old nic card

[alphaace]

Hi,

I recently installed PCLOS LXDE on a very old machine, P3 - 500 MHZ. It runs fine, but the network card is connected through an ISA slot. I see that the light goes on in the back of the computer where the lan plugs in so I know that the card is powered. My router also lights up for that slot. However, PCLOS says that no wired connection exists.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm kind of loathe to go out and buy a new network card on such an old machine...

Thanks!

[Phil]

Can you access a web site?

Try the PCLinuxOS Control Centre>Network and Internet>Network Center (Is the card set up and recognised)

Type ifconfig into a terminal, see anything?

Type tracepath www.google.com into a terminal, how far do you get?

[alphaace]

1) can't access any website.
2) The Network center comes up empty.
3) ifconfig has no eth0 entries.
4) tracepath gives a hostname lookup failure.

It seems like pclos simply doesn't "find" the nic card. Are there older drivers I can load up as well or something similar?

[Timothy]

You say it's an older ISA NIC... Do you know the make/model?  Does it appear in ControlCentre > Hardware > Browse and Configure Hardware?

Does ndiswrapper work with wired cards?

[alphaace]

Unfortunately, I don't know the make or model (it's not written on the card as far as i can tell).

While I see an ISA bridge in the hardware section I don't see an ethernet card. Sigh, maybe, the card is just a little too long in the tooth.

[Phil]

That is sometimes the way it is....

I had a realtek nic card which worked for a long time, then it stopped working after a kernel upgrade, switched to another card.

Same machine had Sis onboard sound which worked for ages, then one update it didn't, so installed a cheapo sound card and it was fine again.

Current machine has a internal and weird sound card. Cannot get the mic to work, maybe a driver update will sort it. In the meantime a cheap usb sound dongle means I can use skype.

See if you can salvage a nic card from somewhere and put it it, problem solved.
(Or their are various USB dongles which may work as well)

[bingyman]

i think you can try it with "isapnptool" and you must know the irq of this card.

[alphaace]

I am soooo close!! Help!

I created a book disk which scanned my isa ports, turned off the card pnp, and found the irq and io numbers.

When I boot into linux and issue the command "modprobe smc-ultra io=0x240 irq=10" it works! I connect online, everything is great.

However, when I edit /etc/modules, add that same command, and reboot, it does not automatically load. I still need to terminal> su> and enter the modprobe command all over again in order to have a connection. Suggestions anyone?

To be so close and yet so far away.

[old_guy]

alphaace
Try to put it in:
   /etc/modprobe.preload

Earl

[alphaace]

Hi,

I'm posting this from the machine I was trying to get on the web. modprobe.preload did not work either, however, by putting the command in /etc/rc.local, it works great!

Thanks everyone for your help!

[Was_Just19]

Hi,

I'm posting this from the machine I was trying to get on the web. modprobe.preload did not work either, however, by putting the command in /etc/rc.local, it works great!

Thanks everyone for your help!

When putting it into modprobe.preload you would need to omit the command "modprobe" in the following which you posted:
"modprobe smc-ultra io=0x240 irq=10"

So what goes into modprobe.preload is

smc-ultra io=0x240 irq=10

/etc/modprobe.preload   is the correct location I believe.

Glad to see you have it working   


regards.