Topic: Supported NIC

[TC]

I wonder if e-smith support 3C509 ethernet card or not. Since I realized that RH 5.2 or RH 6.0 can support it. I just want to save money to buy a new ethernet card for e-smith.

By the way, e-smith is a good product that I am looking for, will definitely try it out and give you more feedback.

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello TC,

Officially we only support PCI network cards, so the 3C509 is not on our list. The 3C509 can be used with our software, but installation may require some fiddling. Unless you are very experienced with Linux, we would recommend buying a PCI network card instead. If cost is an important factor, you might consider a PCI-based NE2000 card - those are quite inexpensive.

Hope you enjoy the e-smith software!

[Gerald Jansen]

You will find the NICs supported on the e-smith web site.

[arthur]

OK, I've also got the problem because I've got tons of Etherlink III lying around. I wanted to use them, and I can tell you guys HOW I did it

So, first of all you should make sure that your cards don't have an IRQ problem (NO, don't use PNP!). If that's done, just install E-Smith like you would normally, but when you come to the screen where you can configure the machine, change to a normal shell and log in as root.

When you're logged in load up /sbin/e-smith/ethernet in your editor and make a few changes:

- in the first section "my %driver_desc" you add the Etherlink III with a line like this:
$driver_desc {'3c509'} = 3Com Etherlink III;
- in the section "my %chip_driver" add this:
$chip_driver {'3c509'} = '3c509';
- in the next section "my %adapter_driver" add this:
$adapter_driver {'3Com Etherlink III'} = '3c509';

Save & quit.

Now go back to console 1, and go into the configuration and use "3Com Etherlink III" just like you would use any other card.

So, i hope it works for all of you, it worked fine with me!

Greets to the guys fro E-smith, they've got a wonderfull product, and I'm curious what the next version will bring.

bibi,
arthur

[Kim Morrison]

Arthur,

Hey, thanks for the tip!  That's wonderful!

Kim

[tc]

Thanks arthur and Kim,

Your suggestion works prefectly on my setting !!!

I suggest e-smtih should include some old ISA NIC to meet the requirement
of some old machines and NIC in next version or patches,
if it just require to add few lines on the list.

[Kim Morrison]

TC

Thanks for the post.  We hesitate on ISA cards. Our main target population is people who don't know very much about Linux and supporting ISA NICs can require "fiddling".  

For example, the processing for auto-detecting ISA devices is inherently risky in that it can lock up the machine under certain circumstance.  Since we're trying to create as fool-proof experience as possible, we are concerned about that.

Therefore, we don't do anything to prevent people from using ISA cards but we hesitate to support them officially..

Regards,

Kim

[Jaco]

Thanks Arthur

I followed the suggestions -- and perfect first time!

Jaco

[Charlie Brady]

Arthur, your post is fine, just as long as the machine is a PCI machine in the first place. Without PCI, the installation doesn't complete correctly. I will be working with Joe and Kim to make sure that e-smith will work with ISA systems - won't need to change too much - I have it working on a 486 with NE2000 at home.

arthur wrote:
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OK, I've also got the problem because I've got tons of Etherlink III lying around. I wanted to use them, and I can tell you guys HOW I did it