Re: Can't activate network device (NIC)

From: cdstrand (cdstrand_at_cdstrand.com)
Date: 09/02/03 

Date: 1 Sep 2003 20:26:30 -0700

"bowmma" <msbowman@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:<RLN3b.15915$Cg2.1295462@news20.bellglobal.com>...

> I'm a Linux newbie and am trying to configure my Dell I4100 notebook (which
> is dualbooted for W2000 and RHL9) to connect Linux with my DSL provider,
> Sympatico. My NIC (3Com 3C905C-TX) is compatible with RHL9 but when I try
> to activate the device I get the error message "Determining IP info for eth0
> ....failed" after about a minute. The NIC wasn't accepted when I first
> installed RHL and delayed bootup while it diagnosed the interface. Is this
> a PnP issue?

Redhat states, as you say, on their web site this device is
"supported". That does not mean, evidently, that they have a driver
for it on the cd's, or, if they do, it will work with your network
card. That is not their problem. The type problem you describe is
well known to them as you can see by doing a search on "3Com
3c905c-tx" on their website as user after user has sought help for
this and, instead of simply getting together some drivers that work,
or telling the truth which is that 3com nic cards just don't work very
well with linux and ought to be avoided by the user without a detailed
technical education, they have, over the years, and have not, so far
as I have ever been able to find, provided even simple instructions
how to solve this problem.

As you may have noticed when your system was trying to load your nic
card, Redhat thoughtfully pointed you to:

http://www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html where you can begin your
education learning how to configure the source code for a driver,
compile it, and manually load it into your kernel. Good luck.

You, or anyone else, who uses Redhat's site to determine what hardware
to buy because Redhat "supports" it, is wasting their time, as the url
cited above makes abundantly clear without saying so in so many words.