how to install a network driver that was not included with Kubuntu install

[r0n]

Hi,

Specs are:

- Kubuntu 7.04 64bit installed on a spare IDE HD.

- ASUS P5B VM DO MOBO (slot 755 using Intel Core2 duo) w/integrated audio, video and network adapter. The network adapter is an Intel 82566DM.

Kubuntu doesn't find a network connection. I assume that it doesn't recognize the network adapter (when installing XP on this same machine, it was necessary to install the driver that came with the MOBO before Windows could recognize it).

I've found a Linux driver for that chip on the Intel website. But since I'm new to Linux I don't know how to install it. Right now it's on my main Windows HD in the original downloaded tar file.

Any suggestions?

[ghost2003]

Did you read the readme on the download page? It explains the whole installation procedure.
I think this is the one for the driver you want to install:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/df-support/9180/ENG/README.txt

[rhysox]

Just to help you out '$' indicates a line in which you type into the console, anything else is just a comment.

Create a mount point for your windows hard disk
$ mkdir /mnt/windows

Mount your windows hard disk at the mount point, replace hdXx with the location of your windows hard disk, if IDE Master & first partition, it'll be hda1, if scsi/sata it will probably be sda1 (if first channel), or sdbx if second channel. 'x' represents the partition number on the disk (starting from 1, not 0).
$ mount /dev/hdXx /mnt/windows

copy the downloaded file from your windows hard disk to your linux parition, replace <location> with the location of the file on the windows hard disk structure, for example /mnt/windows/Documents..../r0n/Desktop/intel.tar.gz
$ cp /mnt/windows/<location to file> /root/

Enter the /root/ directory to locate the file we've copied
$ cd /root/

Untar (very much like unzip) the file, if tar.gz use the below arguments, if it's a tar.bz2 file, replace the '-zxvf' with '-xvjpf'.
$ tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz

with tar, by default it will extract the contents of the data to a folder that's the same as the tar file, but without the extension. so if the filename is intel.tar.gz, it will make a folder named 'intel'.
$ cd <foldername>

type ./configure so that it can configure the make so it's optimised for your system, what you might find is that it doesn't have a configure script with the package, if this is the case and it throws up an error, don't worry, just move onto the next line.
$ ./configure

'make' is a program that compiles the source code that you've downloaded into a binary that the system will use. 'install' is a script that defines what make is to do, with install, it will compile and install the module/driver to the correct location.
$ make install

if this is successful, you should try and modprobe it (load the driver into memory) <modulename> will probably be something like 'e1000', let me know if it's not and we can look further into this.
$ modprobe <modulename>

ifconfig is just like windows 'ipconfig', eth0 is your ethernet adapter. you can view all of it's properties here, basically... if you get a listing, it's sort of working! if you know your network setup, you can add a command after eth0 with an ip address for it to use.
$ ifconfig eth0

test the connection by pinging a website of your choice, just for ease i use google.com as it accepts ping requests.
$ ping google.com

hopefully this will help you out, this is usually the structure for installing any module/driver.

i've never used ubuntu or kubunto or whatever it's called! but this should be the same for any linux, however I don't know how you get it to autoload this module on boot, with gentoo there's a script in: /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

see if you've got that file! :)

[r0n]

Ghost - thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't seen it.

Rhysox, thanks for the instructions. I gave it a shot but got stuck at step one - I was told I am not authorized to make a new directory!

The install didn't ask me to set up a root password so I'm not sure how to log in as root or where to go from here.

On another note, the readme instructions from Intel say:

"To build a binary RPM* package of this driver, run 'rpmbuild -tb <filename.tar.gz>'. Replace <filename.tar.gz> with the specific filename of the driver. "

Not sure what this means. It doesn't say anything more about this option in the rest of the document. Is this something significant?

[ghost2003]

type "su", you will then be asked for the root password. Enter it and you will be able to run commands as root.

As for the RPM thing, im not sure. Im not a linux guy so I can't really help you there. Although im pretty sure thats only for when you're running a redhat distro.

[kilgoretrout]

You are trying to compile a kernel module for your onboard nic. To do that, you will also have to have the kernel source installed or the compile will not go forward and spit out an error message. As mentioned above, you will need to be root to perform most of the operations in that howto.
Also, rpms are part of a package management system on Red Hat based distros like fedora, mandriva and suse. Essentially, an rpm is a precompiled binary which saves you the trouble of doing the compilation from a tar source file. Kubuntu is debian based and uses a different package management system so you can't use the rpm. Even if you could, you have to be careful when using precompiled kernel driver modules; they won't work unless the package was compiled on the same kernel you are using and that's usually not the case unless the package came with your distro.

Compiling a kernel module is usually not a big deal for anyone familiar with linux. However, for someone new, it's a pretty daunting task. Unless you real want to dig into this and try and learn something, your easiest course would be to spend $10 on a general purpose consumer nic and use that instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127102

I did a quick google check on your onboard nic and it appears the driver is not yet included in the recent 2.6.20 kernel so changing distros probably won't help much. The pci nic I gave you above is well supported in linux, the kernel driver has been included in the kernel since the 2.4 series and it should work out of the box on any current kernel.

[rhysox]

Sorry, forgot to mention, you do have to be root to carry out these steps.

$ su

Enter root password & try the steps again. If this doesn't work, let me know and maybe I can have a go on my system to find out why. Alternatively, buy a well supported NIC like kilgoretrout said.

Let me know

[r0n]

Success! I'm checking in from the newly configured Linux machine.

Rhysox, thanks for the how-to, it worked like a charm. The driver survived a restart so I'm hopeful that it stays put. I found that the terminal program has a separate window for opening a root session and once that was underway it all worked as you described.

Kilgore, you're right it's a bit daunting but I'm setting this up to force me to dig in and learn something new as you said, so this was a positive first step. Thanks for taking the time to offer your help.

[rhysox]

Glad you got it sorted... any more questions let me know and i'll do my best :)