NIC Card Configuration

[updikesc]

All,

I'm new to Linux and have a few questions about my installation in terms of the NIC card configuration. I'm under the impression that since my /etc/network/interfaces file looks like

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address X.X.X.X
netmask Y.Y.Y.Y
network X.X.X.X
broadcast Z.Z.Z.Z
dns-search devserver

then....

1) what should my /etc/modules file contain to tell the kernel to load the appropriate NIC module? I assume it should be something like
...
eth0 Driver#
...

2) Once properly loaded I should see the eth0 referenced in my /etc/modules.conf file correct?

3) I assume that if (2) is successful, then I should see a reference to the eth0 in the /proc/modules file too, yes?

Thanks,
Scott

[antidrugue]

Forget about /etc/modules.conf, you don't have to change anything in there.

Normally your card should be automatically detected and configured, nothing to do.

As for /etc/network/interfaces, you need nothing more then that :

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.10
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 192.168.1.1

Plus, you can specify the module for your card in /etc/modules

[updikesc]

I think this is where I was getting confused. I was expecting to see more of a footprint of my NIC card in the various config files - mainly the /etc/modules file. Since I keep reading that NIC cards are loaded at startup as a module, then I was really expecting to see a line in the /etc/modules file. I definitely have a NIC recognized by the system since the /etc/network/interfaces file contains that information, but I didn't see any evidence beyond that. So I assume that since there are no lines in the /etc/modules file that the NIC is "registered" with the kernel under the covers.

Sorry to make such a big deal about this, but I would like to understand a little more about how things (like NICs) are recognized by the kernel when they are not in the usual config files.

What does your /etc/modules file look like (with respect to the NIC)?

Thanks for the response!