I installed Mandrake 8.0 a few days ago. Everything seemed to go well except for the network card. The NIC is a 3com Fast Etherlink 10/100-TX (3c905b) built into the MB of my system.

I received the error: "insmod*ing module tulip failed at /usr/lib/libDrakX/modules.pm line 510". Inspite of this message mentioning tulip, I assumed my problem was the wrong NIC driver. Here's why...During installation, I selected a 100baseTX (Cyclone) 3c905b as my card. I was hoping for luck because of the "3c905b" part. Oh well...

The latest driver I've found for MY card is "3c90x", while the one the system is trying to use is "3c59x".

Anyway, I have downloaded the drivers, but they are for kernel version 2.2.5-15 while MD8 uses version 2.4.3-20mdk. I think I have found a couple of different ways to change the driver within the GUI, but don't know how to get the dang thing off the floppy or where to put it! The instructions that came with the download are for installation in RedHat 6.2 and do not work as advertised.

For example; "To build the 3c90x driver as a loadable module...use the provided batch file....yadayadayada"

Here's the main part of the batch file....
gcc -c 3c90x.c -02 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fomit-frame-pointer \
-fno-strength-reduce -pipe -m486 -malign-loops=2 \
-malign-jumps=2 -malign-functions=2 -DCPU=486 \
-DMODULE -D_KERNEL_

BTW: My machine is a PII 333, while this has "DCPU=486" in it.
Just one more problem among many.

When attempting to use this I get errors:
gcc: command not found
-fno-strength-reduce: command not found
-malign-jumps=2: command not found
-DMODULE: command not found

The instructions go on to say, "To install a loadable module, enter...insmod 3c90x.o." Since there IS a file 3c90x.o included in the download, I gave that a whirl but got another error message.
I entered: insmod /mnt/floppy/3c90x.o
Error message: ...3c90x.o: kernel-module version mismatch
(module) was compiled for kernel version 2.2.5-15 while this kernel is version 2.4.3-20mdk (ARGH)

What are the commands to compile this thing under Mandrake?
Is there a GUI tool to compile a module?
Should I "force" the install with different version numbers?
Am I barking up the wrong tree, and should be working on tulip instead?
Will Bill and Ted ever get back together?!

Please forgive me if the answer was in the docs somewhere. I did not see it.

Uhm... I think you are making things harder than they need to be! If running doesn't work (which will attempt to load the module for you card, the 3c59x module is for an older ISA card) then you will need to recompile your kernel to either put the code in the new kernel or build the module that you need. Either way the code you need is already there - no need to download more stuff.

Have a look at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Kernel-HOWTO.html for details of compiling your kernel. It seems a bit scary at first but if you read all the help for each item you are not sure about its not really that bad!

cheers

Jamie...

I tried the modprobe 3c90x command and received this:

Warning: /lib/modules/2.4.3-20mdk/kernel/drivers/net/3c90x.o.gz parameter switchdelay has max < min !

Is this easily fixable, or should I just get on with recompiling the kernel? (Shudder) I've started reading the web reference already. Thanks for the assist.

Uhm... that was a warning not an error so have a look if shows the module as loaded. I can't say I've got the slightest idea what that error is trying to tell you!

If it is loaded then you can try to set your IP address and stuff to see if it works or wether that warning is really and error.

good luck

Jamie...