nix*

[cremator]

Ok, heres the deal, I wanna install linux (probally mandrake) or some other distro, but everytime i installed it in the past, it wouldnt go online with my eithernet card...im running a ECS K7S5A (shh its all i could afford at the time) my isp is charter.... any suggestions or help?

 

[ProviaFan]

I'd recommend that you get a recent distrobution, like Redhat 7.2 (I like it better than Mandrake, but if you can, try both and see which one is better for you). I have a slightly older SiS chipset (6 hundred-something socket 370 chipset) on one of my computers, and it works great with all of the OSes that I've tried, including Linux and QNX 6.

 

[Travail]

Mandrake 8.2 is a very nice desktop OS. While I prefer RH7.2, I'd definitely recommend Mandrake for a new Linux user who wants to get things done, rather than play with the OS constantly.

Is you Ethernet card PCI or ISA?

 

[EHobaX]

The newer distros have a lot better hardware support.
I use some cheap Acer Nextus NIC I found in my drawer in my box.
It was detected by 'drake 8.2, and I was able to get on my DSL connection with no problems.

 

[ProviaFan]

Unless he added an external one, I'm guessing that he's using the one that's built in to the SiS chipset.

 

[cremator]

err, its integrated, which seems to be the conflict with linux and my machine... I could always install linux, I just couldn't get online/

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

is the onboard lan an actual chip onboard (i.e. a realtek chip just on the mobo) or is it actually integrated into the southbridge?

 

[Colt45]

Mandrake 8.2 works fine with my K7S5A for the onboard LAN


getting audio to work is another problem alltogether though (with every distro ive tried so far)

 

[ProviaFan]

<< is the onboard lan an actual chip onboard (i.e. a realtek chip just on the mobo) or is it actually integrated into the southbridge? >>


I looked up info about the SiS chipset that he has in that mobo, and the network is integrated directly into the north/southbridge chip.

 

[capybara]

drake has a list of supported hardware at its website. and youu can lookup your chipset and see if its supported.
if its not, add an ethernet card. if it is, try using the wizard, drakenet or netdrake or something like that.
be sure you know your host name and dns addresses.

 

[kylef]

<< I looked up info about the SiS chipset that he has in that mobo, and the network is integrated directly into the north/southbridge chip. >>


Actually, only the media access control part of the ethernet chip is integrated into the Sis 735 chip. That motherboard must provide an on-board PHY layer chip that implements the "analog" part of the 802.3 Ethernet specification; this is usually some type of Realtek chip.

 

[Submit]

Mandrake 8.2 works nicely on two of my pc with the integrated (SiS 900) ethernet...

 

[ProviaFan]

<<

<< I looked up info about the SiS chipset that he has in that mobo, and the network is integrated directly into the north/southbridge chip. >>


Actually, only the media access control part of the ethernet chip is integrated into the Sis 735 chip. That motherboard must provide an on-board PHY layer chip that implements the "analog" part of the 802.3 Ethernet specification; this is usually some type of Realtek chip. >>


Oops...
/me shows how little he really knows about networking

 

[tontod]

Does this mean its difficult to get online on linux with the onboard nic? Anything special needs to be done?

 

[EHobaX]

<< Does this mean its difficult to get online on linux with the onboard nic? Anything special needs to be done? >>



I have an ECS K7SEM mobo for my Linux box and it has the RealTek onboard NIC. Mandrake 8.2 detected it fine.
All I did was have it get an IP at boot since I use DHCP to get my IP. Worked fine and I was able to surf the 'net after logging in.
May be a little different for you since I have DirecTV DSL (i.e. Telocity).

 

[Soybomb]

I don't know if the situation has changed, but last time I checked the onboard sound on the k7s5a was unsupported