[Courses] [Networking] Lesson Two - Purchasing the Right Hardware

[Hamster]

Morgan,

> > If you want instructions on how to
> > install a network card without relying on these tools, or are having
> > trouble with drivers, ASK!
> 
> I could never get this done The Right Way. What are the steps for 
> doing this?

Hi! As with many things in linux, there is more than one way to install
a network card. I think the only "right way" is the one is that works :-)

I can take you through the installation procedure step by step if you want
that much detail, in which case let me know which distro you're using and
any details about the network card you have. 

In summary, the procedure is this:

1. Physically install the card in the machine and connect it to a hub using
a straight though cable. Switch computer on and verify that the hub and/or
card are displaying green link lights. This step has to be complete before
we can go any further. Linux is good, but not yet able to communicate with
stuff not plugged in properly.

2. Find the right driver - if there wasn't one supplied with the card or
there's nothing available on the manufacturer's website, proceed as follows:

2a. Boot to linux and run:

lscpi -v

(If information goes scrolling off the screen, run lspci -v | less)

Scroll through the output until you find an entry that looks like it might
be your network card. On my machine, the first two lines of the entry for my
card looks like:

Ethernet controller: Standard Microsystems Corp [SMC] 83C170QF (rev 06)
Subsystem: Standard Microsystems Corp [SMC] EtherPower II 10/100

Now we know what linux thinks the card is, and there are several
avenues available for finding out which module belongs with this card.
Google probably knows, and its probably in the kernel documentation
providing you've got it installed,  but I prefer another method.

Each distro comes with a text file that's a kind of database of network
cards and their drivers. It's used during the install process to
automatically setup any network cards you have. I grep through this
particular file looking for words that appear in the output of our lspci
command. This way you can find out the module (driver) thats used with your
network card.

3. As root run the command:

modprobe nameofmodule

and if that returns no errors, all has gone well.

4. To make this modprobe occur automatically on reboot, add it to
modules.conf (how you do this is distro dependent)

That's all there is. Note that there are variations to this theme, it
depends on your distro, and which modules they compile into the kernel.

Like I said, this was the rough outline, if you want a step by step, let me
know.

Hamster