Help with Accton ISA NIC card

[Jeffie]

I am just beginning to work with Redhat 7.2, using an older system I had here. I am trying to use the existing NIC which is an Accton EN1651 16 bit ISA 10BaseT. The card is jumperless, but I have booted using a Win98 disk and used their utility to set the card to IRQ 5, I/O 240, Mem D000. The card should be an NE2000 type, but when I use the control panel to try to add the hardware and enter those settings, I get a message saying the hardware would not initialize. I am obviously missing something.:o
The driver software availbale form Accton has some "UNIX" drivers, but I am certain they are fairly old and I don't know how to load them.
Any ideas or do I just go get a new card with Linux drivers?
I may get the hang of this thing sometime:D

[DMR]

If the card is truly an NE2000 or clone, it is well supported under Linux. There are two different NE2000 drivers, both of which have been built into the kernel for some time. One is for the ISA cards and one is for PCI cards; the correct driver for you would be the ne.o module.

If you're sure you have no resource (IRQ, address range) conflicts between your NIC and other peripherals, but Redhat's GUI utilities won't allow you to set up the card, you might have to do it by hand.

As far as getting a new card, if you've got a free PCI slot and about $20 (or less) it won't hurt. Most major NIC are supported, but check Redhat's Hardware Compatibility List (http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?pagename=hcl//) before you buy just to be sure.

[james79]

there is a tools called "isapnp" to get your isa NIC running. I was using the same Accton ISA nic 2 years ago in my slackware linux. Try search for it in forums or google ...you should find something related to it. I can't help you with redhat 7.2 on how to configure it coz i never use redhat. If i remember correctly, i run isapnp then there is a config file produced, then inside the file, i deleted the commented line and then in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules, i choose ne2000 modules to load during start up....well, that's slackware configuration for the NIC.

don't give up until you able to get it working, just keep in mind that this card will work in linux.
good luck

[Jeffie]

James,
Thanks for the info. I downloaded the program and copied into a directory on the Linux box, but I really don't have a clue how to install the sucker. I tried following the commands and run ./configure in a shell windows (I loaded KDE), but I get an error message that says BAS INTERPRETER:NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY.
Since I am actually below jr. grasshopper, I am still trying to understand some of the instructions and readme files, as they presume more understanding than I seem to possess.

[mdwatts]

What type of file did you download?

If a *.tar.gz, then

tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

cd filename

and then read the readme/install text files.

ls -al | more

to see what files are there and then

less <filename>

to view the text files.

[Jeffie]

Okay, well that confused the heck out of me!!!!:confused:
I undestood what you meant about the downloaded file and I know (Ithink) that a tar file is a unix type compressed file. the file I downloaded is isapnptools-1.26.bin.tgz
I ran winzip on that and extracted the files, put them on a floppy and then copied them onto the Linux box. I read the install file, but as noted above, either I just didn't understand or I am missing something else form the system.
I definately didn't understand what "If a *.tar.gz, then
tar zxvf filename.tar.gz" means.
COuld we try a simpler, slower explaination for those of us in the back of the room???
:D

[mdwatts]

If the filename.tar.gz or filename.tgz resides on your Linux system, then to extract/decompress them, you use

tar zxvf filename.tar.gz

tar zxvf filename.tgz

I would think Redhat would already include isapnptools with their distro.

Check the rpm database to see if isapnptools is installed

rpm -qa | grep isapnp

If not, then the isapnptools package should be on one of your Redhat installation cd's.