I have a 3Com 3c905b tx in my linux box.

When I try lspci, it does not recoqnize any ethernet card
(lspci | grep -i com or lspci | grep -i ether does not give any output).

I tried to manually load the 3c59x module(which supports the 3c905b card). It seems to load the module, but ifconfig -a or lspci still don't show my card.

I do remember something about the ethernet card during installation now...
I installed debian without this NIC(I have an onboard also, which I turned off in BIOS now).

It said it could not find any ethernet card, but it did find some firewire interface. It asked if I was going to use a firewire ethernet card. I did actually press 'yes', which I probably shouldn't have done. I don't know if it matters but .. just for extra information.

To sum up:

lspci does not show my 3com NIC.
ifconfig -a does not show anything interesting.
modprobe -v 3c59x works, it loads the module. But my card is still not listed in lspci, and when I reboot the system, the 3c59x module is not loaded anymore.

Should I try re-installing debian with this card actually in the machine and hope that it recoqnizes it?

Thanks in advance for help(I've searched the forums for solutions, I see this alot:
add: alias eth0 3c59x to /etc/modules.conf alot .. but I don't have this file(kernel 2.6))

after you 'modprobe <driverName>' run 'ifconfig eth0 up' and try a browser or 'ping <server.domain>'. or post the output of 'ifconfig eth0' after running the first two commands.

After modprobe I tried to ping but it said "network unreachable"

ifconfig eth0 output:
link encap: UNSPEC: HWaddr 00-8F-00-(some long number .. longer than a normal mac adres I think)
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST

RX packets/errors etc. are all 0
TX packets are 0, errors: 129

did you run 'ifconfig eth0 up' also?

Yes. I'm thinking of reinstalling with this NIC pluggen in. It should recoqnize it(or atleast give me the option to install the 3c59x module). Otherwise its broken I guess(cuz it doesnt show up in lspci)

Somehow the onboard lan decided to start working again. So problem solved I guess.

Cheers for your time.