so when i boot up, it says i'm running the huge 2.6.17.15 kernel. It seems to be running good, except still no internet. I really apprecaite the time you've taken to give me all these tips, but sadly i'm a and i don't understand all the steps you wanted me to do to change my inet1 etc...do you think you could just go step by step by step, and be extreamly extreamly clear where i'm supposed to enter what. Like if i need to enter something in the shell just put (shell) or if i need to go in and kwrite a certain file let me know. I'm sorry to be such a bother with all this stuff! But yea, when i tried ubuntu, i could tell right away that i liked slackware better, so i think i'm going to stick with slackware for quite awhile. It's just getting the thing up and running, thanks

You're a newbie, but you don't seem to be frustrated to fast. That's very good

OK, I suppose you have done the "netconfig" thing and given a host name, domain name and told your computer to use DHCP. Now some verbose steps, type in without the "" signs. The following is all done in a terminal/console, for example you can do it in "konsole" from KDE, so you can copy and paste from the post. Mark the appropriate words with your mouse (copy), in konsole/terminal middle click to paste the stuff.

What kernel are you running?
command line: "uname -r" <-- should give you output: "2.6.17.13"

Are the modules for your kernel installed?
command line: "ls /lib/modules" <-- is there a folder "2.6.17.13"?
If this folder "2.6.17.13" is there, it's ok already.

If it's not there:
Lay your Slackware CD in the CD tray. Go to command line.
command line: "su" <-- give in the password for user "root"
command line: "mount /mnt/cdrom"
command line: "cd /mnt/cdrom/slackware/extra/linux-2.6.17.13"
command line: "pkgtool"
Now select first choice "Install packages from the current directory"
Say no for all packages except the one called "kernel-modules-2.6.17.13-i486-1", here you say yes.

Either the modules were already installed or you have done it now.

As root now fix the wrong rc.modules symlink in /etc/rc.d:
command line: "cd /etc/rc.d"
command line: "ls -al" <-- "rc.modules" is probably linked to rc.modules-2.4.33? Anyway, next step can't be wrong ...
command line: "rm rc.modules"
command line: "ln -sf rc.modules-2.6.17.13 rc.modules"
to be sure, do also from that folder:
command line: "chmod 755 rc.udev"

Maybe it's a good idea to reboot your computer at that point.

Now let's look what modules are loaded:
command line: "lsmod"

Post the output here.

Thanks those instructions were REALLY clear, So here's what i've completed



Yes that's exactly what happened, so it's installed.

Now in this step ^ things didn't go quite right, I used the rootshell and entered

then it came up with
so i typed then i hit enter

then next line was

i went on and imput
then it comes up with

so, correct me if i'm wrong. I just removed all the mocudles for my kernel...and when i go to try and install the new modules, it won't let me? so i have no modules now? that's BAD isn't it?
I'm just going to leave the screen where it is and not reboot until i can get some instructions on what to do from here, I'm afraid if i do anymore i'll screw the whole thing up again.

anyone?

Hehe, that's why I said that with copy and paste. The commands are LS in small letters (abbreviation for "list") and LN in small letters for "link".

well...i would've copied and pasted, but i'm on my laptop, and the pc i'm working on is my desktop, with no current internet conection, so how should i copy and paste to something i don't have a link to?....so is my computer screwed now?

A point for you. Just repeat the steps with the right command (LN in small letters). You did not delete your modules but just the file that it is loaded by. It's good to have the symlink there, but a now that you deleted the rc.modules file they should be loaded already (with help of rc.modules-2.6.17.13). But to make it absolutely sure, go to /etc/rc.d and do the LN command I gave you above.

You did not post the lsmod output. You could please instead look yourself if something there looks like your network controller? What controller do you actually have? You didn't write that I think.
And instead of lsmod output (it will be rather long to type): Please as root do "lspci | grep -i ethernet" (lspci to list the pci devices, grep -i to do a case Insensitive search for the word ethernet).

alright, so i redid the process (this time i did it properly) ...so those commands you had written all worked, i rebooted like you suggessted, now i typed

and it came up with
so now what should i do to activate it?

mmm..so my browser still isn't working. I feel so helpless, i'm used to windows and just being able to fix anything i come across by myself. setting all this up is definatly confusing and hard, but i'm started to understand more and more...i'm guessing that now that we've identified what my ethernet card is called, somehow we'll have to activate it, then my internet should work, and once that's up, i think that'll be the toughest part done.

I think it should be called "e100" (e one hundred). Do a "su" to become root, then do at the command line "modprobe e100" to load the module. Then do also on command line "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart" (with a One number after inet) and "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 restart". If that doesn't work I have no more clue :-/

YAY! everything seemed to work. when i type ifconfig it comes up with

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet (lots of stuff after this like) inet
addr: 192.168.0.101 Bcast: 192.168.0.255

lo Link encap:Local Loopback (here for inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask 255.0.0.0)

So from what i can see, it seems like the kernel has finally FINALLY picked up the ethernet card, that seems like a big step. The only problem now is, getting my browser to work, when i open up firefox it still says unable to connect, when i open up konqueror, it says unable "Automatic proxy configuration. Could not find useable proxy script. (I'm sorry i'm such a don't give up on me please!!)

also, i found out that as i type in ifconfig every few minutes, the number of RX packets keeps going up, it started at 30packets, and now it's up to 656, with 0 errors or dropped. I'm guessing that RX packets and TX packets are uploaded and downloaded, i'm just not sure which is which. Once I can get my browser working, the only thing left will be getting my eternal hard drive plugged in ^_^, but if you've had enough of helping me i can understand!

hmmm, interesting, i tried rebooting, and when i came back in, typed ifconfig, and the eth0 was gone, so i reloaded it, it's back up again. Still no browser access to the web....

I wonder if i should move this to the networking thread?

heh, i think i found some useful information.

when i type dmesg obviously a bunch of stuff comes up, but i found my eth0 card, this is what it said.

then it started talking about detecting my high speed USB port and my external hard drive etc, but yes, does that info help at all? It feels like we're getting alot closer!