Bug 7955

Summary: installation - 3com 3c509b nic not detected
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: randy
Component: installerAssignee: Jay Turner <jturner>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6.1CC: srevivo
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2000-02-22 20:05:00 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description randy 1999-12-22 23:55:28 UTC 
3c509b is not detected. the installation does not ask if the box will be on
a network either. installation does proceed normally. after running
linuxconf, the nic is still not available to the os. rh 5.2, mandrake
6.0,caldera 2.2, and ibm pc dos 2000(7.x) nic detection/manual entry
and usage does work on the box with this card. since this is our standard
nic for our company, i need a work around (driver, etc) that is supported
by rh-rtp. several around work are waiting for this before purchasing 6.1.
the nic is set to dos and not for windows pnp.
Comment 1 Greg Newby 2000-01-21 16:04:59 UTC 
The answer is in #7088.  For According to jturner, these older ISA NICs are not
aggressively recognized in RH 6.1 (even though this same card was recognized in
prior versions through 6.0).

The workaround I used was a bit awkward.  First, add kernel support for your
card with "insmod 3c509".  Then, run "netconfig" to provide configuration
information.  You might also need to edit /etc/resolv.conf (additional name
servers, search domain...) and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
(especially to add GATEWAY info).  This should get the NIC working properly.

HOWEVER, the problem I had was getting the 3c509 support added at boot time.
Eventually, I gave up on finding the right way, and edited
/etc/rc.d/init.d/network  and added the "insmod 3c509" (with path, I think it's
/sbin) in the "start)" section of the script.  (You can't put it in rc.local,
because that's run AFTER /etc/rc.d/init.d/network during a normal boot).