Let's say I have an unsupported network card, with the Linux driver for it on a floppy. How would I got about installing it and getting the system to load the driver properly?

mount the floppy,
copy the module to /lib/modules/(kernel version here)/net
modprobe nameofmodule

However, they probably gave you the source code for the module (hopefully), because if they gave you just the module, then it won't load right unless the kernels match. Go ahead and try to modprobe it anyway, it almost definately won't break anything, it just won't load. There should either be a read-me for compiling the code, or hopefully they paid attention to the standard of putting the compile command at the end of the code. You can read it with: tail nameofmodulesource.c

Even the commercial distro's supported lists are notoriusly semi-accurate. Your card may very well be covered by an existing kernel module. What's the card?

As far as how to get your distro to load it at boot, which distro?

Cheers,

Finegan

There is no card. It was a hypothetical situation but I'd just like to file it. Thanks for the reply.