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Caspian
03-10-2005, 05:17 PM
Hi gang.

OK, so does Knoppix 3.7 (e.g. KNOPPIX_V3.7-2004-12-08-EN.iso) support the Broadcom 440X 10/100 integrated ethernet (e.g. on the various newer Dell machines) yet?

Out of the box?

Or will one have to install a third-party driver?

If the latter, is this possible to do without touching the hard drive? (i.e. would one have to ruin the "live CD" functionality of Knoppix to use this chipset?)

I wish to use Knoppix to diagnose some issues with a Dell... to do so, I need to be able to access the 'Net from it, under Knoppix. Simply installing a PCI NIC is not an option due to the client.

If Knoppix 3.7 does not support this device "out of the box", is there any "live CD" that -does-? Or anything else that would let one boot and get a prompt, at least? (e.g. the Debian install CD)

Any help on this issue would be very, very, very, very much appreciated. :)

UnderScore
03-10-2005, 07:11 PM
How about letting us know the Dell model number? Dell OptiPlex GX150? Dell Dimension XPS?

Caspian
03-10-2005, 07:17 PM
It is a Dimension 2350. :)

UnderScore
03-10-2005, 08:06 PM
Yes, Knoppix 3.7 KNOPPIX_V3.7-2004-12-08-EN.iso should support the broadcom 440x. Knoppix provides kernels 2.4.27 and 2.6.9 and they both have a kernel module called b44. Support for b44 was added to kernel 2.4 series in 2.4.22 as seen via the changelog here http://kernel.mirrors.pair.com/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.22 on line 240. The 2.6 series kernels also support b44 as seen in the 2.6.9 Changelog http://kernel.mirrors.pair.com/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.9 at line 27077. According to the changelogs, the 2.4 is getting backported fixes for the b44 driver via the work being done on the 2.6 kernel, so the Knoppix 2.6.9 kernel should be more reliable.
I hope this helps.
James