Recognizing Network Card *AFTER* Initial Installation

[Pete Peterson <rep genrad com>]

I installed RH 5.0 on a machine (200 Mhz Pentium with AMI BIOS) at home.
Although I had a network card in the machine (SMC 8432 PCI card), I skipped
the network stuff in the installation, since I was planning to connect
through a cable-modem using DHCP.

Later, I tried running the network configuration from control-panel and
specifying that the machine should be a DHCP client.  I was hoping that
after reboot, the machine would recognize/configure the network card.  No
such luck. :-(  Since the card has no jumpers and the interrupts and such
things supposedly get assigned by some kind of PCI magic in the BIOS, I
couldn't try booting with address and IRQ parameters specified to LILO.

My PCI & PC BIOS understanding are nearly nonexistent.  I read the PCI
HOWTO, but didn't discover anything in my BIOS setup pages that would allow
me to figure out how it configured the network card for addresses and
interrupts.

What I actually did in this case was to reload Linux, specifying some
arbitrary network parameters.  In this case the probe found the card and
activated it properly.  I ran into some other problems at this point, but
those will be the subject of another message. :-)

Is there some way of forcing a probe for devices?  Is there some way to
figure out what addresses/interrupts the PCI magic has assigned to each
card?  Reloading Linux, although not a problem in this case, would not be a
pleasant alternative when I add another card later after the machine is
actually in use.  Of course *after* Linux has successfully found all the
cards, I can see the interrupt stuff in /proc/interrupts, but that's no
help in *MAKING* Linux find the card.


        pete peterson
        GenRad, Inc.
        7 Technology Park Drive
        Westford, MA 01886-0033

        petersonp genrad com or rep genrad com
        +1-978-589-7478 (GenRad);  +1-978-256-5829 (Home: Chelmsford, MA)
        +1-978-589-2088 (Closest FAX); +1-978-589-7007 (Main GenRad FAX)