Belkin F5D5005 on Ubuntu

TheBelkin F5D5005Gigabit Ethernet PCI card claims to work with Linux kernels 2.4 and 2.6–at least that’s what it says on the retail box. However, when you go to Belkin’s site to download the latest Linux drivers, they are nowhere to be found.

Turns out that the mellifluous F5D5005 works with theSysKonnect SK-98xxdrivers, which support a stupefying gaggle of operating systems.

SysKonnectpublishes a Linux installation guidefor the SK-98xx cards, which is depressingly involved. However, it looks like Ubuntu comes with the drivers pre-installed, and the only thing you have to do is issue the commandmodprobe sk98linwith appropriate privileges, and the driver loads. Fantastic. This may also work with other distributions that ship 2.6 kernels.

In order to get the driver–or kernel module, to be more precise–to load at startup, edit the file/etc/modulesby adding the linesk98lin, and all will be well. Editing this file should work on all Debian-based distributions.

Ah, much less of an ordeal than I feared…

Posted by Nic Lindh at November 1, 2004 07:01 PM |TrackBack