Loadable Ethernet Drivers
Early versions of Linux used a so-called monolithic kernel. At that time, Linux distributions typically included several kernels, offering support for a variety of devices that might be needed to boot and install a Linux system. Devices not needed to boot and install a system—so-called special devices—had second-class status. To access special devices, users had to compile customized kernels that included support for those devices. When adding a device to a system, users often had to compile a new kernel, which was something of an inconvenience.
More recent versions of Linux feature a modular kernel, which allows drivers to be dynamically loaded on command. This makes it much easier than before to configure your Linux system to support Ethernet cards and other special devices. Red Hat Linux is generally able to configure your primary Ethernet card automatically, by probing for it during installation of Linux.
However, the autoprobe doesn’t always succeed. Moreover, if you have more than one Ethernet card, the installation program sets up only the first card it finds. To set up additional cards, you need to know a bit about Linux’s loadable modules.
Dynamically Loading a Modular Driver
To dynamically load a modular driver, issue the following command:
modprobe
driver
where driver
specifies the module to be
loaded. As an example, the command:
modprobe ne2k-pci
loads the modular driver for the PCI-based NE2000 Ethernet card.
To find out what network adapters ...
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