Dell PowerEdge 1500 NIC?

fncll · n00b Joined: 08 Jul 2002 Posts: 28

I have a brand new Dell PowerEdge 1500SC server that I want to set up with Gentoo. I am having trouble figuring out what network card driver to use-- none of the usual suspects work. All the paperwork on the box tells me is that it is an "onboard nic" --- how can I get more info on the nic or does anyone know what I should use?

It also has onboard scsi, but that seems to be detected fine.

klieber · Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:46 pm Post subject:

Well, Dell's support site would be a good place to start.

--kurt
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fncll · n00b Joined: 08 Jul 2002 Posts: 28

I've been there (and I've searched the forums, etc) but am not having any luck getting a spec for the onboard nic. That's the point of my question. I was hoping someone here might have experience with this hardware already.

delta407 · Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:56 pm Post subject:

Well, maybe the kernel can help you out. "less /proc/pci" has given me clues more than once.
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fncll · n00b Joined: 08 Jul 2002 Posts: 28

That helped... I was able to identify my nic as an Intel 82544EI Gigabit ethernet. I even found
drivers on intel's site (looks like they need to be compiled, there is no .o file, the name is e1000). But how can I use this driver since it is not on the CD when I do the install?

I haven't been able to find a binary or anything like that either. :?:

delta407 · Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2002 7:50 pm Post subject:

Err... that'll be problematic. Okay, this will be much easier if you can use a stage 3 build. Before you do anything, download the driver tarball and stick it onto a floppy or something. Go through the stage 3 install (since it doesn't need network until later), and then right after you build your kernel do this:

fncll · n00b Joined: 08 Jul 2002 Posts: 28

Besides starting with a larger ISO and a portage tree, what is the major difference using Stage 3 instead of stage 1?

I assume that GCC/etc will not be compiled for my machine, but I can rebuild those later (and sync the portage tree) so except for some up front time to download a bigger file is there any other major difference in terms of the resulting system, performance, etc?

delta407 · Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2002 8:11 pm Post subject:

Stage 3 is already bootstrapped and includes binaries produced from "emerge system" as well as a kernel source tree, all built for i686. These won't run on a pre-i686 system, but won't give a full optimization if you have a system over i686. In any case, it will get you most of the way through the install without having to touch the network -- far enough that you will have all the tools you need to build your networking module.

In any case, if you have a Pentium Pro or above (which I'm assuming you do because it shipped with a gigabit NIC

), a stage 3 install will work. If you feel the need, everything on your system can be recompiled later with "emerge -e world".
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