Configuring Red Hat Linux 9 to work with a Tulip Ethernet Card and router

Introduction

I recently installed Red Hat Linux 9, but had some considerable difficulty getting the PCI network card to work. I am writing this page partly as reminder of what was needed, in order to help me on my next reinstall, and partly in the hopes that it might help another newcomer to Linux.

Here are some assorted notes on configuration.

Hardware

• onboard lan card
• Linksys Etherfast 10/100 LAN Card
• D-Link DI-604 router

The network card shows up in several different ways. As far as I can tell, these all refer to the same thing.

• In dmesg | grep eth: eth0: ADMtek Comet rev 17 at [MEMORY LOCATION], [MAC ADDRESS], IRQ 10
• In the manual: Linksys EtherFast 10/100 LAN CARD, LNE100TX version 5.1
• In the Hardware Browser: Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 model NC100
• In the Network configuration tool: DEC 21*40 and clones

Things to check

neat ("Network" tool in System Settings)

• Type: Ethernet
• Nickname = Device = eth0
• Activate device when computer starts: checked
• Automatically obtain IP address settings with DHCP
• Hostname needs to be set to something
• Hardware description: DEC 21*40 and clones
• IRQ: 10 (Does this get assigned automatically? It shows up using dmesg)

BIOS

• Disable PnP support in the BIOS (forces the system to re-detect hardware, brings up kudzu to configure things.)

/sbin/ifconfig -a

• Should contain two entries, eth0 and lo ("loopback")
• When a device is running, it should say UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST
• When not running, UP does not appear.
• Ensure that it says: inet addr: 192.168.0.1 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0 in the eth0 configuration. This can be configured with the network configuration tool, or on the command line with ifconfig. The address of the router is not actually specified (it just finds it since it's on the network (?)).

/etc/modules.conf

This is the driver information. The tulip driver needed for this card comes with Red Hat Linux 9. It should contain the following (not requiring editing)

• alias eth0 tulip (says that the tulip driver is to be used for that device)
• options tulip irq=10 (set automatically (?) by network configuration tool)

Error messages

I think at some point the on board network adapter and the PCI card were conflicting, causing the system not to be able to configure the PCI card. I'm still not sure exactly what caused the messages.

• Something about SIOCSIFFLAGS
• device or resource busy
• could not initialize

Other resources

These didn't necessarily prove to be all that helpful for me particularly, but might be in the future:

• The Linux Documentation Project
• Linux and the "Tulip" NIC Architecture

Other comments

I tried running kudzu under the GNOME windowing system, but it made everything go haywire. The windows wouldn't respond properly to mouse clicks and I had to reboot.

I tried breaking it after I got it working, to see if I could fix it again

This is not any sort of definitive guide, nor am I planning on adding substantially to this page. I probably won't know the answer to any other questions that you might have on this subject, but feel free to email me if you want, at mark[at]jeays[dot]net.

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