Linux-Noob Forums

Hello guys, been awhile since I last visited. I've been a windows weenie until I got caught in a rut with the new server's I'm loading.

 

I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 that I installed RHEL 3 on, and it does not have the NIC driver loaded into the kernel. RHEL 3 ships with the 2.4.21 Kernel. I attempted to find suitable drivers from broadcom(It's a 10/100/1000 on-board NIC) but was unable to load them. Anyway I read that the 2.6 Kernel has compatible drivers for the Broadcom NIC, so I tried to re-compile the kernel.

 

Long story short, I printed the document here for the 2.6 kernel and got errors on make install.

 

Kernel: arch/i386/boot/bzimage is ready

depmod: Can't open /lib/modules/2.6.15/modules.dep for writing

/lib/modules/2.6.15 is not a directory

mkinitrd failed

 

There is no /lib/modules/2.6.15 only /lib/modules/2.4.21-4EL and 2.4.41-4ELsmp

 

Help? I need to get this NIC running so I can finish installing other software, I also have to add three other NIC cards to it later. It's an IDS box, so I hope I can find some widely accepted NIC cards with built-in driver support.

 

Thanks,

It's not that easy to switch from 2.4 to 2.6. Did you try using the drivers from your hardware vendor?

I had given up on getting the kernel compile working since I was told the box only needed 1 NIC with an IP and two sensors for snort, and since the box has three PCI NIC's I left it alone.

 

But I was unable to shake off not getting the on-board NIC working and took your advice. Here's what I did.

 

cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/

bunzip2 tg3-3.43b.tar.bz2

tar xvf tg3-3.43b.tar

cd tg3-3.43b

mv Makefile makefile

make

insmod tg3.o

make install

vi /etc/modules.conf (select tg3 module for eth1)

kudzu (set eth1 for DHCP)

ifup eth1

cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

vi ifcfg-eth1 (enabled up on boot)

shutdown -r now (to verify it come up on boot)

 

Worked!