3com pro200 ...I am too much of a newbie to understand instructions???

[stick]

Hi, finally got my computer up and running with linux... even ended up getting a book . anywyas, my nic (3com pro 200)did not load on install. No prob, I have a driver disk with a linux driver. WTF?

here is the read me text.. might as well be chinese from where i am sitting:

dmfe.c: Version 1.27 10/08/1999

A CNet PRO200 DM9102(A)/DM9132/DM9801 fast ethernet driver
for Linux.
Copyright (C) 1997 Sten Wang

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.


A. Compiler command:
"gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/net/inet -Wall
-Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c dmfe.c"
OR
"gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/net -Wall
-Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c dmfe.c"


B. The following steps teach you how to active CNet PRO200 board:

1. Used the upper compiler command to compile dmfe.c

2. Insert dmfe module into kernel
"insmod dmfe" ;;Auto Detection Mode (Suggest)
"insmod dmfe mode=0" ;;Force 10M Half Duplex
"insmod dmfe mode=1" ;;Force 100M Half Duplex
"insmod dmfe mode=4" ;;Force 10M Full Duplex
"insmod dmfe mode=5" ;;Force 100M Full Duplex

3. Config a CNet PRO200 network interface
"ifconfig eth0 172.22.3.18"
^^^^^^^^^^^ Your IP address

4. Active the IP routing table. For some distributions, it is not
necessary. You can type "route" to check.

"route add -net 172.22.3.0 eth0"

5. Well done. Your CNet PRO200 Adapter actived now.


C. The driver has been verified in the following kernals:
kernel version 2.2.5
RedHat6.0 kernel version 2.2.5-15
kernel version 2.2.12
kernel version 2.3.18

Author: Sten Wang, 886-3-5798797-8517, E-mail: sten_wang@davicom.com.tw


how do i do this????

[DMR]

Actually, although a little terse, those are fairly succinct instructions. Here's what's going on: you are compiling the source code (the dmfe.c file) for the driver into a dmfe.o module suitable for use by your kernel, and then setting up the basic networking parameters.
Compiler command: "gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/net/inet -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c dmfe.c"
OR
"gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/net -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c dmfe.c"
gcc is the program used to compile the module. I don't know which distro of Linux you're using, so I'm not sure which version of the command you should use (note the slight difference in the /usr/src/... pathing). Type the command exactly as shown (the "O" in the -O6 is a capital o, not a zero). If you get compile errors, they'll probably be regarding missing header files, which you may need to install before this will work. No big deal, just post back here and someone will walk you through it.

Insert dmfe module into kernel
"insmod dmfe" This activates the module. Note that to load the module each time you boot, you should add the line: "alias eth0 dmfe" (no quotes) to your /etc/conf.modules file.


Config a CNet PRO200 network interface:
"ifconfig eth0 172.22.3.18" The ifconfig command will assign the IP address to the NIC. Substitute your IP addy for the one given. Actually, the command should probably be "ifconfig eth0 172.22.3.18 up" to activate the interface.

Active the IP routing table. For some distributions, it is not necessary. You can type "route" to check.
"route add -net 172.22.3.0 eth0"
It won't hurt to run the command either way.

If you're connecting to the Internet or any outside network, you will also have to define the address of the device you connect to as the gateway address:
route add default gw xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the gateway device's IP).

Sound's eaasy, right? ;)

I'd bet a paycheck or two that it won't go perfectly, but don't stress on it. Just repost with a full description of the errors you're getting.Oh, and include your system specs as well (CPU, RAM, video card, version of Linux, etc.).

[ 18 April 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[stick]

ok, didn't work... compiled ok.. then when i ran the second command... it gave me a whole bunch of errors... like 60 or so... like "invalid perameter "reset" "
or some crap like that... like every concievable command that i nic would have to use it was an error saying that this was totally unrecognized... then when i rebooted i got another error at boot saying that it could not load eth0... then i screwed something up witht the adx the install assigned to me... local.user... i deleted it somewhere... now when i start gnome, i get an erro that since i removed local.user.... gnome will not work correctly in some areas... ooops...

I am running redhat 7.0 on an amd athlon 700... it is working great... really except for the nic... even at work, the guys said i will probably screw it up and it will not work... but it keeps working nomatter what bonehead crap i do to it... some os! it just keeps working... but i would love to get the nic to work...

thanks for the help though...

[DMR]

stick,

-For one thing, a search at 3COM turns up no "pro 200" card. CNET makes a PRO200, which does use the dmfe driver; which card do you have?
-from the dmfe readme you posted: The driver has been verified in the following kernals:
kernel version 2.2.5
RedHat6.0 kernel version 2.2.5-15
kernel version 2.2.12
kernel version 2.3.18

I don't know which kernel RH 7.0 ships with, but your driver just might not be compatible. I actually read one article in which the posted stated simply "dmfe.c doesn't work with RH 7.0, what can I do?"

But, some things to check anyway:
-Which compile (gcc) command did you use, the first or second?
-post some of the error messages.
-run ifconfig and post the output.

Also, this from a newsgroup thread concerning your dmfe driver: Sounds like your module depends on some other module that's not loaded. The first thing to do is run the command "depmod -a". This will regenerate our module dependency list. (This is done automatically
when you reboot.) Next, use the modprobe command instead of insmod. The modprobe command will check for any dependencies and automatically load the other required modules before loading your module.
Worst case you're module depends on something that's not even built, either as a module or in the main kernel. In that case you may have to rebuild the kernel and include the missing pieces.

Repost if you want to keep trying, otherwise you might want to save yourself some headaches and buy a card that's fully supported by RH 7.0. You can check compatibility at Redhat's Hardware Compatibility List (http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/genpage2.cgi?pagename=hcl&statpage=inic).

[ 19 April 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[stick]

thanks man, but that did not work either... I am just going to buy another nic...
(I checked several other distros, and this card is not supported in a ^%$#^ one of them... thanks for trying to help. I am just too new and need to spend my time learning (hopefully from my book), not from fixing things... you know?

[DMR]

Yup.