Trying to figure out what NIC i have...

[Gaccm]

I have an Abit IS7 that comes with onboard LAN. The thing is, i want to install linux and have no clue what drivers would be used. WIndows says it is "3com Gigabit NIC" and the tech docs on abit-usa.com are useless. The manual says that i have a RealTek chipset??? so i'm not at all sure what I have.

Do non debian distros auto discover/configure stuff like NIC drivers? because debian sure is pissing me off.

[sharth]

debian bothers everyone :) even those of us who like it.

To let you know though, no distro supports it right now, its too new. However, there are kernel patches out there that will let you use the nic.

http://www.syskonnect.de/syskonnect/support/driver/htm/sk98lin_2.4.20.htm
http://www.syskonnect.de/syskonnect/support/driver/htm/sk98lin_2.4.21.htm

im going to assume that you are using 2.4.18-bf24. which they don't provide a driver for. That means download kernel source, patch away, and build yourself a new kernel (with make-kpkg if you like)

[bosox79]

Originally posted by Gaccm
I have an Abit IS7 that comes with onboard LAN. The thing is, i want to install linux and have no clue what drivers would be used. WIndows says it is "3com Gigabit NIC" and the tech docs on abit-usa.com are useless. The manual says that i have a RealTek chipset??? so i'm not at all sure what I have.

Do non debian distros auto discover/configure stuff like NIC drivers? because debian sure is pissing me off.

I would give this module a try based on the info you posted 3c2000.o. you might also wanna check out this thread http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105595&highlight=3com+Gigabit+NIC
I would also recommended a distro with better hardware detection maybe libranet 2.7 it is deb based but the installer is much more newbie friendly you can download the iso here http://www.libranet.com/download.html
they call it a demo version but it is fully functional it does not include use official support from libranet though but the forums are great.

you might also want to give my distro of choice a try http://www.jamd-linux.com/index.php
it is based on RH and RH has great hardware auto detection

I hope that was helpful

bosox

[freakmn]

If, in fact, it is a realtek chipset, try finding the drivers here (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?Keyword=linux).

[sarah31]

if it is indeed a realtek chip it is likely an 8139 in which case you can try, as root:

modprobe 8139too

then ifconfig -a to see if it shows your nic.

[Gaccm]

Originally posted by sharth
debian bothers everyone :) even those of us who like it.

To let you know though, no distro supports it right now, its too new. However, there are kernel patches out there that will let you use the nic.

http://www.syskonnect.de/syskonnect/support/driver/htm/sk98lin_2.4.20.htm
http://www.syskonnect.de/syskonnect/support/driver/htm/sk98lin_2.4.21.htm


sorry for the incredibly late reply, but I havn't been able to work on the problem. sharth, do these drivers that you link work for my 3com NIC? They seem to be for SysKonnect's hardware.

[sharth]

i searched by motherboard, and figured it was as good of a try as any.

[Hawg]

I had the same problem with this board. The stupid docs say it is a Realtek but in reality it's a 10/100 3com chip. There are two versions and I think only the i875 board supports the Realtek GigE chip. The i865PE uses the 3com (this IS the chipset you have right?). The driver is the 3c2000 and it is on the CD that came with the motherboard. I'm not using debian but under RH9 the device works fine.