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Old 10-10-2006, 08:04 AM   #1
ronnieoverby
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Registered: Oct 2006
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new to linux - trying to get networking going


I am very new to Linux. I know a few commands (ls, cd, ifconfig), but I don't have very much knowledge of their options or any other commands. I have an old lap top that was given to me. I decided to put a distro of Linux called DeLi 0.7 on it. All seems well except for networking.

I have an old 3com 3C3FEM556C card. To be honest, I don't have any clue whether it is installed properly or not. I have the feeling that it is not. When I do an ifconfig nothing shows up.

How do I tell whether it is installed, and how can I get it installed if it is not?

Thanks!
 
Old 10-10-2006, 09:12 AM   #2
farslayer
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lspci or lspcmcia will tell you if the system can see it and identify it..

According to this list..
http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/...TO/pcmcia.html
That card is supported and the driver is
[3c574_cs driver] [x86,ppc]
3Com Megahertz 3CCFEM556B, 3C3FEM556C

if the system can see the card (it was listed using one of hte ls commands..) try loading the driver module

modprobe 3c574_cs
If there is no error then the driver should have loaded successfully.

lsmod will list the loaded modules so you can verify it is indeed running.

tail /var/log/messages should show you the card being loaded and what eth(X) designation it was given... Most likely eth0

you can try at this point to bring the interface up (the Interface MUST be plugged into a hub or switch in order to come up)

ifup eth0

if it comes up successfully you are golden.. if not then you may need to edit the configuration for the network interface.. and I have no clue where it would be in that distro..
 
Old 10-10-2006, 09:41 AM   #3
ronnieoverby
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i ran lspci and here's what i got:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 430TX -82439TX MTXC (rev 01)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. blah blah
1.1 ide interface: intel blah blah
1.2 usb
1.3 bridge
00:0a.0 PCMCIA bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1031 (rev 01)
00:0a.1 PCMCIA bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1031 (rev 01)
00:14.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NMZ2093 [MagicGraph 128ZV] (rev 02)

when i run lspcmcia i get:
ksh: lspcmcia: not found

lsmod shows:
rtc
com20020
arcnet

*the com20020 thing looks familier. when i was installing DeLi Linux during the network setup portion, it did this probe thing and eventually came back and said "A networking card using the com20020.0 module has been detected."

what should i do now? is my nic not being recognized at all? also, should i consider a more popular distrobution, and if so what would another good one for an OOOLD laptop be?

Last edited by ronnieoverby; 10-10-2006 at 09:46 AM.
 
Old 10-10-2006, 10:03 AM   #4
farslayer
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It doesn't look like the PCMCIA modules are loaded..
check for a pcmcia startup script in /etc/init.d

getting pcmcia support started might be as easy as running
/etc/init.d/pcmcia start

If there is no startup script there, you will either need to install the pcmcia packages from your distribution, or compile pcmcia support from source code..

There should be several modules loaded in order for PCMCIA to be working..
http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp...CIA-HOWTO.html

Once pcmcia is working, lspcmcia should list the card, and then the module should load properly and you can move forward..


DSL would be a more supported distro for a underpowered machine.. it's debian based and has a large community around it.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
This is a live distro that can be installed to the Hard drive.. The documentation on their web site is fairly good.
 
Old 10-10-2006, 12:05 PM   #5
ronnieoverby
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i put DSL3 on the lap top and when i tried to run startx i get fatal IO error 104 and such.


this is a tad frustrating.

i have a pentium 150 mhz 1.5 gb hd and 128 megs of ram. whats the distro i shoould use???

Last edited by ronnieoverby; 10-10-2006 at 12:09 PM.
 
Old 10-10-2006, 12:41 PM   #6
Linux_Chick
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You could try slackware with fluxbox window manager instead of kde. You should only need the first disk.
Slackware's system reqs are
# 486 processor
# 16MB RAM (32MB suggested)
# 100-500 megabytes of hard disk space for a minimal and around 3.5GB for full install
I'd try it, Slackware is a great OS
 
Old 10-10-2006, 02:47 PM   #7
farslayer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ronnieoverby
i put DSL3 on the lap top and when i tried to run startx i get fatal IO error 104 and such.


this is a tad frustrating.

i have a pentium 150 mhz 1.5 gb hd and 128 megs of ram. whats the distro i shoould use???

?? DSL is a Live CD..

When you booted from the CD did it work ?
I don't know that I have ever seen a Live CD that didn't startx by default..

exactly what did you do to install it to the laptop ?



DSL System Min Requirements 486 CPU 16 MB RAM so it shouldn't have any difficulty with your Pentium..
 
Old 10-11-2006, 07:46 AM   #8
ronnieoverby
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i am working on the slackware install. i upgrade the HD to 10 gb.



i know dsl is live, but there is an option on the cd to install to HD.

will flux be installed?? i chose full install and I only have the first disk. i did uncheck KDE during setup.

Last edited by ronnieoverby; 10-11-2006 at 07:55 AM.
 
Old 10-11-2006, 07:30 PM   #9
Linux_Chick
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I'm pretty sure fluxbox and also xfce will be installed. You can just leave kde checked, when the first disk is finished installing and it asks for disk two, there is an option to stop there and finish up. Or you can install the kde packages and just not use the window manager, but it will eat up a bit of that 10GB hd. A full Slack install will use up just under half of that hd.
 
Old 10-11-2006, 10:51 PM   #10
farslayer
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If slackware doesn't work out for you I ran across another lightweight distro today.. xubuntu

http://www.xubuntu.org/

I'll be trying xubuntu out on the 233 mmx machines I have in my office.. should be interesting. I think they currently have RH 7.3 on them, might even be RH 6....
 
  


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