help! I am new to linux and have recently installed red-hat 6.1 on my old pc (pentium 200mhx) and its great, but my ethernet card is not recognised by the install.

it is a d-link 'DFE-530TX'. I tried to configure it myself specifying the 'via-rhine' interface in Client Task -> Basic Host Information along with an IP address of 10.10.10.2 and subnet of 255.0.0.0, but when I reboot a message flashes up that says 'delaying eth0 initiation [FAILED]'.

when i tried doing it via a shell i got a message saying the device is busy (despite issuing a 'network stop' command). I tried unplugging the cable ;-) but that didnt work

The kernel is old also 2.2.12-20. forgive ignorance dont know if that is relevant

can anyone help? / tell me what to do (in lamens terms!)

Simon

Try to install the module manually from console. As root:
modprobe via-rhine
Look at the result. It should work, because it's the right module. If you see an error message, please post it here.

have you used that address class on other machines?

Thanks I will try it from the console and let you know.

I am using anther ip address from that class on a WinXP machine on the network (I think it is 'class A') - could this / will this be a problem?

But since they wont even ping each other at the moment.... !

Be very sure which NIC you have. D-Link should burn in hell for naming two completetly different cards with such disceptively close names (ok, maybe hell is a little stringent but they should definitely be sent to their rooms without their dinner).

The D-Link DFE-530TX board uses VIA Rhine (VT86C100A and 3043) driver.
The D-Link DE-530TX board uses the Tulip driver.

See the web page of the people who probably wrote the drivers for more information.
http://www.scyld.com/network/

OK i tried 'modprobe via-rhine' and got:

/lib/modules/2.2.12-20/net/via-rhine.o : init_module : device or resource busy

PnP is disabled, no mention of bus mastering in the bios, still getting the eth0 [FAILED] delyaing.... message at bootup

i'll have a look at the other drivers - but any more help would be gratefully accepted.,

you might try to find out:
any errors found on boot
dmesg | grep eth

what driver modules are loading
lsmod | grep Ethernet

if modprobe doesn't work, you might try
insmod

tried all that but without avail, eth0 is aliased to UNKNOWN

I have downloaded and compiled the via-diagnostics utility from the website mentioned earlier in the thread and the output is this:

[root@localhost netdrv]# ls
instr.txt pci-scan.c pci-scan.o via-diag via-rhine.c
kern_compat.h pci-scan.h usingl~1.htm via-diag.c via-rhine.o
[root@localhost netdrv]# ./via-diag
via-diag.c:v2.08 12/17/2002 Donald Becker (becker@scyld.com)
http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
Index #1: Found a VIA VT6102 Rhine-II (type 3065) adapter at 0xd800.
Station address 00:50:ba:fb:28:de.
Tx disabled, Rx disabled, half-duplex (0x0804).
Receive mode is 0x00: Unknown/invalid.
Transmit mode is 0x00: Normal transmit, 128 byte threshold.
No interrupt sources are pending (0000).
Use '-a' or '-aa' to show device registers,
'-e' to show EEPROM contents, -ee for parsed contents,
or '-m' or '-mm' to show MII management registers.
[root@localhost netdrv]# insmod via-rhine
./via-rhine.o: unresolved symbol pci_drv_unregister
./via-rhine.o: unresolved symbol pci_drv_register
[root@localhost netdrv]# [root@localhost netdrv]# ls

I just reviewed you post and didn't notice if you disabled plug -n - play in the bios. you generally get an opportunity to change bios settings when you boot (F2 seems to be the favorite for this feature but it could list others). If you haven't, try it and then insmod.

Thanks to all whos tried to help on this one.

PnP is disabled.

BIOS says netcard is on IRQ11 PCI Slot 4.

I've tried changing the slots but no luck. has ANYONE managed to get a DFE-530TX going with LINUX?

I'm stil getting a 'device busy' message when I do insmod. an /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S10network reload presents the message always: 'Delaying eth0 initialisation [FAILED]

Any more ideas? Im stumped

i'm no hardware or linux maven but i'm surprised that your bios is reporting any IRQ assignments if PNP is disabled. Can you disable the IRQ assignment for the card and let linux do the work?

Thanks to everyone. I have finally sorted it.

I downloaded the (linux) drivers from the d-link site (although we-page says none are available I got them via the ftp).

I followed the instructions to compile the code and insmod the reslulting rhinefet.o. to my astonishment (!) this went without a hitch and an ifconfig finally brought up eth0

Once i'd configured it with linuxconf everything works from boot.

Once I turned the firewall off on the windows box I could finally ping it from the linux machine - but thats why im in the newbie section ;-).

Thanks again
S.