir, or is there a better way I should fix this?

Ben

I dont understand, if there is no 2.4.20 but you have 2.4.18-bf2, then why are you getting error about the 2.4.20 directory not found?

Did you recompile your kernel?

I don't understand either. I wouldn't even know how to start recompiling the kernel :)

Here's what I did :
* Insert deb 3.0 CD
* type bf24 at the prompt
* go through all the installation stuff

That's IT! The partition I'm using did have VL on it before I installed debian, but I figured that the install would wipe the partition....

Well, I'm not sure what else to tell you. I don't know what VL is but if it's no problem, why not just start over and reinstall? Then just delete the partition and re-create it.

Did you find out what the real nic driver name is?

Also run modconfig or modconf, I think that's it, to configure the nic again.

VL is vector linux.. based on slack 8.0.

I've re-installed about 15 times already... always the same thing.

According to my slack install (on the same box) the driver for my nic is RTL-8139A.

I'll try deleting and re-creating the partition and see how that goes

Thanks for your help

ben

Ok, I should have known that @ VL, because I have it on my laptop...try running the modconf or modconfig command before reinstalling!

Good luck!

Ok, I think I worked it out... i think it was a LILO problem....

Instead of letting the deb install configure lilo, I just added deb to my slack lilo.conf. I haven't tried fixing that yet, but booting from a floppy seem to work well. Typing this from debian now :)

thanks for you help