I have been fighting with my onboard Intel 82565ET 10/100 driver and I'm stuck.

I can extract everything in the driver tar, but when i do #make install, I get an error saying "Linux kernel source not found." When I first tried to install the driver, I compiled a new kernel beforehand and got a "kernel mis-match error, driver installed for 2.4.18, but current kernel is 2.4.189bf2.4" (these are not the exact words, but can't remember...same kernel values though).

My question is: How do I install the source for the current kernel so that I do not get a kernel mis-match error when I try to perform #insmod e100? KDE Lists my release as 2.4.18-bf2.4

Please be fairly detailed as I am very new to this. Thank you in advance and if you need any more information, pls ask; I should be able to answer almost immediately.

If you want to compile the driver for your current kernel, you need its source installed. '2.4.189bf2.4' and '2.4.18' are not the same in this case. If you want to install it for the newly-compiled one it's a good idea to boot to it before you install the driver.

So now that I have installed a clean system (messed up on some kernel config before) how do I install the source for this current kernel (the one I am booting from now)?

I am using the same 2.4.18bf2.4 kernel as I was before, but I haven't compiled/extracted any kernel in the /usr/src directory, hence the kernel source not found. I can't seem to find a file referencing 2.4.18.bf2.4 on my debian cds (no network capability right now) even though i used them to install. Of course, I don't know exactly what I am looking for.

Thanks for your quick response by the way. Everyone here has been a big help...maybe one day I can return the favor for someone else on here.

Hmm...It should be on the cds. How many packages with name beginning from 'kernel-source' do you have? Please insert their names, too.

If you need a GUI apt-get

apt-get install synaptic

Perhaps that will help

# Find running kernel version
uname -r

# Debian links
Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 For Intel x86
The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough
Debian Package Management HOWTO Version 1.1

a find file on kernel-source* on the cd yielded only
kernel-source-2.4.18-5_all.deb
It is in pool/main/k/kernel-source-2.4.18/

Would this be what I need? It seems like it should be, but I'm just learning and I wanna make sure I do this right. Thanks again.
I see the use of my network card getting closer, oh such a wonderful though hehe :-)

That looks like it

apt-get install kernel-source

does what now?

ok, I installed that package assuming that because it is the only one, that must be it...Now my usr/share/doc directory has some handy looking files and i have the kernel-source-2.4.18.tar.gz in my /usr/src. I think the only thing i am missing now is how to unzip it so that it is the bf2.4 version to keep from getting the "kernel version mis-match error" again.

Can someone tell me the commands to achieve this so the kernel-source will be correct and I can add this driver module?

tar -xvzf /the_dir_where_the_tarball_is/my_tarball.tar.gz

# Guides to software and installation
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation