module dependec and ext3 file system

[xiaohuli at alumni.princeton.edu]

Hi,

I updated from red hat 9 to fedora last night and I
have the following problems ( I have asked them on
www.linuxquestions.org, if you have read it, I sincerly
apoligize for bothering your again ).  

The machine is a PIII-450 with 768MB memory.  I use a
netgear router which connects this one and a newer P4
machine running windows xp to internet.

1. I could not connect to internet from fedora.  eth0
interface is not brought up.  ( my card is not made by
3Com, as someone point out might be the problem ).  The
Xp machine connects with no problem. 

>From the logs, I noticed that modeprob is looking for
/lib/modules/2.2.20.8/modules.dep. And I only have
/lib/modules/2.2.22.40.ntpl/modules.dep. I don't even
have the 2.2.20.8 directory. I create 2.2.20.8
directory and copied the
/lib/modules/2.2.22.40.ntpl/modules.dep over. Doesn't
work, said something about "not ELF format". I then
delete the copied modules.dep file and create a
symbolic link to
/lib/modules/2.2.22.40.ntpl/modules.dep. 
Doesn't work either, and this time modules.dep in
/lib/modules/2.2.22.40.ntpl/modules.dep is empty !

How do I generate a modules.dep file ?
Is modules.dep generated at boot time ? How does
modeprob work ? Is there a way to specify which
directory to look for modulles.dep file ?

2. My /usr directory is mounted on its own partition (
on a different hard disk ). In the /etc/fstab file, it
looks like this
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaul 1 2
/dev/hda2 /boot ext3 default 1 1
/dev/hdb6 /usr ext3 default 1 3

Fedora couldn't mount this drive ! saying the kernel
does not support ext3 filesystem. Is it, really ? As a
result, besides losing a bunch of shell command, X
window won't start. I have to change to

/dev/hda5 / ext3(!) default 1 2
/dev/hda5 /boot ext3(!) default 1 1
/dev/hdb6 /usr ext2 default 1 3

then x-window works. Notice it can mount / and /boot as
ext3. What went wrong here ?  Does it also have
something to do with run levels ?  like at different
run levels, different modules will be loaded ?

I have limited knowledge of linux, particular
challenged with feroda :) .   Any help will be greatly
appreciated !

Thanks,

Xiaohu