Help with Linux!

[gimli at offcenter.org (Mark Donnelly)]

On Tue, 12 Oct 1999, Pijus Virketis wrote:
> I am a complete ab initio Linux user and I was hoping someone here
> would help me out a bit. When I was installing my RedHat 6.0, the
> program did not recognise my 3Com Ethernet card and I did not know the
> relevant I/O and IRQ. Now I do, but I can't find the place where I can
> enter this data. 

OK, there are two ways to specify this information, depending on wether
you have the card built into the kernel, or if you have it loaded as a
module.  For a kernel, it's easy: just put a line of:

     append = "unitname=parameters unitname=paramaters"

into your /etc/lilo.conf for each linux kernel.  For instance, I used to
have a line of:
    
     append = "ncr53c406a=0x330,11 ide0=cmd640_vlb"

in my lilo.conf, which specified that my SCSI controller was at base
address 0x330 and IRQ 11, whereas I wasn't sure if I had a buggy cmd640
ide controller on my VLB motherboard, so I threw that in anyway.

As for the second method (the module kind of network card driver), I'm a
lot more fuzzy there.  (Modules just seem to work for me - I've never
needed to specify things.)  I think that you can specify things on the
command line when you load them (look at the insmod man page - "man
insmod"), or in a configuration file (/etc/conf.modules - you might be
able to glean some info out of the modprobe man page).  It looks as if you
can do a:

# insmod de620 bnc=1

or somesuch on the command line, whereas in the conf file you can put a
line resembling 

options NCR53c406a io=0x330 irq=11

(see above).  

Of course, this is just a guess.  I haven't had that SCSI controller in my
machine for about a year...

Does anybody know modules better than I?
--Mark

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