Nicholas Avenell <nicholas@aquarionics.com> wrote: > --snip-- <
...where my network card isn't there. Or, rather, the driver of my network card isn't there. The driver it uses is 8139cp (or 8139too, it doesn't matter). The question is how did it contact my DHCP server, firewall, the FTP server and everything else if it doesn't know what my network card is, and can I find out what module or driver it was using for this magic purpose?
Whenever a kernel is compiled you make several choices of what to compile into the kernel, omit, or compile as a module during the "make config" step. When you use a pre-compiled kernel, you are using some-one elses's idea of the proper config. It may or may not be correct for your particular setup. Most of the time drivers for the nost commonly used items are compiled into the kernel to make network installs work... things like common NIC drivers, HD drivers, etc. In your case it sounds like the package maintainer made a pretty good guess about your hardware! Both the 8139cp and 8139too drivers are compiled into the kernel (along with others).
The list of options used to compile any given kernel-image package is usually included in /boot/config-<kernel version> file. Open it up with a text editor and scan it to see what you already have.
Cheers, -Don Spoon- --To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org