Compiled 2.6.9 kernel - Intel PRO/100 VE Network Card won't work
 

Hello Fellow Linux users, :)

I recently did a minimal install (no KDE or Gnome yet) of Slackware 10 and I compiled a new kernel from 2.4.26 to 2.6.9 and my Intel PRO 100 VE network card won’t work! And when I try to go to a website in links it will not go to any websites! I tried using netwatch it says no eth0 to work on! I even compiled the Intel Pro/100+ driver and I also compiled PCI, ISA, ON BOARD, etc; network card support into the kernel and unfortunately I still can’t get online. :(

When I had the 2.4.26 kernel it worked great (I downloaded the 2.6.9 kernel with links). I have dhcpd, dhcp, inetd, links, pidented, ppp, and tcpip from the network series installed (basic networking components). I’m trying to switch from windows I been playing with Linux for about 6 months now and so far so good and these forums success stories and help from others inspired me to make the full switch.

(I tried Mandrake, Fedora, Suse, all major distributions) all my hardware worked but every time I install them it always installs too much crap! Even if I trim the fat! That why I am doing a scratch install of Linux (Just incase you’re wondering and I learning a lot so far! I just need that network card working!) That why I’m asking for help from you smart Linux users!

THAK YOU ALL! Help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

*EDIT - I FORGOT TO MENTION THE NETWORK CARD IS INTERGRATED INTO THE CHIPSET*

You may want to compile the driver as a separate module and see if that works. I had to do that with my VIA RHINE onboard LAN. Seems it won't initialize if it can't find the module to load, as even though we installed the new kernel, we are still using the original configuration. Also, you may want to boot the old kernel and see exactly which driver it is using (saw two for yours).

Hope this helps.

I did compile it as a module I went and double checked and made sure I compiled it as a module and how do I check which driver my old kernel was using because when I boot the text fly by so fast. :confused: and how do I go about using the old drivers my old kernel was using into my new kernel?

NOTE: when I choose it as a module under appered some kind of polling option I however did not choose it could that be my problem? :( I want to know just incase I have to compile my kernel again.

Here are some helpful hints in case you want to continue to try to hack the compilation you made...

use this command to help decipher what's going on:

dmesg | grep -i network

if you try to use insmod... what happens? you should get STDOUT replies, and some kind of error in dmesg.

** However, it is much easier to just recompile.

Here is an EXTREMELY helpful site:

http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/799

It tells you exactly how to upgrade from 2.4.x to 2.6.x

2.6 has made it very easy now to run through the tasks of "hacking" the kernel , ie, configure and tune your own kernel.

Thank you!!! :) I recompiled and loaded the RIGHT module but, it wasn't intel it was some kind of etherfast module. Well anyway I got on the internet again and it worked! thanks again!:)

Thank for pointing me to this website it is now bookmarked Thank you guys for all your help!