Baslinux mailing list

["Sheldon Isaac" <sisaac AT netaxs.com>]

On 17 Oct 2003 at 11:26, Matrix Mole wrote:
> I have finally managed to track down the make and manufacturer of the NIC
> in my BL system. It's a RealTek8139 card. Reading through the HowTo's they
> mention something about the 8139 having a lot of problems. Has anyone else
> encountered problems with this card?

I looked on the CD that came with my Belkin NIC, and they say that for 
Linux I should use the Realtek driver - they enclose a  rtl8139.c  file and 
instructions, which I'll excerpt below (lots snipped).

But to answer you briefly, I've had two of those "Belkin F5D5000" NICs in 
my two PCs for a couple of years, worked fine under Windows. And now, the 
one in this computer seems to communicate fine under BL, with the rtl8139.o 
driver (?) which I downloaded from someplace.

Regards,

Sheldon Isaac

-----------

Belkin  F5D5000 Desktop Network PCI Card  Driver Installation for LINUX

A)   Some LINUX kernels had supported rtl8139 NIC. You can check whether
   rtl8139.o exists or not. If your LINUX (ex. RedHat 6.1 or above) can
   auto-detect rtl8139 NIC, you just skip the following installations and
   follow the screen's instructions to install rtl8139.o driver directly.

   1. Check the driver file "/lib/modules/2.0.XX/net/rtl8139.o".
      Where the XX is the version number of the latest kernel.

[some of these aren't true for BL?]
 
  2. Add "alias eth0 rtl8139" into the /etc/conf.modules file.

      cd /etc
      vi conf.modules
         alias eth0 rtl8139

   3. Run the following commands at the LINUX prompt.

      modprobe rtl8139

      ifconfig eth0 192.74.53.10

   4. Now, you can run 'ifconfig' or 'netstat -i' to see if there is a
      interface 'eth0'.


   Other Installation Method
   -------------------------

   Slackware:
     - Add "alias eth0 rtl8139" into the /etc/conf.modules file.
     - Run netconfig to configure IP.
     - Modify /etc/rc.d/rc.modules:
         Add one line: /sbin/modprobe rtl8139


B) Driver Installation by Using Compiled Driver
   ============================================
   Below are the instructions for installing linux driver. You must complie
   the source code to generate rtl8139.o and use "insmod" to insert 
rtl8139.o
   as module. You can use "netconfig" utilities to setup network parameters
   for the driver.

   Files Description:
   ------------------
   rtl8139.c  The adapter source code. You can download the newest version
              from http://www.scyld.com/network/rtl8139.html.
   trans      Compile batch file.
   linux.txt  This file.

   Installation:
   -------------
   1. Plug F5D5000 PCI Card into PC's PCI-bus slot.

   2. Boot into LINUX and keyin the following commands at the LINUX prompt.
      Remember, LINUX is case sensitive.

         mkdir /temp
         mcopy a:/linux/rtl8139.c /temp
               (Copied from LINUX directory of the driver diskette.)
               ("mcopy" is the mtools. If you don't have mtools, you can
                mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt and use cp command)
         mcopy a:/linux/trans /temp
         cd /temp
         chmod 777 trans

   3. Run trans file to complie and copy driver to linux source code:

         cd /temp
         ./trans

         (rtl8139.o will be generated and be copied to 
/usr/src/linux/modules.)

   4. Run netconfig (or netcfg) to set you network parameter (like ip, 
gateway).

      Slackware: Run "netconfig" to configure IP environment.
                 This will create '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1' and 'rc.inet2' 
files.

         netconfig

   5. Use editor vi to modify 'rc.inet1'(or 'rc') in the /etc/rc.d 
directory to
      insmod driver.  This file will be run at boot time. You just add a 
line
      at the beginning of 'rc.inet1'(or 'rc').

      Slackware:
         cd /etc/rc.d
         vi rc.inet1
            insmod /usr/src/linux/modules/rtl8139.o

   6. Reboot the LINUX.

         reboot    ( or shutdown -r now )

      When system boots, the driver will be loaded. Then the driver will
      scan I/O port to see if a card is there.
      (You can run 'dmesg' to see the boot message.)

   7. Run 'ifconfig' or 'netstat -i' to see if there is a interface 'eth0'.