I installed slackware a few days ago. I have a linksys network card, and it worked with the bare.i kernel that comes with slackware. However, I wanted to install a more functional kernel, so I downloaded kernel 2.6.7 from kernel.org. I know that my card uses the normal tulip driver.
When I was menuconfig'ing the kernel, I made sure to select tulip. It was only available as a built-in, not a module, so this is what I selected. I did compile and install the kernel. My computer is recognizing my card, because it lists it when I use 'lspci'. I have no idea what to do now. I have done quite a bit of searching, on this forum also, but all of the documentation I've found on how to use the tulip driver is information on how to load it as a module. How do I use it if it's not compiled as a module, but as part of the kernel?
Sorry if I'm incredibly ignorant, I switched to slackware from Fedora, and Fedora does everything for you. Not good.

Thanks in advance,
Edward S. Rice

There's a bunch of options under tulip support in kernel config, which you should be able to select as modules.
If a driver is compiled in, ususally it will load automagically on boot if the kernel detects the presence of the device.

Are you sure you got the actually module and not just the support for the family of cards you should be able to select that as a module.

If you have both selected then can we see the output of ifconfig -a.

You suggest looking through the /boot/config file to see what the current kernel's configuration is. I didn't copy a config file of my kernel to the boot folder when I installed the new kernel. Sorry, should I copy one?

You can either copy it or just look in the .config in the kernel tree and see if you have the support, I was thinking the Debian method there.

Alright, found the config file.
CONFIG_NET_TULIP=y, but CONFIG_TULIP isn't set. Odd. . .
I suppose that CONFIG_TULIP should be on also, or at least set to mod like you described earlier. Should I edit the .config file by hand and simply set CONFIG_TULIP to m, or should I redo menuconfig and look for some option like this? In menuconfig, in the Tulip menu, there is a root option (Tulip family network device support) first. I assume that this is CONFIG_NET_TULIP. There are five sub-obtions: Early DECchip. . ., DECChip Tulip PCI. . ., Generic DECChip. . .PCI/EISA, Winbond. . ., and Davicom. . .

Which should I choose?

Regards,
Edward S. Rice

I believe you want the Tulip PCI one, but you can tell easily enough when using menuconfig just highlight the option the use the SHIFT and ? keys at the same time and the help for the module will come up and it will tell you what the name of the module will be.

Didn't know about the little shift ? trick. That's helpful. I'm sure that it'll work now that I'm installing the right module . Thanks for all of your help. Having a working network card on your computer does make it a more enjoyable experience.

Regards,
Edward S. Rice