Fw: linux newbie

[Ben Scott]

On 1/12/07, mike miller <k4ghp at comcast.net> wrote:
> Thanks for everyones help.  I've confirmed that the hardware is the
> Realtek RTL8111/8168B, identified the correct driver, downloaded the tar
> file and expanded it. When I tried to install it (make clean modules) I
> got an error (no such file or directory) after the line:
> Make -C /lib/modules/2.618-1.2798.fc6/build ........
> I went to that directory and found a file named build but it was
> identified as a "broken link".

  First, let's try a shot-in-the-dark: You might try building the
driver source as the "root" user, if you didn't do that already.
Normally, the preference is to not run software builds as "root", but
I've encountered driver kits which expect to be built as root in the
past.

  If that doesn't work:

  Linux supports the concept of files which are "links", or files
which point to other files.  (Verbosely, "symbolic link", or
"symlink".)  Any program which reads or writes a link actually ends up
using the target file.  (This is kind of like a "shortcut" in Windows,
but more seamless.)  It sounds like one of the files used during the
drive build is a link which points to something which isn't there.

  Get to a shell prompt (also called "command prompt", "terminal",
"xterm", etc.) and issuing the following commands:

	cd /lib/modules/2.618-1.2798.fc6
	file build

  The "file" command should tell us what the "build" is trying to
point to, which might help us deduce what is wrong.

  For example:

	$ file foo
	foo: broken symbolic link to `/no/such/file'
	$

  In the above, I created a bogus link named "foo", which pointed to
"/no/such/file".  As you can see, the "file" command identified it as
broken, and indicated where it was pointing.

-- Ben