Re: Motorola Starmax 3000/180, RTL 8139/8029, and a /big/ quandary

[Adam C Powell IV <hazelsct@mit.edu>]

Kurt Raschke wrote:

> Well, I've looked at what cross compiling involves, and I think I'll hold on that until I've got a working system.  So, what's involved in doing the null modem PPP install?  I've already got a cable that I can use to connect my i386 box and my Starmax, but I don't know how to set up a PPP server, nor do I know how to get the installation program to use a null-modem connection.  Note that I'm talking about the program that runs after the system reboots on its own.

Are you talking about setting up the server on an i386 Linux box?  There's something in the new PPP howto, which is in the HOWTO index at:
http://www.kernel.org/LDP/

> Also, is there any kind of "extended drivers disk" that might have an rtl8139 driver, or an rtl8029 driver?  Are there any other drivers that I could get to work with either of these cards?

An open question to the list: with the default Debian kernel config, why are there 119 drivers in /lib/modules/2.2.17/net on i386, and just ten on PPC?  (Do that many of them not work?)

Another thing: is there an rtl8029 driver anywhere?  (Under development even?)  I just got two freebie cards and would like to make my StarMax a router. :-)

> I ask these questions because it would be much easier for me to not have to try to work around not having decent connectivity until I am able to recompile the kernel, unless it's easier to compile a kernel under Debian than under other Linuxes.

Actually, it is, if you like your kernels in packages.  Just get the "kernel-package" package, go to the source directory, make [menu|x|old]config, then "make-kpkg binary" builds kernel-source, kernel-headers, and kernel-image Debian packages (where "image" includes the vmlinux kernel, the .coff kernel to boot from a floppy, the config file, and the modules directory).

Personally, I like having my kernels in Debian packages, because it's easier to install, upgrade, remove, and detect conflicts in a consistent way across the system.

HTH,

-Adam P.