Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[rodrigorgs]

I'm using Puppy Linux 3.0.1 on my old laptop and I recently bought a cheap USB Ethernet adapter. It uses the Davicom DM9601 controller, supported by the dm9601 kernel module, which comes with Puppy Linux. I managed to connect to the Internet using PPPoE, but the connection always dropped after some time using it (usually less than a minute). I solved this problem by installing the dm9601 module which is distributed for Slax (another lightweight Linux distro).

Here's how to install the Slax dm9601 module:

1) Download it from http://slax.hosting4p.com/modules.php?category=network&id=2093&name=dm9601-wk-668
You'll get a file named dm9601_wk_668_i386_1.mo, which contains a Squashfs filesystem.

2) Mount the .mo file and get the file named dm9601.ko
# mkdir /tmp/mo
# mount -t squashfs dm9601_wk_668_i386_1.mo /tmp/mo -o loop
# cp /tmp/mo/lib/modules/2.6.16/kernel/drivers/net/dm9601.ko /tmp/
# umount /tmp/mo

3) Unload Puppy's dm9601 module if it's loaded: rmmod dm9601

4) Replace Puppy's dm9601.ko. (You may want to keep a copy of it)
# cp /tmp/dm9601.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/net/dm9601.ko

5) Update module dependencies: depmod -a (I'm not sure it's needed.)

6) Load the new module: modprobe dm9601

Done. The connection never dropped again and I'm writing this post on my old laptop

[wakiwan17]

hi.. tried it in 3.01 but whenever i mount the module.. it always fails.. what am i doing wrong?

[Jose]

Hi Rodrigo,

thanks for the post, I have the same piece of hardware behaving as you described above.

Two things - the link in your post is not valid anymore. With Google I found another location of the file, but when I do all the steps in your post, after modprobe I receive message:

[rodrigorgs]

The download link doesn't work anymore, so I uploaded the module to this URL: http://roden.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/dm9601.ko
Please note that this is the .ko file, so it isn't necessary to mount/umount. Just copy the file to /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/net/dm9601.ko and reload the module.

[Jose]

Rodrigo, thanks a lot for uploading the file. DM9601 module which comes with Puppy Dingo 4 does not work so it is really helpful to have it available on the net.

[kanam327]

hi can you guys give me a step by step tut on how to mount the driver for the dm 9601.this has been the only thing thats stopping me from using puppy on my sony laptop pcg-f630 its an old laptop with an AMD k6-550 proc.puppy works fast but i cant figure out how to get an internet connection if i can get this to work i just might erase my windoze OS.I dont know much about the command line thing so a walkthrough would be greatly appreciated.

[Jose]

Kanam,

in my case I did not need command line at all. I use Puppy 4 so I clicked on Network wizard, clicked autoload usb, then on eth0 (number can be different if you have other network card - e.g. wifi), then test eth0. If "Puppy can find a live network", it is a good news and you can proceed with clicking on autoDHCP button. After a while an icon representing network connection should appear next to the clock in system tray and you should be able to get to the internet.

If you get stuck on the way, post here what steps you did and what messages you got.

Good luck, Puppy is worth it

Jose

[kanam327]

ok jose i will give it a spin right now almost gave up on puppy but last night tried out puppy 2.17 and the module recognizes my usb adapter but i still couldnt get it to connect so im downloading dingo again and burning a new cd will keep you updated and thanks for the reply.