Been trying various distributions of linux the last couple of months and with SUSE 10, I'm hoping to get it all up and running properly this time. Except I have no net access..


The Dialup modem.

It's internal, and SUSE is detecting it correctly as a Sitecom 536EP etc etc...

When I look under Network Devices > Modem, YAST tells me that it's not configured. I hit edit to configure and it tells me that the following packages need to be installed - Intel-536EP.

I don't know much about this Intel package or where to get it so I downloaded the drivers from intel. But I need kernel sources to get those to work apparently. Which brings me back to knowing little enough about packages and sources.

According to their instructions, I cd into the directory with the drivers and type
make clean - seems to go ok
make 536, gives me:

Module precompile check
Current running kernel is: 2.6.13-8-default
/lib/modules... autoconf.h does not exist
please install kernel source

Can anyone help me out here?

Or do I just bite the bullet and go find an external 56k modem?



The Graphics Card.

Not a necessity, but I'd like to have it working correctly, I have the drivers and the readme from the nvidia site, but when I try and install them, it tells me I have an X server running and to close it.

If it is actually telling you that you need to install a package, i would assume that it is telling you to put your cd/dvd in the drive and it will install the package for you or is it just giving you a failed dependency? //p

I used the amd64 isos to install, it tells me I need the intel-536 package, but doesn't request any of the CDs. Plus I looked through the packages on each them and can't find one single intel package.

For the modem problem:

You need to install the package called something like 'kernel-source' for this to compile (you'll also need this package for the NVidia driver install). Its located in YasT2 under Kernel stuff...

I've had trouble with this modem before with Fedora Core 3, but I now have SuSE 10 like you and I'll be trying out the drivers shortly too, but don't keep your hopes up.

Graphics Card:

I believe you need to change your runlevel to exit the X Windows system. To do this you'll need to open up a terminal and type:

init 3

I think three is the correct runlevel for this but its best if you check before doing this. Then run the NVidia .run installer and let it do its thing. Then you need to go back to X Windows using the following command at a terminal prompt:

init 5

This is definately the right runlevel. You should now see an NVidia splash screen before the X Windows/KDE/Gnome log on dialog.


I think this is how I did all this stuff last time, I can soon tell you as I have to go through everything you have to in this post and a little more to get my system working to its full potentional.

Tell me how you get on...

I recommand the external hardware modem, they're not that expensive, you'll save yourself trouble and time. Hardware modems supposedly give better performance anyway...