auto-load nic driver on boot? (slack)
 

i have an Asus P4p-800Deluxe Motherboard with integrated NIC (3COM Gigabit LOM 3C940).
i downloaded the driver from the asus site http://www.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/lan/.../044_Linux.zip (the .tar.gz file is in the .zip file) and followed the directions within the included readme file

it says there is basically 2 commands which will load the driver:
'make load' and 'insmod 3c2000.o'
i forget which one, but for one of them it says command not found, when a normal user.. therefore i must enter the command as root.

im wondering where i can put the contents of the driver (in my home directory shouldnt be necessary at all) and what file i can edit so that this command to load the driver will automatically be ran everytime i boot the computer

if someone can help me or guide me with this, itll be yet one more step closer to being that much more comfortable with linux as a future permanent OS. i cant believe iv even gotten this far, considering its slack.

thanks for any input.

edit:
i was just checking out the online man page from LQ about insmod and it mentions /etc/modules.conf ... im in M$ right now so cant check.. but does this file maybe contain modules to load at boot time, and i can just add a line to this?

In Slackware, you need to add the appropriate commands to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file -- also make sure that the file is marked executable. Anything you put in this file will be executed during the last bit of the boot process.

i am not sure , but i suspect it is in the kernel and it is called SK98LIN_T1 under the network section of the config. Can you rebuild the kernel with this driver built in? Sorry i dont know for sure.

If you have some generic lan card, like from realtek or via or intel, you can plug it in for your immediate usage of linux, as these are normally detected by slackware. When you are in linux environment, it's easier for you to find the solution as you can immediately experiment whet you have learned. Good luck.

ok.. first thanks.

so i chmod the file you said and make it +x...
and add that command as a new line to the end of the file (make load, or the other one i mentioned, whichever..)
where should i put the 3c2000 (or whatever the exact name was) folder which contains the driver and all the .c/.h files?

also, on a side note.. i see so much about rc.. what is this? i saw a post in a thread somewhere on LQ that said 'man rc' to see what it was but i have done that and it isnt found (or 'nothing appropriate')

newinlinux:
i have no clue how to compile kernels and all that fancy jazz.. im quite a newbie to linux still so thats way beyond me right now i think.
i have an onboard nic from 3Com

Most of the startup scripts are in the /etc/rc.d dir. If you load
that driver from rc.local in that dir, you might not get network
because I believe that's the last one that's run upon bootup. Perhaps
I'm wrong and it doesn't matter. If you notice that it matters,
you'll see rc.modules in that same dir. Edit that one instead. You'll
see most of your kernel modules are loaded from there. Maybe your
card is already in there. :) How I figured out which to load for my
NIC was to run rc.hotplug, then check the output with 'dmesg | less'
then found the appropriate module in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and deleted
# sign in front of it. Also, Slackware will look for
/etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice (chmod 700 or 755) with one line to
load the module for your NIC. Maybe add a #!/bin/sh to the top if
you'd like and make it two lines. :) Those are all scripts in that
directory and viewable with more, most, less; and editable with pico
or vi, or whatever you care to use for a text editor.

The only advantage to rc.netdevice instead of loading it from
rc.modules is manageability. If you ever need to refer to the module,
you don't have to scroll through rc.modules, you can just view
rc.netdevice.