ne2000 with redhat 6.1 on 486

I have a standard Ne2000 NIC too, and it works fine. You have to use the ne2000 kernel module and know the IRQ and I/O address of your NIC. The I/O address is often 0x300 and the IRQ is often 10 with standard ne2000 NIC.

Goto X and run linuxconf from a console. I used it to setup my NIC at home and afther playing with the IO and IRQ a while it worked.

I'm not an expert on Linux, so if I got it running, you'll get it running too.

Regards,

Paul

I'm not exactly sure if the kernel module was named "ne2000" or just "ne". You'll have to try this too. By the way, linuxconf uses a dropdown list with kernel module names, so that should make it somewhat easier...

Just try running (as root):

 modprobe ne io=0x300 irq=10

 or

 modprobe ne2000 io=0x300 irq=10

 You could try testing other IO and IRQ values, or consulting the manual or even running the DOS utility that most NE2000 compatible nics come with to check for these values or even changing them. Keeping them as 0x300 / 10 is always a good idea, by the way.

 Just a comment: I don't recommend running RedHat on 486s at all (or any other machine for performance's sake)

 Take care!

Just curious, why is Redhat slower? It uses the same kernal as other distributions. And is it still slower if you stop all deamons you don't use (like sendmail, linuxconf etc. etc.)?

well for some reason it just doesn't wanna work. when I try to do network restart or just boot up the machine it tries to bring up eth0 and then it gives a FAIL message.
I tried to change the IO port and the IRQ as well.
what could it be???

gschetrit,


Enter your computer BIOS and set Plug and Play OS to disabled...I couldn't get my NIC up and running too, but after setting Plug and play OS to disabled in my BIOS, it worked.


Regards,

Paul

try recompiling your kernel with support for ne2000 ethernet cards. also try setting it up as an ne card with io=0x300 irq=5 or io=0x320 irq=7

The BIOS Setup tip is very valid. Recompiling your kernel is not necessary, though. There's no need to recompile if you've got the modules already. Try setting your BIOS to "Non-PNP OS".

 Best Regards...

I am beginning to think that either you don't have the modules or you are using the wrong modules
My box couldn't recognise my ne 2000 so I tried it on a windows machine to see what it is seen as and I realised it was actually seen as a realtek III
and when it boot it says pci ne2000 clone "realtek III"

Realtek III is the chip used on the NIC. Most of those carts can either function in PNP modus or in ne2000 modus. Be sure it's functioning in ne2000 modus!! There came a floppy disk with the NIC with a programma called ezcfg or pnpcfg or something like that. Use it to check the configuration of the NIC. Set it in ne2000 modus and check the I/O and IRQ of the cart...

oops, programma = program and cart = card. I'm Dutch so it isn't always easy to be 100% correct :-)

tnx,
btw, what is that 8390 thing???