Re: [aclug-L] PNP

[Bob Deep <bobd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wayne White wrote:
> 
> Last night I had a chance to visit CompUSA. Looking at
> Ethernet cards I observed that every card that they stock
> was plug and pray. I am aware that pnp can be problematic
> under Linux, particularly with sound cards and modems. How
> well does Linux handle pnp 10BaseT cards? Is non pnp a
> requirement in a Linux box for ethernet cards?

Assuming that your card of choice has a driver that can be built as a
module, pnp should not be too much of a problem with current kernel
versions.  There are tools to setup PNP cards, and I beleive that kernel
support for PNP is on the way soon.

Sound cards can be a problem if they are not hardware compatialbe with
SB.  Mine has some funny things you have to load into internal registers
to get it to work.  I still have not compleatly figured out how to do
this...  I may just buy a SB and call it quits...

Modems, are usually not a problem unless they are not full modems like
winmodems are.  If the modem's interface is a typical UART it will work
as far as I know...  But don't bet the farm on that.  Those dang
winmodems are going to be a real problem for Linux users soon.  It's
hard to swallow having to pay $100 for a real modem when you see new
winmodems going for $45...  I wonder how many folks realize that they
just added more load to their processor with that cheap modem?  You know
that these winmodems are going to be more popular just due to the lower
price.

Network cards, if they are emulating some standard card, should work. 
If you are unsure, don't buy a card (or be sure you can still take it
back) until you check to see it will work.  Even if you have to look in
the network driver directory to find out, it should be fairly easy to
confirm a card will work or not.  (Although some of the newer cards seem
to be supported, but are not fully working yet.)

-= bob =-
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