getting pc card ethernet working on old thinkpad-realtek 8139

[pottzie]

 I have an IBM Thinkpad, circa 2000, that ran Windows 98. The ethernet jack isn't functional, since no one needed it back then. I installed a pc card/ethernet dongle, but haven't been able to get it working with the Thinkpad. I've installed Vector 6.0 lite. lspci gives me :Realtek Semiconduuctor RTL -8139/8139C+ (rev10). And Google even came up with this:
   http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=482
 Which says "Oh, Slackware works great with that from the get-go."
  Guess mine didn't get the memo. Is there a way to get this from the terminal?

[Daniel]

What have you tried so far to get it to work? Wicd? Netconf in VASM?

[pottzie]

 That got me closer! Wicd looked for a wireless set up, and I haven't got one yet. But VASM did do some good! And yes, I messed with it before posting, but that was before I went into bios and enabled the pci card. Now at least the LED for "link" comes on, indicating that there's some sign of life through the ethernet plug. When I try to get to the net, it can't find a server. When I try 192.168.1.1 in the search bar it can't establish connection. It's better though, at least there's a spark there!

[bigpaws]

Open a terminal (command line) su then enter root password.

Now type and post the output

lsmod | grep 8139

ifconfig -a

For ifconfig -a all we need to know is of there is any other
interface or name besides lo

Bigpaws

[pottzie]

 ifconfig had irda0 showing on the left side of the terminal screen.

[bigpaws]

If this laptop does not have Infra Red then try this in a terminal as root:

dhcpcd irda0

Then use ifconfig irda0 and see if an ip address was assigned.

Bigpaws

[pottzie]

 ifconfig irda0 got me 6 lines of info, but I don't see anything like an IP address. Link encap:IrLAP HWadder 00:00:00:00:
 

[bigpaws]

This is the entry to look for:

 inet addr:

Did dhcpcd complete?

What type of network is dhcp being used or are they assigned?

Bigpaws

[pottzie]

 When I tried dhcpcd irda0, the command was valid but didn't give me any info as a return. I tried to copy the output to a memory stick, but don't see anything as far as DHCP or IP address.
 vector://home/vl
root:# irda0     Link encap:IrLAP  HWaddr 00:00:00:00 
bash: irda0: command not found
vector://home/vl
root:#           NOARP  MTU:2048  Metric:1
bash: NOARP: command not found
vector://home/vl
root:#           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
bash: RX: command not found
vector://home/vl
root:#           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
bash: TX: command not found
vector://home/vl
root:#           collisions:0 txqueuelen:8
bash: collisions:0: command not found
vector://home/vl
root:#           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
vector://home/vl
root:#
vector://home/vl
root:#

[bigpaws]

dhcpcd does not output anything you can add a switch to do that try this command as root

dhcpcd -d irda0

Bigpaws

[pottzie]

 I entered dhcpcd -d irda0 and ran the command but didn't return anything. Is that what's supposed to happen?

[newt]

Please post the output from the following commands:

lspci -v

lsusb

ifconfig -a

iwconfig

You can put the output in code tags to help keep the look clean (it's the button with this icon )

[pottzie]

 This is going to get a bit stinky. For some reason I'm unable to copy and paste from either xterm or urxvt. Probably not the first time that's been said. What's strange is that I was able to get it to work last night. Oh well, not a lot of help came from it, I'll try and report what happened when I entered the commands.
 lspci -v returns IBM Thinkpad A20m/A21/m and Realtek RTL -8139/8139C/8139C+
lsusb Bus001 Device 001 ID 1d6b:0001
ifconfig -a gives irda0 and local loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16463
 all the packets, errors, dropped, etc are 0's
 iwconfig=no wireless connections in lo,irda0 and eth0
 Hope this helps. When I try and use the middle mouse button to copy, xterm spits out a cascade of info similar to what I posted before. I kinda feel that being able to walk on water must be a part of the "legacy" required for copying and posting! If there's an easy/better way to get what I see in the terminal transferred to something so I can show it to you, I'd appreciate knowing what it is!
 Sorry if this sounds like a rant. I know I can't be the first person that's said it. And now that I think about it, it "is what it is." So yeah, it's another thing I'll have to learn or else figure out some way around it. Thanks.

[newt]

You're probably already aware, but in case not: You can select the text to copy in xterm (simply highlight it), and then use the middle-click in your browser to paste the selection.

Regardless, I see that iwconfig mentions an 'eth0' device but your ifconfig -a does not.  Please double-check 'ifconfig -a' for the mention of an eth0 device.

[pottzie]

 No, no eth0 after running ifconfig -a. Just irda0.

 I highlighted the output, but when I changed over to paste it into a file, nothing happened when I clicked on the scroll wheel. Tried several times.

 Maybe it's because I don't have any mojo.