[elrepo] Atheros 8161 Gigabit ethernet controller

[Phil Perry]

On 18/02/14 19:27, D. R. Hardy wrote:
> Greetings;
>
> I am given to understand that I can use one of the kmod-alx drivers to get
> a RHEL 6.5 machine's Atheros 8161 ethernet controller working (supplied
> with HP Pavilion).  I'm a RHEL subscriber with a developer license and have
> opened a problem report and gone through multiple procedures and internet
> searches and come up short.
>
> My machine has zero internet access at present and I also understand that I
> need to do the updates first before I can utilize any ethernet drivers.
>   But I can't get the updates without the net;  chicken-and-egg scenario
> here, as sneakernet and USB sticks are limited in this regard.
>
> Meanwhile there are four different kmod-alx drivers at elrepo;  which one
> to use?
>
> Any thoughts, advice, would be helpful and much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> davidx
>
>

Hi David,

Yes, kmod-alx is the correct driver for the Atheros 8161 ethernet 
controller.

The latest version, kmod-alx-0.0-8, was built against the RHEL-6.4 
kernel so you will need at least 6.4 installed before installing 
kmod-alx. If you're not already at at least 6.4, can you download the 
latest 6.5 DVD ISO image and update locally from that.

Then just grab a copy of the latest kmod-alx RPM from the repository for 
your architecture and transfer via USB stick or similar onto the machine 
in question, install and reboot.

x86:
http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el6/i386/RPMS/kmod-alx-0.0-8.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm

x86-64:
http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el6/x86_64/RPMS/kmod-alx-0.0-8.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm

Hope that helps,

Phil

PS - If it's not possible to update the system to at least 6.4, you 
might get away with updating just the kernel to the 6.4 kernel 
(kernel-2.6.32-358.el6), and be able to install the driver and get it 
working to facilitate a full update.