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Need Help installing a Network card on Red Hat 9.0

Hey everyone,

I have a floppy disk that has the driver for a Netgear NP1100 network card, which I have copy the linux folder onto my home directory.

Would someone please be kind enough showing me the steps I need to do install the drivers to allow my network card to work.

The following files which contain in the linux folder I copy over from the floppy disk are:
copying.txt
kern_compat.h
makefile
np11004.c

Any help would be much appreciated.

Perhaps your linux might be able to see that network card on its own and you might not need to use the drivers on that floppy disk at all. That was the case with my Mandrake 9.0 linux (a cousin of your Red Hat 9.0). Have you installed the network card in your computer? If you haven't, try installing the network card and see if your linux finds it. You might have to go to Red Hat Control Center (or whatever program you use to change system configuration settings, etc.) and tell your linux to look for that network card.

If you do need the drivers on that floppy disk, the floppy disk, and the linux directory that you copied its contents to, contains the source code for that network card driver. You will need to use gcc (a compiler) to take that source code and produce a computer program called a kernel module, which you will then load into your linux kernel to allow your linux to see and use the network card.

doesn't kudzu automatically detect and configure your network card?
if it doesn't recognizes your card or doesn't has a driver for it (yet), you can install the driver yourself. you just need to do a make on the driver files supplied. There must be a README or INSTALL file inside your floppy disk, read it, contains instructions on how you can build and use the driver supplied.

Its really weird, I can see the light at the back but for some reason when I look at hardware browser my network card is not listed on the hardware browser page.

it keeps saying eth0 is currently not present

Why is that?

did you load the module you built?

I try following the intruction and compiling it by following intruction but the compile command doesn't seem to be working.

Would you be kind enough to help me over msn?
my msn is tuannie@hotmail.com

Here is what it say

Code:

  Linux driver for kernel 2.2.X

  

  The procedure to activate NP1100_R 10/100M WOL Fast Ethernet card 

  on linux is as follows:

  

  step 01: Copy the driver source files to a convenient directory.

  

  step 02: Compile

          The instruction for compiling the driver is include at the 

          end of the driver file.If a compile-command is not there use 

          the following compile command:

          (Run this instruction at /usr/src/linux) 

          

          *compile-command: 

          " gcc -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c np11004.c "

            

          Or you can use the Makefile included in the driver disk \LINUX.

  

  step 03: Copy the module "np11004.o" to 

          "/lib/modules/{kernel-version}/net"

  

          *The directory "{kernel-version}" stands for the Linux kernel 

            version you use.

  

  step 04: Insert the driver as module:

          insmod np11004.o

          (Run 'lsmod' to see if the module is inserted)

  

  step 05: Bind your card to an IP address

  

          /sbin/ifconfig eth0 ${IPADDR} broadcast ${BROADCAST} 

          netmask ${NETMASK}

          (Run 'netstat -i' to see if there is a interface 'eth0')

  

  step 06: Add your card to IP routing table, then add gateway also 

          your card:

          /sbin/route add -net ${NETWORK} netmask ${NETMASK} eth0

          (Should be able to ping local network now)

          

          gateway:

          /sbin/route add default gw ${GATEWAY} netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1

  

  step 07: Start inet daemon.

          /usr/sbin/inetd

          (You are on the network now)

  

  *make sure that your kernel is built with network, fast_ethernet and 

  module support. Otherwise, you have to rebuild your kernel.

  ( 01:Go to /usr/src/linux directory

    02:Run "make menuconfig" or "make config"

    03:Mark the options list above.

    04:Exit and rebuild your kernel.

        make dep;make clean;make zImage

        the file "zImage" will be at

        /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage

    05:Modify /etc/lilo.conf.(this file specify where kernel image is)

    06:Run "lilo" )

  

  You can run "netconfig" which will do step 05,06,07 for you.

  

  Then just add a line at the beginning of "/etc/rc.d/init.d/network".

  

        " insmod /lib/modules/{kernel-version}/net/np11004.o "

        

        *The directory "{kernel-version}" stands for the Linux kernel 

        version you use.

  then your driver will work every time you boot.

did you build the module "np11004.o" and copied it to "/lib/modules/{kernel-version}/net"? Assuming you did it, now add this to your /etc/modules.conf or /etc/modprobe.conf (whichever one is present) "alias eth0 np11004" then do "modprobe np11004.o" and check if it got correctly loaded or not by doing "lsmod". the "np11004.o" should show up somewhere in the lsmod output. if it is there then do a "mii-tool" to see you have a link. next configure your network settings by doing "netconfig" and you are ready to go.
if you encounter any errors in the way post it along here.

I havent compile it np11004.o yet I dont know how to, I try typing this this command in

gcc -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c np11004.c to compile i get
bash: gc: command not found

In the instruction, it say that I can do the following:

"Or you can use the Makefile included in the driver disk \LINUX."

How would I go about int doing it?

you will need to install 'gcc' package. go find your distribution cd and install gcc.

okay thanks, I will give it a go now, Can I ask why my card isn't working? shouldn't it work since there is LED light at the back?

I mean, there is a driver that was on this distrubution that has Rtl8039 each time I select it and try to activate it it keep saying:

8139cp device eth0 does not seems to be present, delaying initialization.

Okay, I have just done what u have ask me to do, and try that gcc command again and there was alot of output.

np11004.c1492: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

type 'make' ,hit enter, see what happens.

it say confused with earlier errors, bailing out

ok do a
make clean
make dist-clean

then again try
make

Could it be my network card that is causing the problem? Because I have try lots of linux distrubution. But every distrubution the network card never work.

Shouldn't it automatically detect my network card with out me having to compile or make it?