I am using mandrake le2005, when the computer boots up it sits there for awhile trying to bring up eth0 but there is nothing connected to it, since I am using the wireless card. How can I disable this device permantly so that when the computer boots up it doesnt sit there trying to bring up the network on that device. I am a newb to linux and I do not know my way around it very well. I am learning my around KDE though, I have went through the getting started guide and have learned quite a bit about how to use it. It seems like so much to go through to learn linux but I am really liking it so far. I think my favorite thing so far is being able to make a window stay above all the others

Modify /etc/modules.conf (configuration file for loading kernel modules) using text editor such as vi. Look for entry eth0 and comment it out (with # Symbol at the beginning of line).

OK I went to /etc/module.conf and this file was blank. So what do I do now?

speaking for debian: look in /etc/network/interfaces, there you will find something like
or something along that line
remove (or comment out) the first line, to read
for mandrake: i have no idea where that file is located, a guess would be /etc/sys/net or something like that
you could grep for 'auto eth0' or or read some man pages or something like that...

Try to locate /etc/modprobe.conf if you are using kernel 2.6.xx and look for line
alias eth0 YYYYYZZ

Note YYYYYZZ is your network card driver name and comment out line. If this not works then try following command in etc dir to find out file:

1) Login as root
2) cd /etc
3) grep -r "alias eth0" *

Above command will print the file name; then just open file and change it.

Here is what my modprobe file shows:

# This file is autogenerated from /etc/modules.conf using generate-modprobe.conf command

alias eth0 natsemi
alias sound-slot-0 snd-ali5451
remove snd-ali5451 /sbin/modprobe -r snd-pcm-oss; /sbin/modprobe --first-time -r --ignore-remove snd-ali5451
install snd-ali5451 /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install snd-ali5451 && { /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss; /bin/true; }
install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe uhci-hcd; /sbin/modprobe ehci-hcd; /bin/true
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

Now if I try to comment out alias eth0 natsemi it will not let me save it since I do not have permissions. Isn't there a way that I can log in as root while using the gui like you can do while you are using the console?

open the file:
"/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0"
and change the line:
"ONBOOT=yes"
to:
"ONBOOT=no"

Perform the following:

su
<enter root password>
vi /etc/modules.conf
<press "Insert" key>
<edit the file>
<press "Esc" key>
<type: ":wq!">

That should do it.

Well under the ancient version of Mandrake/Mandriva I use just run DrakConf and change eth0 to not start up on boot. That should solve that problem since the pause is there while the system tries to initialize the eth0 module.