ive used countless howtos to compile my kernel, and i always have the same problem. regardless of whether i configure my network drivers to be included (built in or modules), when i compile the kernel and boot to it, i never have network drivers. i look in /lib/modules/kernel/drivers/net and i see only dummy.o, and none of my tulip drivers. at first i figured maybe i didnt select them, but now, every time i compile i make very sure i do select them, but they are never in the kernel when im done. I have followed every step in the newbie guide in this and the general linux forum, and i have had my linux teacher install and compile my kernel with absolutely no problem, so i just really need to know what im doing wrong, this is getting quite discouraging. thanks in advance. I cant even modprobe them, they are simply not in the kernel, regardless of what i select in make menuconfig. ive even checked the .config before making the bzImage and they are enabled. But when i make modules and make modules_install, they are never included in it.

Well, that sounds odd.

When you say that the drivers should be under /lib/modules/kernel/drivers/net/, I am assuming that you mean the word "kernel" to stand for the version of the kernel you are booted into, such as /lib/modules/2.6.4/drivers/net/. Of course, if you compile the driver into the kernel, you won't see a module for it.

What do you get when you do a `find / -name tulip* -print` as root?

right, thats what i meant. when i do that, it simply doesnt exist. now, when i try it, if i compile it as a module, it works fine, but if i compile it into the kernel, it wont work. should i be activating it manually or something?

I never had that problem but what could be happening is that some startup script doesn't detect the module and then won't start the network. try manually starting the network with the module compiled in. dhcpd eth0 is what I use to make my network start if it doesn't automatically. Slacware has dhcpcd if I remember correctly.

you know, that will probably work. thanks a lot