Problems installing Via Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter.

adshocker · 04-30-2008, 08:24 AM

Hi all,

I'm new to linux and I installed it because I want to learn how to use it. I installed Red Hat Linux 4 Enterprise (I think) and everything was fine. No errors and such but when I got to the desktop I did not have my Internet Connection. I setup my PC to allow Dual Boot. One is Win2k and this one. In Win2k, I have the Via Rhine II Fast Ethernet drivers installed and working properly. But in the Linux, it doesn't seem to have it.

I'm following these instructions as they came from the readme of the driver.

Code:

    1) Create a temporary directory:
        mkdir /temp

    2) Change to the temporary directory:
        cd /temp

    3) Copy driver (rhinefet.tgz) from DOS disk, (mcopy below is one tool in
       mtools, if you didn't install mtools, you can type
       'mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt' and use 'cp /mnt/rhinefet.tgz /temp'
       command to copy the driver to the temporary directory):
        mcopy a:rhinefet.tgz .

    4) untar the archive file:
        tar xzvf rhinefet.tgz
        cd rhinefet

    5) Compile the driver source files and it will generate rhinefet.o, and
       copy it to correct driver installation path (The installation directory
       is different in different kernel versions. In 2.4.x/2.6.x kernel, the path
       is /lib/modules/KERNEL_VERSION/kernel/drivers/net/, and in 2.2.x kernel,
       the path is /lib/modules/KERNEL_VERSION/net/, the KERNEL_VERSION (see
       above) means the kernel version of your Linux distribution. If you don't
       know your kernel version , please run 'uname -r' command in command
       line. The kernel version will look like '2.2.16', '2.4.2-2smp' etc.) :
        make install

    6) Check configuration file (/etc/modules.conf or /etc/conf.modules or 
       /etc/modprobe.conf, it depends on your Linux distribution) for loading 
       kernel modules. Make sure the first line below is appeared in the 
       configuration file, where # is the interface number (eg: alias eth0 
       rhinefet). If you need to set the driver options, below second line is 
       an example to set the NIC to 100Mbps fullduplex mode (remember to unmark 
       the line if it is put in the configuration file).
        alias eth# rhinefet
        #options eth# speed_duplex=2

    7) Reboot now:
        shutdown -r now

    8) Install your driver module (If the driver module is in the wrong place,
       an error message will appear, and say that can't find the driver
       module):
        insmod rhinefet.o

    9) Use ifconfig command to assign the IP address, where # is network
       interface number:
        ifconfig eth# <IP>

    10) Check the interface works:
         ping <remote_host_IP>

I managed to follow steps 1 to 3 since I'm using the GUI in Linux, I just copied and pasted the rhinefet.tgz in the folder I created \temp. Then I opened a Terminal window and executed tar xzvf rhinefet.tgz. Unfortunately the step after that, "cd rhinefet", is not applicable since I don't have that folder. I'm also having problems with step 4 since I don't know what it meant by "Compile the driver source files and it will generate rhinefet.o". I tried several commands like cc -c (filenames), cc (filenames) but I get compilation errors.

I've been trying to get this to work for 3 days now and I'd really appreciate any help?

Thanks.

b0uncer · 04-30-2008, 08:35 AM

You can use the graphical tools to extract the archive too, just right-click it and select the "Extract here" option or similar. That ought to extract the rhinefet directory, in which you do the compilation. After extracting open terminal and use

Code:

cd /temp/rhinefet

to get in.

To compile you need to have compilation tools; at least gcc (Gnu Compiler Collection), binutils and make are something you want to have - use your package manager to install them if needed. When you have the tools, see if there's a Makefile (or makefile with lowercase m or even MAKEFILE in uppercase) file inside the directory. If there's a separate INSTALL file, read that for instructions - if not, try the usual method:

1) Run a configure script, if available, to set up the source

Code:

./configure

2) If (and only if) it succeeded (it not - fix errors, re-try), compile the code using 'make' utility if it's available and there's a Makefile to instruct what to do

Code:

make

Another possibility is that there is no Makefile in which case you need to use gcc (sometimes cc is linked to that) to compile the code.

Code:

man gcc

has more information.

After that you can use graphical interface to copy the created file to the location you were told, but that probably requires root privileges so you might get it done easier by using command line; either using 'su' command to become root or running the command with 'sudo' if configured.

adshocker · 04-30-2008, 10:51 AM

Thanks.

Upon extracting, I found a list of files available.

Code:

    linux.txt               This file.
    Makefile                Makefile for generating driver object file
    rhinefet.c              The linux core driver source code file
    rhine_proc.c            The source to create proc entries
    rhine_wol.c             The WOL supporting source file
    rhine.h                 The extended driver header file
    rhine_proc.h            The header file for proc entries
    rhine_wol.h             The WOL supporting header file
    rhine_cfg.h             The general and basic info header file
    kcompat.h               The header file for Linux kernel version
                            compatibility.

Now, when it said "Compile the driver source files and it will generate rhinefet.o", how do I do this? Do I need to compile all these files all together and then it will give a rhinefet.o file?

adshocker · 05-01-2008, 01:49 AM

Just realized that the readme files contains a filename "rhinefet.c" when infact after unzipping the rhinefet.tgz, it doesn't have that file on it.

Also found this link that contains the exact instructio that I am following.

Also, it said on the instruction that only x86 and AMD64 based CPU are supported. So if I'm using Pentium 4, then does it necessarily means I won't be able to use it?

Thanks.