Can't find eth0 at all
 

My friend has tried to install Linux distro after another to his somehow-new computer (it's running with a 64-bit processor), but he can't get Internet connection to work with any of them; it seems that distros can't find his eth0 at all. He's been telling me it's because "Linux doesn't support his motherboard". I haven't asked him what motherboard he has then (as of yet). Is there anything to be done or does he have to wait until someone codes him a driver for the network card (which is integrated to the motherboard)?:scratch:

Well, if we know the motherboard, we can look up which network card and therefore find the driver.

ABIT AV8, in Windows it shows the network card as

VIA Networking Velocity Family Giga-bit Ethernet Adapter

Humm, what a name monster...

From what I found, support was added in the 2.6.8 kernel release

Try to find out what the board number is eg. ABIT AV8 K8T800Pro or the chipset number eg. VIA VT82C686A/B.

I have a few Linux drivers for these boards. ABIT never reased support for Linux but have some new drivers available now.

Ok found it it is a 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet VIA VT6122 PCI-based adapter and the driver is known as the "vge driver".
here are the files:

Revision Changes Path
1.17 +2 -1 src/etc/devd.conf
1.424 +3 -0 src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC
1.952 +2 -0 src/sys/conf/files
1.1 +433 -0 src/sys/dev/mii/ciphy.c (new)
1.1 +351 -0 src/sys/dev/mii/ciphyreg.h (new)
1.28 +6 -0 src/sys/dev/mii/miidevs
1.1 +2445 -0 src/sys/dev/vge/if_vge.c (new)
1.1 +697 -0 src/sys/dev/vge/if_vgereg.h (new)
1.1 +174 -0 src/sys/dev/vge/if_vgevar.h (new)
1.417 +3 -0 src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC
1.400 +1 -0 src/sys/modules/Makefile
1.1 +8 -0 src/sys/modules/vge/Makefile (new)
1.259 +3 -0 src/sys/pc98/conf/GENERIC
1.157 +1 -0 src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/devices.c


mail me for a gzip
info@infrabyte.com
www.infrabyte.com

OR update your kernel as musicman_ace quite correctly stated. It's actualy from 2.6.7

device driver support for the VIA Networking Technologies
VT6122 gigabit ethernet chip and integrated 10/100/1000 copper PHY.
The vge driver has been added to GENERIC for i386, pc98 and amd64,
but not to sparc or ia64

Hm. I wonder how I could get him install those drivers or to compile >=2.6.8 kernel to his machine without Internet connection... I think I'll recommend him the latest ProMEPIS beta 04 which has kernel 2.6.10, if it's not too hard to install for a :newbie: . Anyway, thanks for your replies:D