Installing Drivers In Linux 8.1

I finally decided to make a serious effort at installing and using Linux. I connect to the internet thru a Belkin wireless 802.11G router. The computer that I have installed Linux into is using a Blitzz BWI605 pci network card. I found this driver, adm8211-20060111.tar.tar, on the internet and is suppose to be compatible with this card. However, Linux did install a driver for it already, it is listed as Abocom and Windows update also recognized it as such and had an update for it. Do I need to install this driver anyways and if so what is the process? I am an experinced windows user, but a virtual idiot on Linux. I have already tried to setup the internet on it with no luck. During boot I notice where it shows eth1 as "ifup: could not get a valid interface name -> skipped". I did get a plug symbol in the lower right once, but with a red ball on it. The mobo does have a standard network card listed as eth0 and shows the correct device. I do have a Windows XP computer beside it that does connect to the router wirelessly.

Any help is appreciated!

Mike

Is there any reason that you installed 8.1?
It is very old and no longer supported the latest version is 10.3 and 11 will be released in 2 weeks.
My advice is to get 10.3 here it has much better hardware support.

/Geoff

Yep, yep, there is a reason. It is all I got. No income and unable to work due to back problems. Trying to pay for antivirus, firewalls, and antispyware programs is difficult and I thought that Linux might be safer in the long run, but I take it there are no updates for it anymore so it is no better than what I had with XP.

Well anyways, how do you install a driver?

Thanks,

Mike

For the drivers you'll' need to wait until wireless expert deltaflyer gets on-line.
As for getting 10.3 it's totally free so if i was you i would download it.

/Geoff

hmm, haven't used 8.1 in many a year. As far as i remember, wireless support in 8.1 was extremely hit and miss. If your device was recognized & purportedly installed native drivers, i believe it will be an old 802.11b device you have. Try following these steps:

1 ) to check if drivers installed, open a console & type /sbin/ifconfig it should show your device & if it picked up an i.p. address
2 ) go to YaST - network devices - network cards ( can't remember if that's right ) & check the settings. you should have the device set for dhcp & also put in any encryption & essid necessary to connect
3 ) check the firewall is not stopping the connection,device should be set for external.
4 ) check your router is set for 802.11b/g transmission

if all this fails, you would be recommended to try & get a more up-to-date version of SuSE

Andy

Thanks '/Geoff'.

I downloaded openSuSE 10.3 and burned it to CD and went to install, but it is giving a checksum error when it gets to the check for broken media test. I reburned the CD again, but slower and it did the same thing. I am going to install anyways and hope for the best; after that I hope to be able to setup up my wireless network.

Mike

Not a good idea to install if you get an error with the checksum.
How did you download it http or torrent?

/Geoff

if possible download and install from the dvd not the cd. comes with far more software and is generally much easier to get fully functional. download by torrent if possible.

I downloaded the X86 64 bit version by accident, works fine for the computer I was downloading it on to, but the computer that I was installing it to didn't like it. Anyways I downloaded i386 version and that is when I started having problems with the MD5. I re-burned again and it did the same thing. I updated Nero 5 burning software and burned the disk again and got the same problem. Originally I downloaded from softpedia and I believe it was http, anyways I re-downloaded the OS from another website and it gave option for bittorrent or http. I chose http. This time it passed the MD5 check. Yea! It required that I setup the network first, but it wouldn't save. It is still in the process of installing.

The computer doesn't have a DVD player in it. I have a DVD player I am not using and could install it, but to download 4 gigabytes would require installing a new browser in XP and hoping the power doesn't flicker during the download, which happens quite a bit in this area. It took 3 hours on 700 megabytes. My computer is on a power backup, but my families computer, cable modem, and my wireless router are not on a power backup. We live in the boonies and are lucky to have cable.

Mike
p.s. I'm a computer literate hillbilly hoping to be as rich as our redneck cousins!

I finally have 10.3 installed, but the wireless pci card is not recognized. Help!

The CD-R is not showing either. Ugh!

Mike