Problems compiling driver and installing it

Fri Dec 17 07:50:26 1999

> Sorry bout the previous emails abiguity and the HTML format.  Anyway I will
> describe the problems that I am having.
> 
> I have the "latest" rtl8139.c file from the website.
> 
> I have copied it onto my linux box and run the following lines to try and
> compile the code:
> 
> gcc -o rtl8139.c

That won't work.

> gcc -o rtl8139.c rtl8139.o

That won't either.  "-o" means output file name.  rtl8139.c is the input
file name.  You'd just overwrite your source with those commands.  At least
you would if gcc had anything to compile.

> there was a line that someone gave me but I have lost it.
> 
> As I am quite new to linux I was hoping that you could tell me the command
> line I should use to compile the code and then how I should install that
> module.
> 
> I am running Debian Linux r2.1 on a Pentium II 300 w/128MB Ram.

Did you compile your own kernel or are you using the standard Debian kernel?

If you're using one of the standard Debian kernels, then I would recommend
using the precompiled module provided by Debian.  You may already have it
installed and not know it.  Look and see if you have
/lib/modules/<version>/net/rtl8139.o where <version> is the version of
the kernel you are running.  If you don't know what that is, you can find out
with "uname -a".

If this file is there, you can use it without compiling/installing anything.
Just "insmod rtl8129" and you're done.

If you compile your own kernels, I recommend using the driver version
distributed with the kernel.  It's not the latest version, but, it might
be good enough.  Select "Prompt for experimental" in the general configuration
section, and then the driver for the RTL will appear with the rest of the
network drivers and you can just compile it into your own kernel.

If you need the latest version of the driver, either because you have
experienced some bug or just want to have the very latest version, then
follow the compilation instructions on this page:

http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/misc/modules.html

Eric
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