Getting my network card to work in Linux (solved)
 

I installed Mandrake 9.2 the other night. I have to say that it was quite easy. All in all, it was a pleasurable departure from windows. Now the headaches are starting, however. I simply cannot figure out how to get it to use my network card. Some info for you:

Mandrake 9.2
Gnome 2.4
Realtek 8210BL integrated onto a NF7-S w/ nForce2 chipset

I downloaded NVIDIA_nforce-1.0-0248.src.rpm from nvidia's website and ran (as root):
It returned some hash marks and then said 100% installed. So I opened up the gui config tool and tried to set it up, but I can't get it to do anything. This is my first linux experience, so feel free to assume that I don't know anything.

Surely wherever you got that rpm from has some documentation on how to install & configure it?

Well, there is some documentation about what the rpm contains, and a bit on how to install it:
[quote[ To install a binary rpms, you only need use rpm to install the package. This should install and configure the drivers. A source rpm requires building and installing the drivers yourself. The files in this package are organized into a build hierarchy to make this task easier.[/quote]

I figured enough from this to derive the command I used above, but if it configured it for me, I'm not seeing any results.

Out of curiosity, try Knoppix. If Knoppix cant make it run, Im not sure anything can :D

It looks like you've downloaded the source rpms. These just download the source for you - you'll have to build and install them yourself.

Check here for more information. Also, the Mandrake 9.1 rpms should work on 9.2 (I don't know myself, I use Gentoo).

You may also want to look into using forcedeth, which is an open source driver for nforce network cards.

Another thing - I've run into this problem in the past. Even though it's an nforce board, it doesn't necessarily mean it's using an nforce net card... so you may want to type:

cat /proc/pci | grep Ethernet

(the above is all one line, including the | )
getting the exact chipset (I couldn't find a driver for a realtek 8210 - maybe you or I made a typo)

Which Mandrake 9.2? I am running the PowerPack Pro, and there is a manager for hard and software installs, which use wizards to find and install both. I have installed a scanner and drivers, plus other driver updates using this. It's in the Mandrake Control Center.

Ok, I got it fixed. Just thought I'd post my solution in case it might help someone else in the future.

* Mandrake 9.2 Download Edition does not include the kernel sources on the CDs. It is necessary to download and install them seperately. For me, I needed kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk-i586.rpm. A quick rpm -ivh kernel-source...... installed them perfectly.

* Next I needed the aforementioned nforce driver source package. After downloading it from nVidia, I had to build it into an rpm with rpm --rebuild NVIDIA......

* Finally, I installed the resulting package in /usr/src/RMP/RPMS/i586

After that was done, the Mandrake hardware wizard recognized my NIC and I was able to configure it. It is now working just fine.