install: kernel config: NIC ?

[Peter Risdon]

lee slaughter wrote:

> I'm trying to do a methodical install (for once).  4.9 from a mini CD.
> 1st thing, when we get to kernel config  menu, visual mode,
> no network devices show up active.  In the inactive drivers section
> i see a little list of only six.
>
> question 1:  this is hardly a comprehensive list, is it?
> there's no explanation in the handbook why it is so short.


I haven't seen this documented either, but reckon these are just the 
drivers that might need to have resources set explicitly to avoid 
conflicts. Since that means they're all ISA cards, you can generally 
just delete them all to remove all conflicts. But see below:

>
> needless to say, my NIC is not included
> (as i suppose are many others not included)
>
> in hardware notes, i see my device, a 3c905B, requires xl(4) driver.
> the closest of the six i can choose from is a line that says:
> NE1000, NE2000,3C503,WE/SMC80xx Ethernet adapters
>
> 3C503 requires ed(4) driver

Some NE2000-compatible PCI cards need this ed(4) driver.

>
> question 2:  what do i do now?

Just carry on. The drivers for PCI-only cards (like yours) don't need to 
be listed here because resources conflicts don't occur as they used to 
with mis-configured ISA setups. This section isn't listing _all_ 
available drivers, just those (for ISA cards) that might have conflicts 
and/or need arguments to match resource (irq, base address) settings.

If I'm wrong in my deduction here, please correct me, someone.

PWR.