USB Network thingy?

Forum: Networking
Topic: USB Network thingy?
started by: MalphasWats

Posted by MalphasWats on Feb. 07 2005,21:23

Hi, I have an old Sony Picturebook laptop that doesn't really work properly with WinXP so I decided to try and get Linux onto it.

After much googling I discovered DSL which seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. After working out how to get it to boot from a floppy and the hard-drive, I had a little play about with it and it seems to be pretty much what I want. I intend eventually to make it a permanent part of the machine, but I want to make sure I can get all the bits working.

My first problem is that I'm fairly new to Linux anyway, so I'm wondering someone can help.

I have a Belkin USB network adapter, and I'd like to be able to get it working but I don't really know where to start, can anyone give me some pointers at all?

Thanks
-Malphas

Posted by tronik on Feb. 08 2005,04:27

Model Numbers and chipsets would be nice for starters ;) Then we might be able to tell you what you need to do. Also, system specs on the machine you're trying to install upon, would also be good to know when asking for assistance =) Thanks!

Posted by MalphasWats on Feb. 08 2005,11:14

EDIT 2:
After having a good poke about, wondering why it didn't seem to be working, I noticed that the other end of the network cable wasn't actually plugged into my router. I plugged it in, lights came on, ran the network config program and hey presto internet access.

My apologies, I am a brainless idiot ;)

--- old post.

Thanks, sorry about that, I wasn't sure what info would be useful!

It is a Sony Vaio C1VE laptop with a Transmeta Crusoe processor, about 100MB free ram (proc uses some for code morphing), HD is 8GB and it has a single USB port.
Apparently the USB controller is an "Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)" (which at the moment has a floppy drive plugged in to boot from, but I'm going to try a HD install because I need to be able to edit the XF86Config file to try to open up the full screen resolution)
The only information I can find on the Belkin adapter is that it's called "USB 10/100 Ethernet Adapter" and it is part number "F5D5050uk". It didn't require any special drivers when I used it under WinXP (if that implies anything useful at all!).

I know other people have managed to get full Debian Linux on this model before, my problem is that I don't have easy access to a CD drive for it, so the multiple-disc installation would prove tricky! DSL fit snugly on my USB pen drive which I used the broken WinXP install to copy onto a partition of the HD and boot with a floppy. It looks like a tricky install, but I'd like to give it a go!

Thanks for your help, sorry for the vagueness, I've only really used working Linux, never tried to tinker with it too much, but it is something I'd like to learn, it's just hard to know where to start!

EDIT:
I've installed to HD now and am enjoying poking around a bit. If I plug this network adapter in, then type dmesg, it reports the thing being plugged in and says something about loading Pegasus II drivers. I'm guessing it might work, but I don't know what to do now to access the internet etc...

-Malphas