[Preston] A new hope for Debian wannabees?

[John]

Hi All,

I am struggling on with Debian but I have not been able to get my NIC
working. It is a Netgear (Realtek) which uses the rtl8139 driver but this
does not seem to appear anywhere in Debian 3.0's list of driver files. It
seems to want to use natsemi.o for some reason??!!?? I have set up the usual
pasms in /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf and configured this machine to have an
IP od 192.168.1.50 and a gateway of 192.168.1.100 (my ipcop firewall machine
which connects to the internet via an external mode). However, any attempts
to ping 192.168.1.100 results in "destination unreachable" messages. When I
do an lsmod, I can see natsemi is loaded (but unused by anything). I do have
a rtl8139.c file on a cdrom which came with the NIC, but I can't seem to get
it to compile (admittedly the instructions are for redhat). It comes back
with an error telling me to compile it with the -O option. I have tried this
(although the README.TXT says to use -O6) but to no avail... If anybody out
there has got Debian experience and can help me to get my Debian PC to talk
to my lan via a RealTek 8139 NIC it would be really appreciated...

Thanks

John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew T. Atkinson" <tylee@ukgateway.net>
To: <preston@mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Preston] A new hope for Debian wannabees?


> 'ello,
>
> Thanks for the info on how Debian works.  I find it amazing that you can
> upgrade the whole system so cleanly without even a restart.  But then
again,
> the computer should be able to do such things.  I think years of getting
> used to M$' excuses has gotten to me, LOL.
>
> Anyway, enough of that.  I really do like the idea of Debian now.  As I
get
> more "into" Linux I become less afraid of that installer.  I have read (on
> Debian's site) that Sarge will be a better installer so I may wait for
that.
> The only problem is that because I need Gnopernicus (screen
> reader/magnifier) I *need* the latest libraries.  Maybe I will have to
> simply settle with something like Slackware that is up-to-date and reputed
> to be stable too.
>
> I won't be trying Sid now; of course it really wouldn't be a fair test of
> Debian.
>
> bye just now,
>
>
> matthew
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Guy" <guy@remember-tomorrow.co.uk>
> To: <preston@mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 10:45 AM
> Subject: Re: [Preston] A new hope for Debian wannabees?
>
>
> > On Tuesday 19 November 2002 3:15 pm, you wrote:
> > > Hi there,
> > >
> > > Thanks for your message.  I may well try that when I have time as I
> really
> > > would like to use Debian.  I just found this graphical installer
> > > http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi/ and was wondering about using that as
it
> is
> > > more official than the Knoppix one.
> > >
> >
> > I have used the progeny installer (I used to run progeny). Its OK but I
> would
> > give the default text installer a try first - its not that scary.
> >
> > > Also, I was wondering is there any way to install sid from scratch
(i.e.
> > > without going through woody/knoppix first)?  I really need GNOME2 (as
> when
> > > Gnopernicus comes out I'll have to use it) and the latest version of
> > > Evolution, and various libraries would be nice too.
> >
> > Whoa! Bad idea! I think you are jumping the gun a bit here! The Debian
Sid
> > distribution is the least stable (ie unstable ) version  - it is
designed
> for
> > developers. Woody is the current stable version and the testing version
is
> > called Sarge. If you are not used to Debian and the idea of text based
> > installer puts the zap on your head DO NOT attempt to install Sid!!!!
> >
> > The point about Debian is that the stable distribution is very stable -
> cast
> > iron: tried and tested, bug fixed, tried again then released. I have
used
> > Debian for more than a year and a half and it has never hung-up or
> crashed.
> > BUT the price you pay for this stability is lack of cutting edge
software.
> If
> > you want more cutting edge software try the testing version (sarge) but
> there
> > is no way to install it from scratch: you will have to install woody and
> > upgrade to it. You see it is not a distribution as such - it is fluid
and
> > changes all the time. Eventually the developers 'freeze' the testing
> version,
> > more testing is done and finally it becomes a stable release and
replaces
> the
> > existing stable version.
> >
> > Regards,
> > --
> > Guy
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Preston mailing list
> > Preston@mailman.lug.org.uk
> > http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/preston
> >
>
>
>
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