Those two commands probe for an ethernet card. The first of them shows you any network resources you may now have on the machine. That's what that -a switch is for show all resources. The ifconfig eth0 shows you specifics about eth0 if it exists but does not modify anything with respect to the card or the machine. On Mon, 4 Mar 2013, Karen Lewellen wrote: > Kiddo, > You illustrate what others have pointed out...the assumption that one > automatically knows what those are, how to run them, and how to avoid doing > harm. > Given the person who installed debian on the drive in the first place fried a > hard drive with experimenting, I am not going there, smiles. > Kare > > On Mon, 4 Mar 2013, Jude DaShiell wrote: > > > As a real quick experiment that won't do any harm you could as root or > > using sudo try ifconfig -a enter and if that shows you an eth0 port try > > ifconfig eth0 and see if the name of the ethernet card driver comes up. > > If so, I expect what Tim Chase told you will be accurate. On Mon, 4 Mar > > 2013, Karen Lewellen wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > no it is wired. > > > I saved the wireless stuff for my dos laptop. > > > The in theory meaning that Linux would just load network drivers even if > > > not > > > installed on a machine with a network? > > > That makes sense actually. when we put the hard drive in, debian found or > > > basically at least, the hardware in the computer. I have a dec-talk > > > express > > > for the Linux box, and all the modules loaded just fine. > > > We shall find out on Saturday then. > > > thanks, really! > > > Kare > > > > > > On Mon, 4 Mar 2013, Tim Chase wrote: > > > > > > > > if we just connect the network card to the new dsl modem > > > > > and boot up the Linux box, will it load the drivers it may > > > > > need for that hardware automatically? > > > > > > > > In theory, it should already have drivers for your network > > > > card and be configured to (1) notice that the network cable > > > > has been plugged in, and (2) default to using DHCP to talk > > > > to your router. > > > > > > > > If not, there are additional diagnostics one can check to > > > > ensure that you have a network card that Linux supports, and > > > > that nobody configured the machine for a static IP address > > > > in favor of a dynamic one. If it uses wireless rather than > > > > wired connections, that is a whole other mess. > > > > > > > > -tim > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Blinux-list mailing list > > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Blinux-list mailing list > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > jude <jdashiel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > Remember Microsoft didn't write Tiger 10.4 or any of its successors. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list mailing list > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Blinux-list mailing list > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- jude <jdashiel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Remember Microsoft didn't write Tiger 10.4 or any of its successors. _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list