[Techtalk] Automatic loading of network card module after kernel upgrade

[Conor Daly]

On Sun, Jul 21, 2002 at 03:15:19PM -0700 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Therese Gustafsson thought:
> kernel. I have understood that that module is called 
> 8139too in the 2.4 kernels so the automatic loading 
> isn't working. I tried to find the file that tells the
> kernel what network card module should be loaded, but 
> I didn't find any. Does anyone know where I can put 
> the new module name so I can get my network card 
> automatically loaded when I start the computer? 

I don't know my debian but under RH, the file is /etc/modules.conf  My
entry for the RTL8139 is:

alias eth0 8139too 

you can test if the module is there for your new kernel by doing a

modprobe 8139too

If the module is there, it should load at that point.  I'm not sure if you
can put two lines in /etc/modules for the same alias but if not, you can
use an "if else endif" construct to decide which module to load.  eg.

# this may fail
alias eth0 ne-2k
alias eth0 8139too

# This should work
# assuming the expression syntax is right...

if -n `kernelversion` == 2.4
  alias eth0 8139too
elseif -n `kernelversion` == 2.2
  alias eth0 ne-2k
endif

OTOH, if the modprobe 8139too fails, maybe you didn't install the kernel
modules along with the kernel (though I would presume that apt-get would
have told you about such a dependency).  Test that by looking for
8139too.o under /lib/modules/2.4.x/

> is there some way I can keep the old name also, so I 
> can boot the old kernel? 
 
> Actually I have no idea if there are other things I 
> should change now that I've upgraded my kernel. Are 
> there? I feel that I have no idea what I've done...=)

Yup, I know the feeling!  There probably are other things to upgrade.  I'm
told glibc is a popular one.  One I do know of is iptables in place of
ipchains for firewalling.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at oceanfree.net>

Domestic Sysadmin :-)
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