[Techtalk] Changing NICs in Linux

Dave North dave at timocharis.com
Fri Jun 28 16:58:27 EST 2002


I had previously thought the topic was much more broad than changing a
Network Interface Card, but perhaps not.
	If that's the case, and all that's being changed is the NIC
itself, the process is very simple.
	If you have the module for that NIC available (and you'll have to
figure this out by checking references if you want to do it right), just
modprobe the module and the kernel will take care of everything else.
	Figuring out which module is necessary is a minor (and simple) art
form not to be described here.
	On the other hand, if you're like me (and nobody is) and you don't
much care for modules that aren't needed, and built the support for your
card directly into your kernel, it's as simple as rebuilding the kernel
with support for the new card -- assuming it doesn't use the same driver.
If it does, you don't have to do anything. As a side note, quite a few of the
cheaper real cards use the dec tulip chip, so the odds are good you won't
have to do a thing. On the other hand, most of the truly cheapie crapola
cards use the NE2000 driver. If it was running before, there's no
guarantee another ne2k-type card will simply replace it -- it's a flaky
spec and so are the cards. Some will never run right.
	None of this is as hard as it sounds, especially if you stay away
from NE2000 cards.
	I've come to prefer the 3com boomerang cards (3c-90x) because
"they just work."


d




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