nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
My ethernet card does not work under various GNU/Linux operating systems. In this situation, my ethernet card does not work with Puppy Linux 2.17 "Dancer."
Now, I've been researching this issue for a couple of days, and I've come across a couple of solutions. I see a lot of the same responses and answers, but none of them seem to apply toward my problem.
At the moment, I'm inside of Ubuntu 7.10 (Feisty)
I have no clue as to why it will work under Ubuntu 7.10. I'm using the Live-CD, so I haven't updated it or anything. Although Feisty has some problems, it doesn't have a single problem figuring out what my ethernet card is.
I do know a couple of things about it in Ubuntu, though:
1. It's using the forcedeth driver.
2. It can establish a connection and assign an IP address
3. It can send and receive packets
I've read in various parts of the web that is has to do with the version of forcedeth being used. I've also read that it has to do with the linux kernel being used.
I don't know the truth, though. I don't know why it works. I've been researching it non-stop, and it's like figuring out the mysteries of the universe. Nobody really seems to have found an answer.
I suspect if I were to grab 20 books on programming, linux, drivers, and more, then I would be able to figure all of this out. I would spend more time looking at code then doing comparisons. However, I don't currently possess those abilities. I figure some of the people on this board might.
However, I don't think it's really that complicated. That's why I'm wondering if any of you know what could be different between Ubuntu Feisty and Puppy Linux "Dancer."
I'm thinking it could be the version of forcedeth.
I'm also thinking it could be some other modules and daemons used between Feisty and Dancer.
I don't know.
What do you think?
nVidia MCP51 Ethernet Controller not recognized
I have a computer with an Nvidia Ethernet controller that has the same problem. I took the brute force approach and dug out a PCI Ethernet card from the garage that has a Realtek 8139 chip on it. I installed it and disabled the on-board controller in the BIOS. All is well. Of course this only works for a desktop computer. I'm not sure what you would need to do on a notebook.
After I installed Puppy Linux version 4.3.1, the operating system recognizes the the on-board Nvidia Ethernet controller just fine. Same hardware, just the updated version of Puppy. I even found a new home for the Realtec adapter card that was no longer needed. It's now in my semi-green Socket 7 computer. All is well.