Re: Right List? First install.
I believe that you remember incorrectly. The NE2000 drivers (ISA and PCI) are not built into the installation kernel, but must be loaded as modules during the Configure Device Driver Modules step. Opps! It's been a while. Thanks for catching that. Finally, a few cards that claim to be NE2000 compatible aren't really; I seem to recall encountering both Lance and RTL8139 cards that claimed on the packaging to be NE2000-compatible; if all else fails, can you read the chip names off of any VLSI chips on your network card? Unfortunately, they are sometimes covered with black texta or Certified by Novell stickers. Yep. Bought one of these cards. NetSurf GFC2206, I think. I peeled back the Novell sticker to find a RTL8139 chip. All this after bugging the Tulip Card mailing list for a week. Felt damn stupid after Donald Becker answered several of my messages, only to find I was barking up the wrong tree. Bryan
Re: Right List? First install.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said... Further on down you're wondering if this is the correct mailing list for your questions; this is, in fact, the best place for you to answer your questions. Hello all: I'm installing Debian 2.1.something on a P60 using floppies (against all the warnings in the installation manual http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/install. I've gotten through the hard drive boot and am in, what I believe to be deselect. I'm being asked for the Main Packages. You're in for what is easily a week-long project, due to the sheer number number of packages to install, as well as little things like floppies going bad and what not. I've gone to ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages because I can't connect to the US site and downloaded Packages.gz Packages.deb, but dot.deb is 1.6mb and my floppy is 1.44. The FAQ refers me to the tools directory for dpkg-split (which doesn't exist) with a description that says it'll only run on Linux systems. How can I make the Main Package fit on a floppy... That's a really good question - I've either installed straight off the CD, or over the network (if the thing doesn't have a CD drive, my recommended way of doing things). Why is he trying to load it from a floppy?, you may ask. Because on the initial install, I couldn't get it to see my NE2000 compatible cheap clone card - the subject of my next submission if this is the correct list to be asking such newbie-plebe questions. Like I said before - this is the perfect forum for your NE2000 installation problem. What was the specific error message it gave you when trying to load the driver? There are some things about the card you need to know in order to get it to work: * PCI or ISA? * Which driver (PCI cards and ISA cards use different drivers) * If it's an ISA card, what are the jumper settings? (ie IRQ? IO port?) * If it's a PCI card, all you need to do is specify the ne2k-pci driver, and, through the wonders of Plug-n-Pray, the IO port and IRQ settings will be autodetected. * If it's an ISA-PnP card, you're in for quite an adventure :) you may need help getting a custom boot-disk going so that a program called isapnp can configure the card before loading the driver for the card. -- -- Phil Brutsche [EMAIL PROTECTED] There are two things that are infinite; Human stupidity and the universe. And I'm not sure about the universe. - Albert Einstein
Re: Right List? First install.
OK, If you are trying to install via floppies, you obviously have the boot and root disks, and the base system disks (five of them, I think). There are no floppies for the Main Packages. Let me explain: Debian uses packages for programs, libraries, etc. One (usually) package for each. Now, there should be enough essential system stuff on the base system floppies to get a Semi-functional Debian system installed on a hard disk. I say semi-functional because it can do little more than install the rest of your debian system. More on this later. There is no Main Package. What debian is asking for are the Main PackageS (plural). In other words, it wants to know where the rest of the packages are located, since it is about to bring you to a menu that will let you pick and choose which packages to install. There are no floppies for this. Why? Because these packages take up the majority of two CDs! Thats quite a few floppies. Really, a Floppy Install is kind of a misnomer. Floppies will only get you so far, and you've just gone past where you can go with just floppies. So you have 2 options: 1) Net install (using ftp, http, nfs mounted drive, etc.) 2) CD install (get a $2.00 CD at www.cheapbytes.com Now, let's assume you want to do the net install. We'll need to get that card working. What can you tell us about it? I have a cheap ne2000 clone as well. Is it ISA-PNP, or just ISA? or PCI? Here's what I did with mine... 1) Since the card was ISA-PNP, I needed to find out the ioport and irq of the card. Since I had windows on the machine, I went into the system settings and discovered it was at IO=0x300, IRQ=10. 2) From the manual: Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 For Intel x86 (the document I believe you've been using), Section 6.1 shows that you are presented with a boot: prompt. i had to enter (I believe): linux ether=10,0x300,eth0 Replace 10 with your IRQ, 0x300 with your IO address (but don't forget the 0x (zero-x) in front). Leave the eth0. This tells the kernel it should find an ethernet card at IO address 0x300, IRQ 10, and that it should be designated as the first card (eth0, eth1, eth2, etc.) 3) From then on, You should follow the installation manual for network installs. Let us (the list) know how this works. If it doesn't, post any details you can about your network card. ne2000's are fairly well supported under linux. Bryan Hello all: I'm installing Debian 2.1.something on a P60 using floppies (against all the warnings in the installation manual http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/install http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/install ). I've gotten through the hard drive boot and am in, what I believe to be deselect. I'm being asked for the Main Packages. I've gone to ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/Packages because I can't connect to the US site and downloaded Packages.gz Packages.deb, but dot.deb is 1.6mb and my floppy is 1.44. The FAQ refers me to the tools directory for dpkg-split (which doesn't exist) with a description that says it'll only run on Linux systems. How can I make the Main Package fit on a floppy... Why is he trying to load it from a floppy?, you may ask. Because on the initial install, I couldn't get it to see my NE2000 compatible cheap clone card - the subject of my next submission if this is the correct list to be asking such newbie-plebe questions. Thanks much. Jack -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] /dev/null
Re: Right List? First install.
On Wed, Nov 17, 1999 at 03:04:16PM -0500, Bryan Scaringe wrote OK, If you are trying to install via floppies, you obviously have the boot and root disks, and the base system disks (five of them, I think). There are no floppies for the Main Packages. Let me explain: Debian uses packages for programs, libraries, etc. One (usually) package for each. Now, there should be enough essential system stuff on the base system floppies to get a Semi-functional Debian system installed on a hard disk. I say semi-functional because it can do little more than install the rest of your debian system. More on this later. There is no Main Package. What debian is asking for are the Main PackageS (plural). In other words, it wants to know where the rest of the packages are located, since it is about to bring you to a menu that will let you pick and choose which packages to install. There are no floppies for this. Why? Because these packages take up the majority of two CDs! Thats quite a few floppies. Really, a Floppy Install is kind of a misnomer. Floppies will only get you so far, and you've just gone past where you can go with just floppies. So you have 2 options: 1) Net install (using ftp, http, nfs mounted drive, etc.) 2) CD install (get a $2.00 CD at www.cheapbytes.com Now, let's assume you want to do the net install. We'll need to get that card working. What can you tell us about it? I have a cheap ne2000 clone as well. Is it ISA-PNP, or just ISA? or PCI? Here's what I did with mine... 1) Since the card was ISA-PNP, I needed to find out the ioport and irq of the card. Since I had windows on the machine, I went into the system settings and discovered it was at IO=0x300, IRQ=10. 2) From the manual: Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 For Intel x86 (the document I believe you've been using), Section 6.1 shows that you are presented with a boot: prompt. i had to enter (I believe): linux ether=10,0x300,eth0 Replace 10 with your IRQ, 0x300 with your IO address (but don't forget the 0x (zero-x) in front). Leave the eth0. This tells the kernel it should find an ethernet card at IO address 0x300, IRQ 10, and that it should be designated as the first card (eth0, eth1, eth2, etc.) I believe that you remember incorrectly. The NE2000 drivers (ISA and PCI) are not built into the installation kernel, but must be loaded as modules during the Configure Device Driver Modules step. For NE2000 PCI cards, you should just have to select the ne2k-pci driver from the list of Networking Modules; no parameters should be required. For NE2000 ISA cards, and NE2000 PCI cards the the ne2k-pci driver can't detect, you should select the ne driver and provide as options: io=0x300,irq=10 substituting the card's actual base IO address and IRQ (the IRQ is probably not required, but if you know it you should supply it). Finally, a few cards that claim to be NE2000 compatible aren't really; I seem to recall encountering both Lance and RTL8139 cards that claimed on the packaging to be NE2000-compatible; if all else fails, can you read the chip names off of any VLSI chips on your network card? Unfortunately, they are sometimes covered with black texta or Certified by Novell stickers. You really do want to get the network card going to make the installation tolerable; if God, or whoever is in charge of hardware on your Net, gave you a NIC it would be foolish not to use it if you possibly can. John P. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything. - Bill Gates in Denmark
