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ISA Network Cards

If you decide to use ISA network cards, you may be in for a world of hurting. You may end up setting jumpers, disabling plug-n-play, setting IRQs, or downloading DOS configuration tools from a vendor's website. These cards may take more effort to configure, but many are just as capable of doing the job!

The following is courtesy of Paul Ramsey's Red Hat Linux 6.X as an Internet Gateway for a Home Network.

Configuring a Network Driver

OK, so one or both of your cards are not recognized by the kernel. This is not a problem, really. What we're going to have to do is tell the kernel more explicitly how to find your cards. There are lots of twists and turns here, and I'm not going to cover all of them. Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough turn to the Ethernet HOWTO. Here's some summary advice:

• You have a PCI network card. You are probably sitting pretty, assuming it is not so new and cutting edge that no drivers exist. You can often find out a great deal about your network cards (and other things) by reading through /proc/pci and noting down makes and models.
• You have an ISA network card. It is possible you will have to know the IO base address and the IRQ the card is operating on. You have manuals, right? Right? If not, this would be a good time to surf to the manufacturer's web site and see if they have any online references. Or if you have an old DOS configuration diskette, boot to DOS and see if there is a setup program which will read and set the address and IRQ.
• You have an ISA Plug'n'Play card. You'll have to learn how to configure it first -- read the Plug'n'Play HOWTO. Fortunately, once you've configured your card you will know exactly what the IO base and IRQ are.

Now, since you know what the make and model of eth0 and eth1 are you can go to the compatibility page of the Ethernet HOWTO and look up your card. Take note of the recommended driver, and any information about special options your card may require. Write it down.

It's time to edit a configuration file! The file we will be editing is /etc/conf.modules (or modules.conf). Open this file up in the text editor of your choice. Because there are so many possibilities and combinations of things which can go in this file, I'm going to give my own gateway as an example. I have a PCI 10/100Mb card based on the VIA Rhine chip, and a plain-jane 10Mb NE2000 ISA clone. I use the 100Mb card for the internal network and the 10Mb card for the external connection. My /etc/conf.modules (modules.conf) file looks like this:

    alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
    alias eth0 ne
    options ne io=0x300 irq=10
    alias eth1 via-rhine 

My conf.modules (modules.conf) file is laid out as follows:

• The first line is there to configure my parallel port for printing. You probably have a similar line. Leave it alone.
• The second line (alias eth0 ne) tells the kernel to use the ne driver for the eth0 device.
• The third line (options ne io=0x300 irq=10) tells the ne driver at which io address and irq interrupt it will find the ISA card at. If you have ISA cards you will probably have to use this kind of directive, just replace the driver, io and irq directives with the correct information for your card.
• The fourth line (alias eth1 via-rhine) tells the kernel to use the via-rhine driver for eth1. Because my eth1 card is a PCI card, I do not need to provide io or irq information: the PCI subsystem configures the device automatically.

You will want to ensure that you have alias entries in conf.modules (modules.conf) for both your cards, and correct options lines for all your ISA cards. You may already have lines in conf.modules (modules.conf) for any ethernet cards you configured during installation.

When you have finished editing conf.modules (modules.conf), try ifconfig eth0 and ifconfig eth1 again. You may have to apply some trial and error if you are messing with IO addresses and IRQs without a manufacturers manual.

Two Identical Network Cards

So, you were really really smart, bought two identical network cards for your Linux gateway, and now you cannot get them to work together? Do not worry, getting them to coexist is just a matter of using the correct syntax in /etc/conf.modules (modules.conf). For this example, the addresses and IRQ numbers are made up, and I will assume that you have bought a matched pair of NE2000 clones (a common choice). Your /etc/conf.modules (modules.conf) file should look like this:

    alias eth0 ne
    alias eth1 ne
    options ne io=0x330,0x360 irq=7,9

The addressing options are all given on the same line, and the first number for each addressing type is for eth0, the second number for eth1.

If you have old network cards, you can configure the drivers and settings (IRQs and IO).

	Warning!

Gotcha! You may only need to specify an IO or IRQ ... but not '''both'''.

Copyright © 2000, Paul Ramsey.

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