help on installing NIC in linux

[coolpig]

i have a 3com509b. I don't know how to take out the plugNplay feature on that card so i can install it in linux. please help!

 

[ndee]

Which distro have you got?

 

[phalsedoom]

I do not know if that specific card works check at linhardware.com. If it is listed as compatible. Then you should disable plug and play in your bios. Then try to see if Linux(what version are you using?) picks it up. if it does detect it then run netconfig for Redhat. I do not know about the other versions.

 

[dkozloski]

I used the 3COM DOS routine, 3C5X9CFG.exe, to set the card to address 240 and IRQ10 then disabled plug and play.

 

[dszd0g]

If you don't take the approach dkozloski recommended (which I will second) you have to use isapnp. The whole tricky part of isapnp under Linux is configuring the isapnp.conf file correctly which can be tedious.

 

[oldfart]

MUCH better off with a PCI nic in Linux. You can get them for $10-15.

 

[dszd0g]

Well, if he was asking about a new NIC I would recommend a Netgear. Netgear has great Linux support. However, we are trying to get his existing card working. (Edit: I have used 3com 3c509b's under Linux so I know for a fact that they do work.)

 

[oldfart]

I've got ISA nics to work in Linux also. But it can be a real pain. I had one system that I put a 509b in in that refused to work. It was recognized, showed up when I did an ifconfig, but would never pass data no matter what I did. I chucked it and got an el cheapo PCI nic for $10. Works perfect. $10 well spent.

 

[coolpig]

ok...i use the 3C5X9CFG.exe to disable my plug and play feature. it assigns io: 300 and irq: 10 to my 3com509b card. i reinstall linux but it still didn't install my 3com509b card. anyone know what the problem is? thank you...

 

[dszd0g]

Have you configured it in your /etc/modules.conf (used to be /etc/conf.modules)?

You need to:

alias eth0 3c509
options 3c509 io=0x300 irq=10

This is off the top of my head so the syntax might be a little off, read the man page.

Edit:

This assumes that is how far along you are. Do an "lsmod" to see if the 3c509 driver is currently running. Is the 3c509 driver compiled as a module "ls -l /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net" in the first place?
Does it show up in "ifconfig"?

 

[coolpig]

yeah
i saw the 3c509.o in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net directory. does that mean it's compiled? how come ifconfig eth1 still doesn't work after i edit the command lines for in /etc/conf.modules?

 

[dszd0g]

Do you have more than one network card in the machine? The first interface is eth0, then eth1, etc. Yes, if the 3c509.o file is in that directory then it is compiled.

Does 3c509 show up when you do "lsmod"? What interfaces are listed when you do "ifconfig" with no command line options?

 

[coolpig]

3c509 doesn't show up when i do lsmod. and when i do ifconfig, there only list lo interface.

i have 2 ethernet card. one pci and one isa. pci is already working. i can do ifconfig eth0. but there is no eth1.

i also setup the conf.modules as

alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias eth0 <my network card>
alias eth1 3c509b
options 3c509b io = 0x300 irq = 10

but it still doesn't work? any ideas? thanx

 

[dszd0g]

Is the 3c509 file in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net 3c509 or 3c509b? I think you need to remove that &quot;b&quot; at the end. I am not sure, but just to be sure remove the spaces around the = sign.

If the only thing that shows up when you do &quot;ifconfig&quot; is lo (loopback), then eth0 isn't working properly either?

What happens when you do a &quot;modprobe 3c509&quot; or &quot;insmod 3c509 io=0x300 irq=10&quot;? Does it then show up in &quot;lsmod&quot; and &quot;ifconfig&quot;?

 

[coolpig]

i don't know what i did but it works now! thank you guys so much!