[GLLUG] New Network Card

[Ben Pfaff]

Brian Hoort <hoortbri@msu.edu> writes:

> I have purchased a Xircom Realport NIC for my laptop. My laptop
> currently has stable installed. How do I determine whether it has
> drivers for my card?

First, determine the chipset that the card uses.  Second, figure
out which kernel driver (or drivers) supports that card.  Third,
figure out whether your kernel contains that driver.

> I suspect that since I am running on a custom-compiled kernel, I will need to:
> 
> 1. Recompile kernel including drivers for this card.
> 2. Install that kernel.
> 3. Pray
> 4. Configure networking.

Step 3 is usually unnecessary.  Modern kernels support most kinds
of NICs out there in the real world.
-- 
"To the engineer, the world is a toy box full of sub-optimized and
 feature-poor toys."
--Scott Adams