[hoss]

I may as well try this here. I also posted the question on the Lindsows Insider Forum.

My first install of Lindows found the onboard network adaptor right off and I just clicked the Internet icon and was on Roadrunner. I just tried it on a second computer I built that has a netgear NIC and am unable to connect to the internet. Being unfamiliar with Linux admin I don't even know how to start trouble shooting this. Don't even know how to install a network card driver in Liunx. Are there any Linux Gurus on here?

[epec254]

The NetGear NIC may not be compatable with lindows...is it an older card?

[hoss]

Good point. Maybe thats why it was on sale. I just bought it though. Its model FA 311/312

Yikes! The Installation Guide that came with it says Windows 95 or 98 is required. Guess that could have something to do with it.

I think I like this forum better than the Lindows.com forum

Thanks Epeter

[Weaver]

You raise a good point here. The difference between true hardware and pesudo-hardware. Anyone ever heard of a win-modem or soft-modem. They are devices that generally (always) require a windows environment to run. The reason behind this is that the card is not a true piece of hardware. They use windows funtions to emulate a modem. This is why they will not work in Linux. Without those windows components, the modem cannot be properly emulated. As far as network cards are concerned, it is probably a little different, yet still similar. For network cards, I will always stick with 3com and Linksys. Glad to hear you got your problem resolved.

-Weaver

[hoss]

Well, not yet. More research and found that it does support Linux. Even has the drivers on the floppy. Just gotta learn how to install them.

[Weaver]

What is the name of the file. Does it end in a ".tar.gz" or a ".bz" or a ".gzip" or a ".bzip" Wow that is a lot of extentions, sorry for the confusion.

-Weaver

[hoss]

fa311.c The linux driver source code file
fa311.h The linux interfaces header file
redhatx.x\fa311.o The linux dirver
redhatx.x\makefile Makefile for generating driver object file


Installation Procedure:
-----------------------

1. During installation of Linux, make sure that the "C Development"
selection is choosen under "Component to Install" window. This will
copy the C compiler into the system for compiling the driver.

2. Also in the Network Configuration window during installation, you
will be asked if you want to configure LAN (not dailup) networking
for your installed system. Answer YES.

3. Insert the floppy disk with the FA311 driver, and mount the disk
into the system with the following command:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

4. Copy the Linux-related files from the disk into the system hard disk
with the following command. Four files will be copied: fa311.c,
fa311.h, fa311.o and makefile.

cp /mnt/floppy/linux/*.* /mnt/floppy/linux/redhatx.x/*.* .

5. Compile fa311.c by executing the "makefile" command at the prompt.
The following command will be executed.

for redhat 6.x
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O -m486 -c fa311.c

for redhat 7.0
kgcc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O -m486 -c fa311.c
-I/usr/src/linux/include

6. Find the names of the files in the /lib/modules directory. You
might see the following directories.

eg. "2.2.16-22" and "preferred".

7. Copy the newly compiled fa311.o into the latest kernel's modules.

cp fa311.o /lib/modules/2.2.xx/net/fa311.o

8. run netconf

9. enter setting in the Client tasks/Basic host information/Adaptor 1

IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Netmask: 255.255.255.xxx
Net device: eth0
Kernel mode: fa311

8. Reboot the system.

9. You can check if the driver is properly activating the card using
the "dmesg" command right after system bootup.

This is for Red Hat. Lindows doesn't ask if you want to configure LAN. Not that I saw.

[Weaver]

Now this might get kind of iffy. Sorry that I don't have Lindows installed, so I can't actually test this.

You are going to want to take that fa311.o file and put into your modules directory, assuming Lindows has one. It will probably be /lib/modules/2.2.xx(whatever kernelversion it is running)/net/ Put it there. Then you are going to want to run a "modprobe fa311" without quotes and do not use the .o

If the modprobe succeeds, the Linux/Lindows kernel should now be aware of it and you can possibly try running the Lindows internet/network setup.

If the modprobe fails, either their is a kernel version conflict and the driver will not function in a different version of the kernel, or Lindows is different, which it is, and the driver will not work period.

Hope this helps, although I honestly doubt it will work.

-Weaver

[hoss]

Thanks. I'll definitely give it a go and let you know what happens.

[hoss]

It turns out that Lindows did support this NIC, but just didn't automatically recognize it for some reason. I just had to add the correct module to be loaded then it worked.