Netgear NIC Not working

[Livermoron]

Hi all,

Having a problem loading and installing a Netgear Nic. My system setup is as follows:

Intel x86
Debian 2.2.18
Netgear Model FA311 10/100 NIC

I'm pretty sure those are the main components. I just need to compile the driver and install it I think.

Anyway, this is what I've done. According to the help/installation instructions included with the NIC. It indicated on the box that it was a Linux compatable card and the floppy has drivers on it, which it dies. The instructions, however, are for RedHat and Slackware - not debian. Not sure it that makes a difference.

it first tells you to copy the contents of the linux folder flopy onto your machine. I copied the files into a new directory called fa311. This folder contains 4 files.
fa311.c fa311.h fa311.o and makefile.

After doing this it tells you to compile the driver by running the makefile command.

When I run simlpy makefile it says :command not found.

Now the fun begins.

Last night, I inputted ./makefiile and it sets off some type of compiling process where about 500 lines cross my screen and leave me at a prompt. Also when we were finished, the fa311.o file was no longer in the fa311 directory.

We thought, cool we got it, but no luck. Installation instructions tells you to look in your modules file which for me is /lib/modules/2.2.18pre21/net and it's not there.

Where did this file go. I need the compiled version of FA311.o. The next instruction is to copy the new fa311.o file into the files of your Kernel's modules - but I can't find the newly compiled fa311.o.

Where could it be - Please help.

[dasdfarmer]

Livermoron,
I am not familiar with Debian so bear that in mind. I just installed the FA311 on my Mandrake machine this weekend and found that the supplied drivers are for an older version of the kernel. The natsemi drivers are the one to use and they come with recent kernels. natsemi appears to be working well with this card.
Mike

[Livermoron]

thanks for the tip - I'll see if I can find those drivers on my sys.

[Livermoron]

OK- getting closer - but still no dice.

I downloaded the components to compile the natsemi drivers. I did this.

Created a natsemi.c directory in usr/src/modules

Put the following files in said directory:
kern_compat.h
natsemi.c
pci-scan.h
pci-scan.c

Then ran the simple compile command from the end of the source file which was:

gcc -DMODULE O6 -c natsemi.c

This flagged an error saying

natsemi.c:103: linux.modversions.h: No such file or directory

So per the installation instructions, I omitted the DMODULE argument using:

gcc O6 -c natsemi.c

It went into some type of compiling deal and returned to the prompt.

Then the installation instructions say to test it by inputting

insmod natsemi.o

When I type this i get:
natsemi.o: natsemi.o: No such file or directory.

What now? I think I'm still stuck.

HHHeeeeellllllpppp. PLease!

:P

[SNOT]

Ok, I had Suse for a while and had the same problem you are having. What i did was i used the fa311.o file from the disk, just throw that into for modules folder.

[Livermoron]

could it really be that easy - I'll give it a shot.

thanks for the tip

[Livermoron]

Unfortunately not so easy!

I copied the fa311.o file from the floppy fine.

I tried insmod - it said the driver was compiled for a different linux version so i ran insmod -f which installs anyway ind it looked good.

When I run modconf it shows the driver there and installed.

However, it is still not picking up the nic at boot. In fact I get the following error during boot:

Well, the message doesn't appear in dmesg (odd) but has something to do with a depmod error and it is missing symbols?

Where do I go from here?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Livermoron]

OK - check this out too!

I rebooted and ran modconf again. This time it showed me a big fat error regarding the kernel-module version mismatch.

then it gave me 2 insmod failed messages.

Do I need to run the insmod command manually again with the -f argument.

I also saw something in the depmod man pages that had to do with using an option to silence problems with missing symbols but I'm not sure how deep I want to get with this without some advice.

:)

[Livermoron]

where the hell is the driver.o file that should be created after the compilation process.

Is there an output file specified in the gcc command?

does the gcc compiler put a compiled file somewhere and I can't just fine it? I tried a search by filename - no luck.

WHERE ARE THOSE DAMNED DRIVER>O files going!

AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

ok I feel better.

[FoBoT]

the kingston NHF (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/network/kingstonether.html) talks about compiling, maybe you can copy the format that is shows, did you already read this?
your netgear nic is obviously differnet, but maybe you can use the same method that is outlined for the kingston

[dasdfarmer]

Livermoron,
I had nothing but trouble with the netgear supplied driver. Use the natsemi driver, If it is not installed on your machine, recompile the kernel and select it under network devices or get it here: http://www.scyld.com/network/ethercard.html

[JF Bertrand]

He man,
I have a Netgear 312 card (which is the WOL version of your card) use this driver.
www.jfbertrand.com/drivers/netgear (http://www.jfbertrand.com/drivers/netgear)

Compile it, move it to /lib/modules/kernel_version/net/
Edit conf.modules or modules.conf whichever your system is using to add the lines:
alias eth0 dp83815

Reboot, it should work.

They are some issues with the default driver on the disk, at least they were some for me :). It would keep changing the MAC address because it would not read it properly from the card.

P.S. You don't need to reboot, but...

Good luck!

[Livermoron]

Hey JF,

I checked out your site - nice rides!

Thanks for the tip, and I'd like to try those drivers - cept the link I followed to was only viewable by browser.

I would need to initiate an FTP session to your machine to download the files, and I need an account for that.

If you are feeling particularly nice, you could e-mail me the files, that would be great. Just go to my website, go to my page (JJ) under member sites on http://frank.freaks.com and use the e-mail link - or just send me e-mail at the address on my profile.

Thanks

[Livermoron]

Woo freaking Hoo!
I think I found a clue as to why I can't compile these drivers.

Since I suspected the problem was created during the compilation process i went to www.gcc.gnu.org (http://www.gcc.gnu.org) and check this out.

There is a known bug that prevents gcc version 2.95.2 from compiling in 2.2 versions of linux.

There is a patch that I need to download and hopefully I can make some forward progress.

Note to self, put a post about this under it's own heading today after work.

We'll see if I can compile the drivers after installing the patch.

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by Livermoron:
Woo freaking Hoo!


gett'er dun! ;)

[JF Bertrand]

For the problems with the files,
Look at wget, I just found that, it's a command line http/ftp downloader, pretty cool.

To late for the drivers, they are already in the mail, for later references maybe?


Later

JF

[Livermoron]

OK
So my compiler seems to be busted.

There is a link to a text page patch file on the gcc homepage - but what am I supposed to do with that?

There doesn't appear to be any instructions on applying this patch. I am not a programmer - so anyone have any suggestions regarding applying this patch

[SNOT]

ok , livermoon if you still need help i have a fix for you. The make file is deleting the fa311.o file. Edit the file to look like this :
fa311.o: fa311.c fa311.h
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O -m486 -c fa311.c

Also only use two files the fa311.c and fa311.h you don't need the fa311.o file in there.
so you should have a folder with three files in it : fa311.c fa311.h and the edited make file.

That should fix your problem.

[Jason Deraleau]

Ok, this is how I did it under RH 7.0, which should probably be the same on debian (and I'll find out for sure tonight when I install 2.2r2)

Download the fa311.c and fa311.h into a directory. I also usually get the pci-scan.c pci-scan.h and kern_compat.h files from ftp.scyld.com. (If you read the recommended install for the natsemi driver, it suggests it as well)

gcc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O -I/usr/src/linux/include/ -c fa311.c

gcc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -I/usr/src/linux/include/ -c pci-scan.c

install -m 644 pci-scan.o fa311.o /lib/modules/~kernel version~/net/

Then do an insmod like usual.

insmod --force pci-scan.o
insmod --force fa311.o


That works under RH7.0, and 6.2. Gonna try Debian 2.2r2 tonight, but it should work the same because all of those are kernel independent (and also if you read the actual source, it will usually tell you the actual compile commands at the bottom ;)

JD