I have a HP Pavilion XL 768 with a HP EN1207D-TX PCI Ethernet Adapter. I have installed RH-9.0, but I cannot connect to the internet. Apparently the correct NIC module is not installed. Here's the question(s):

1) How do I determine what module I need in order to create Internet connectivity?

2) Where do I find this needed module, once I know what it is supposed to be?

3) If I need to download this module, how do I install it?

Thanks,
JBN

First any reason Redhat 9?
If the notebook is new then the hardware may not be available in that old of a distro or a kernel structure. If wishing to stay Redhat type distro then look into Fedora.

Now if you run this command you can get more info on hardware that define the chipset info. /sbin/lspci -v

If no module exist then you can go with ndiswrapper and use the Windows inf driver to interface with it. Now Redhat 9 uses 2.4 kernels and do not know how well ndiswrapper if all works in the 2.4 kernel tree. Todays distros use the 2.6 kernel tree.

Brian

Thanks Brian,

I tried what you suggested (i.e. /sbin/lspci -v) an the (pertinent) information that I got was:

Ethernet controller: Acctron Technology Corporation SMC2-1211TX (Rev 10)

I don't know how that helps me. Furthermore, I'm working with a desktop model, not a notebook (if that makes a difference). Lastly, I've been led to believe that RH is the best (user frendliest) version of Linux, and I'm using version 9 because I'm on a very strict budget. Any further help will be appreciated.

JBN

Red Hat 9 reached its "end of life" some time ago (I believe in 2004) and as such, Red Hat do not provide any updates or support for it any more. You would be better off with a newer distribution. Fedora is the free version that Red Hat provide now, but there are other distributions as well (such as Ubuntu).

From my quick googling it seems to be a Realtek RTL-8139A chip. Check to see if the module is loaded. /sbin/lsmod

Post output of this command also. ' /sbin/ifconfig -a '

Fedora is the next free version of Redhat to the public. You could download a Live CD of Fedora and see if it sees the nic. I would also look at going Fedora 7.

Brian

Also have a look at CentOS. It's a free version of RedHat, and runs on the same release cycle, whereas Fedora is a bit more bleeding edge, and only gets supported for a couple of years

Brian1

Go for Fedora, or do look at Ubuntu, Linux is moving at speeds at the moment never before seen. With Fedora being one of the leaders in new things and gimmicks Ubuntu is more faster and more concentrated on how the user experiences the OS.

That said if you need the latest kernels and basic OS upgrades, Fedora is your best choice. If you want the latest in applications I say Ubuntu is a good alternative for Fedora.

The official browser version for Fedora 7 to date is Firefox 2.05, for security reasons most other distro's already upgraded to Firefox 2.07. This is just a one of the best known issues, others are in office applications and Instant messengers systems. Pidgin is just upgraded, but 2 weeks after every distribution I know of has upgraded.

I'm for some reasons stuck on Fedora at the moment, but seriously thinking to get for the next release Ubuntu 7.10. With Fedora I had in the past a death mouse on my desktop, this to a kernel bug, this with Redhat certificated hardware. Take the Fedora team 2 weeks to take my complain serious and another 1.5 months to fix them....

After that I bought a new computer and installed Ubuntu 7.04 as a shadow system, and I have to say, ubuntu is maybe not the first with new kernels, but this kernels and the software works 100%, and in case of a minor problem you shock about the response time of the support, which is not really called support.... for real support you need to pay. But still they seem to look much faster into problems, even you not even pay for support. Which means you never hear from them again until you download the upgrade/ bug fix

Dummy-In-Linux

Thanks for the info. It is hard for me to switch since I know so much about Redhat type distros since the days of Redhat 4 not RHEL4 but the real original Redhat 4.

Brian