Debian versus a stubborn ASUS mobo with a new network chip

[Hannibal]

Right. I got my new PC. Unfortunately, MS is being an ... and isn't shipping registration codes to my student association, which means I don't have a registration code for windows xp and can't install that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing as I wanted to dual boot anyway, I decided to try and install debian on it for the time being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being the lazy person I am who wants everything done quickly without too much trouble, I downloaded the network install cd image, burned it, booted it. Everything worked perfectly fine, until I arrived at the point where it would normally detect a network card (note that I've never installed Linux before, it just said it'd look for one).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where the fun started: it couldn't find a network card. After some googling, I found out that my motherboard (ASUS P5AD2-E Premium) uses some kind of exotic chipset (Marvell) for its dual GB Lan and its wifi-g lan. There were no drivers for that chipset on the install cd. Now, since it can't use my network card, I have no way of installing more packages without burning them to a cd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently I need a rather new version of the drivers since I'm running the 2.6.x kernel. By now debian is installed with a bare minimum in packages. Unfortunately that doesn't include GCC, so I can't compile the source for the drivers (I haven't been able to find any pre-compiled packages).

 

 

 

The drivers' install instructions say I need a compiler and the kernel source, and will have to recompile the kernel. Fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, basically this is a puzzle: the only option I see is getting cd 1 of the normal cd install, reinstall debian with gcc (which is on the first cd), downloading a kernel source package on my old pc, burn that to a cd, and then following the instructions to recompile the kernel. If anyone can figure out a better solution, I'd be very grateful - this is not my idea of fun ;).

[Chris]

Or you could just buy an old 10Mb 3Com network card, just about any OS under the sun has drivers for it. This would allow you to get on and download drivers for your new motherboard. If you have a seperate network card in your old cacky P2, use that. :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unless you're not up to the challenge of inserting a PCI Card... DUM DUM DUUUUUUM *more dramatic music* :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I haven't a clue how Debian works, so if it's not like I think it is I cannot be held repsonsible for wasting 15 mins of your time.

[Hannibal]

Or you could just buy an old 10Mb 3Com network card, just about any OS under the sun has drivers for it. This would allow you to get on and download drivers for your new motherboard. If you have a seperate network card in your old cacky P2, use that. :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unless you're not up to the challenge of inserting a PCI Card... DUM DUM DUUUUUUM *more dramatic music* :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I haven't a clue how Debian works, so if it's not like I think it is I cannot be held repsonsible for wasting 15 mins of your time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heh, I did consider that. My old p2 has a network card, problem being, I have a warranty on this pc. And I'd prefer not to void it (though I was assured that I was allowed to open the case, add memory and whatnot). I guess I can call them, because you're correct that it would save me a hell of a lot of time. Weird thing being that I'd be installing a cheap 10/100mbit network card in a pc which has dual gigabit lan (I'm still wondering what I would need that for, but it was on the mobo so you don't hear me complaining).

 

 

 

I'm also struggling with the fact that right now it doesn't have a window manager installed (eg. KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox or associates). Which means I have to go console-diehard to do anything on it. Which means I spent 90% of my time reading man pages on how to get stuff to work. I know the basics (listing directory contents, moving between directories, working with and reading files...), but it gets fun if you have to mount stuff, decompress (and then find out there's no package installed that can do bzip2, so you have to decompress on another pc and then put the floppy in... etc. etc.), or even shutdown the computer! :lol:

 

 

 

I knew 'exit' logged me out of the terminal, and 'reboot' or Ctrl+Alt+Del rebooted the computer... but that wasn't what I wanted. So I ended up hitting the button - bad idea of course. Linux did well under it, but the first thing I did this morning was look up how the hell I'm supposed to tell linux 'shutdown'. For any other newbies like me: 'halt' is what you're looking for :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I might as well give the network card thing a try. Unless I can't put the pci slot covers on the case back, because that'd mean I'd have an opening there after I take it out again :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, recompiling a kernel sounds like a good exercise :lol: