<excerpt> This question boils down to asking how to force a kernel module to load on startup in the style of 'instmod -f'. I include the rationale for it, in case I am approaching this the wrong way </excerpt>
My PCI network card is an unusual model from the company SMC. I am trying to get it to work with Debian, but this is my first Debian installation. I am running Debian 3.0r1 (woody) (2.2.20-idepci kernel) The NIC comes with Linux drivers. For kernel version 2.2.* it comes as a tulip.c file, which I managed to compile into tulip.o I have copied tulip.o into /lib/modules/.../net/tulip.o The directions on the driver readme say I should then use the command # instmod tulip But I get an error saying that tulip.o was compiled for kernel 2.2.20, and I am running kernel 2.2.20-idepci. Which is true, but I can't find the kernel sources for 2.2.20-idepci. I am guessing as far as the network driver is concerned, these two versions might be 'compatible'. So, I tried # instmod -f tulip and it worked! (Am I totally reckless to use instmod -f ?) Anyway, this is just a test installation. So now I want to load tulip.o on startup. I've added it into the /etc/modules file, with the -f flag after the name on the same line, but it fails to load. I can see what looks like an error message from instmod flash past the screen on bootup. Could someone point me in the right place to see what the error message is? I've tried looking in /var/log/messages and I've tried calling dmesg, but no sign of that error message (its quite distinctive-looking). Thanks for your attention. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]