Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Wed, 31 May 2006, elmarsa dice wrote:

> Steve and Sindi,
> Thanks for the reply.  I finally found the 8139too.o file on the
> knoppix disk and was successful in copying both the rtl8139.c and
> 8139too.o files to the lib/modules/2.2.16/misc directory.  I then did
> the insmod on with both.  The insmod on 8139too.o returned 29 lines
> of unresolved symbols.

BL3.40 uses kernel 2.2.26 and modules for kernel 2.2.26.
The older versions of BL used 2.2.16 - BL2.1 and BL3.32.  You cannot use 
modules from the wrong kernel, it won't work.
I don't know what kernel knoppix uses, but probably not 2.2.26.

Use 2.2.26 modules with BL3.40 (unless you have changed to a different 
kernel, in which case use modules for THAT kernel).

If you put the 2.2.26 modules into /lib/modules/2.2.26/misc then you can 
insmod them as 'insmod rtl8139' or 'insmod rtl8139.o'  (I think you can 
even put rtl8139.o.gz in the right place and use it).  If you put the 
modules in some place else, you will have to insmod rtl8139.o - this is 
handy if you simply want to try out some module from a floppy disk or some 
other place first.

> The rtl8139.c file returned the following:  (By the way I had to do
> the insmod from the /lib/modules/2.2.16/misc directory because if I
> did it from the root prompt it came back "file rtl8139.c.o could not
> be found". It obviously looks for a .o file to do its thing.)

It looks for something of the same name that you gave it, with an .o after 
the name.  So if you insmod rtl8139 it looks for rtl8139.  If you tell it 
to insmod rtl8139.c it looks for rtl8139.c.o.

The ending .c means it is source code written in the C language, to be 
compiled with a C compiler such as linux gcc or egcs.   The compiler 
creates a new file ending in .o, which is a module.  The module can be 
inserted with insmod, or compiled as part of the kernel.  Steven's kernel 
does not have ethernet included but it has support for ethernet modules.

So you need the module rtl8139.o compiled for kernel 2.2.26, from Steven's 
site.  NOT the source code rtl8139.c, or a module for some other kernel 
(such as the kernel used by knoppix).  DOS is much simpler, linux makes 
you match things more closely.

> Here is the return:
> Using rtl8139.c
> insmod: not an ELF file (maybe BL3 is not configured for high speed)
> insmod: could not load the module: Success

The 'Success' does not seem to mean much, I get it when things fail.
An ELF file is something that has already been compiled.  You are trying 
to use source code.  Source code is text, compiled source code is 
'binary', meaning extended ASCII code (over code number 127).
If you look at the rtl8139.c and rtl8139.o you will see the difference.

> I don't know what the "Success" means but the browser wouldn't open
> when I clicked on internet.  It just came back "host not found".

Host not found means that you did not establish a connection with the 
internet, because you did not load the ethernet module successfully.

Try getting the correct module and insmod rtl8139 (after putting it into
/lib/modules/2.2.26/misc in BL3.40).  Then you will need to connect to 
your ADSL router (udhcpc, says Steven) and then use the browser.

> That's where I am now, will let it rest for a while and try again.
> Maybe I need to configure the browser but I haven't figured that out
> yet.

> http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/add-ons/2_2_26/modules/net/rtl8139.o

> > Or follow the link from the home page for BL3.40, for additional
> > kernels
> > and modules, modules, net.
> >
> > > and downloaded the linux driver from the dlink site but so far
> > have
> > > not been able to copy it to the basiclinux harddrive.  It's also
> > in
> > > txt format with a .c extention.  I don't know if that will work.

The 'driver' is actually source code from which to compile the kernel 
module.  It needs to be translated to the module first.

> > This is the source code and it would need to be compiled before
> > use.

Sindi