I have a small bootable image that I'm updating to the latest kernel (2.6.30.2). My network, e100, has stopped working. After investigating, I realize that the firmware needs to be placed in the "/lib/firmware/e100" directory. I have found the proper firmware and placed it in the proper location (I think). However, I'm still getting the "failure to load firmware" message.

I've looked at ths SystemRescue CD and it works properly. I'm wondering if there are some other modules/utilities that need to be in the image, that I may have removed.

Any pointers and suggestions would be welcome. I've checked my .config versus the Systemrescue and the are close in the network and firmware sections, so I don't think that is the problem.

I'm doing the modprobe of the e100 driver and the dhcpcd from the command line, so the kernel is up and running. I'm guessing I'm missing some core piece that actually does the loading.

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Al

If you are referring to the e100.ko intel network device driver, it doesn't need firmware. The /lib/firmware/ directory is for drivers that do such as the b43 driver.

Your kernel should already have a native e100 kernel driver. Either you didn't reboot after updating your kernel, or it needs to be loaded. The .tar.gz file you downloaded contains the latest source code for this
driver. And there is a README file with instructions on compiling and installing it with "make install", or creating an rpm package.

Check the module information with:
/sbin/modinfo e100

Check if it is listed in the /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/modules.dep file. Example:
grep e100 /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.dep

If it isn't run "sudo /sbin/depmod -a". The modules.dep file lists the location of the e100 driver, and lists the mii driver as a dependency.

Check if the e100 driver is loaded with:
lsmod | grep e100

Thanks for the reply, but when the driver loads (which I have verified using "lsmod"), everything seems find until I try to to the dhcp request. Then if I look in "dmesg", I see the following:

"e100: eth0 'e100 request firmware': e100/d101m_ucode.bin"

followed about 60 seconds later with:

"Failed to load firmware "e100/d101m_ucode.bin": -2 "

From querying that message, it does appear to be needing firmware, hence my original question.

Regards.