[NBLUG/talk] USB ethernet adapter for Dell Optiplex 745?

[E Frank Ball III]

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 07:30:16PM -0700, Mr. Jan Hearthstone wrote:
 >    I found the driver needed for the Dell OptiPlex 745 network card (
 >    Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express ) in
 >    two forms: .rpm (but I run Debian based AntiX), as tg3-3.124c.tar.gz (318
 >    KiB), and as tg3_sup-3.124c-1.ISO.tar.gz (3.1 MiB).


Debian includes the tg3 driver.  Debian 6 has tg3.c:v3.116 (December 3,
2010) and Debian 7 has tg3.c:v3.121 (November 2, 2011).

Your machine isn't new, so I'm surprised it isn't working.

Do a "locate tg3.ko"

I find /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/tg3.ko
on Debian 7.

Then use "strings":

strings /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/tg3.ko

The last line will be the version of the driver.


 > 
 >    I tried to follow the instructions the
 >    http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/faq_drivers.php#tg3 offers:
 > 
 ...
 >        Build the new driver from source
 >            Execute: make clean (if this command fails, make sure the
 >    build environment is installed)
 > 
 >    but got only as far as "make clean" which did not work for me.


What precisely is the error?

Do you have the build envinroment installed?  (apt-get install
build-essential).  What's the output of "gcc --version"?


 > 
 >    Please remember that I did take a basic Unix course, but that the extent
 >    of my Linux education. I do use Linux, because when I go Windows I end up
 >    with Debian again. I don't want to switch to any other Linux distro as I
 >    am an ancient dog, reluctant to learn new tricks, besides--this is the
 >    first time I had to install a driver of any kind ...


Maybe generic Debian would be a better solution than AntiX.


   E Frank Ball          frankb at frankb.us