[FC1], 2.6.8-rc2 kernel, new motherboard problems

[James Wilkinson]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> I just swapped in a new motherboard to replace one with data errors 
> here and there.
> 
> Biostar M7NCD-PRO with athlon 2800XP, 1Gb of dimms.
> 
> Two problems remain:
> 
> No sound, no onboard networking
> 
> I have the old net card in and running ok, but I'd like to save a slot 
> and use the newer onboard LAN port.  However, when I attempt to turn 
> it on in the bios, it then asks me for a MAC address to use.  I was 
> under the impression that this was hardcoded, silly me, but what do I 
> use to make sure its unique?

Sigh.

Yes, it should be hard-coded. Probably the Windows drivers make up a
number and run with it. This is completely against the rules, but with
48 bits of randomness, they're very unlikely to get caught.

(The point about a MAC address is that it should be unique on the
network. This is normally assurred by handing out 3 byte manufacturer
prefixes, and relying on the manufacturers to hand out a separate
serial number to each card).

"Hardware simply does not work like the manual says and no amount
of Zen contemplation will ever make you at one with a 3c905B
ethernet card."

       - Alan Cox

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt suggests that AC-DE-48 and
00-00-6C are reserved "private" manufacturer prefixes: use those, and
make up the rest. Or, unless you ever end up on the same network as my
old Realtek, 00:05:5D:48:11:F9 should work.

> And, I'd really like to be able to play some music, but the only sound 
> ATM is the beep speaker in the case.
> 
> Can anyone help me, what modules do I build etc?

It should be the "Intel i8x0/MX440, SiS 7012; Ali 5455; NForce Audio;
AMD768/8111" if you're using ALSA. The "Intel ICH (i8xx) audio support
(NEW)" OSS driver might also work. But I don't have the hardware around
to check.

HTH,

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james@ |    John's Inverse Law of Physics:
westexe.demon.co.uk    | You do Physics -- you get inverted.