This laboratory exercise shall familarize the student with some hardware configuration.  Each classroom computer contains a sound card and a network interface card which normally are recognized by RedHat Linux installs.  The RedHat Linux distributions contain a utility that assists with the configuring of several types of hardware,types of hardware, even monitors and video cards necessary for running any Graphical User Interface (GUI).

To start this utility, the user must login as 'root'.  From the command prompt, enter 'setup' [ENTER].  This will start a graphical shell for several different Red Hat tools which include; authconfig, Xconfigurator, mouseconfig, ntsysv, sndconfig, and timeconfig.  The experienced system administrator can start the appropriate utility by simply typing in the command directly and bypass using 'setup'.

Configure the Sound Card

This procedure requires the utility entitled, 'sndconfig',  If you need to install it, follow the procedures outlined in Lab 1 Once you've verified this utility is installed on your sytem follow the 

• Select Sound Card Configuration
• Press [Tab] numerous times to the OK button is highlighted.
• Press [ENTER]
• Follow the instructions as they appear.  Keep in mind that your machines have Sound Blaster 16 cards and the resources to be used should be
• 220 for the ioport
• IRQ 5
• DMA 1 and 5
• Please feel free to work together and to ask the instructor for assistance.
• [Tab] to highlight OK once you've made the appropriate selections.
• Test your configuration.  If you hear the sound samples, then return to the 'setup' Graphical shell.
• Quit from the Graphical shell and return the command prompt.
• Ok you're probably asking what in the world did I just do.  Well, let's probe the system and examine some files containing the configuration information you've selected.  What has just occurred is some resource allocation for the sound card and a module has been added to the Linux kernel.
• Change to the proc directory. At the command prompt enter 'cd  /proc'.  List the files in this directory using the 'ls' command.  There are a couple of files we are going to view.  They are 'ioports' and 'interrupts'.  This is accomplished by the following command:  cat <filename> where you will replace <filename> with the file you wish to view.
• Note and record the io address allocated to the sound card.


                                       io address _________
 

• Note and record the IRQ allocated to the sound card.


                                                IRQ _________

From the command prompt, type 'netconfig' or type 'setup' and select networking from the list.  This starts a Linux configuration program we will be using to configure the NIC.  A graphical shell will appear. 

• Select to setup networking.  
• If you use DHCP on your network press TAB to select this option.  
• Press TAB repeatedly till you can press the button labeled OK.  This will setup the NIC for DHCP.  
• If you don't have DHCP on your network, you'll have to enter the correct IP address, Mask, Gateway and Nameservers.
• When completed, press OK.
  
• This doesn't complete the process.  A piece of software to handle the interface between the NIC and the kernel must be introduced.  This requires us to insert a module into the kernel.
• First, you must identify the type of NIC you are trying to install.
• After identifying the NIC, you'll need to determine what module handles this NIC.
• After the correct module is identified, it must be inserted into the kernel using the command, 'insmod module_name'.
• Now the NIC must be activated by executing the script, '/etc/rc.d/init.d/ifup eth0'.
  
• The NIC is now configured but it must be tested to assure everything works.  First, the user must determine the IP address of the NIC by typing the command, 'ifconfig eth0'.  Several lines of information will appear.  Find the IP address and record it.
• Now let's check to see if the NIC can hear itself by pinging it.  Ping it using, 'ping <IP>', where <IP> is the IP address you just determined using the ifconfig command.  If it is working correctly, a reply will  be received.   You will continue to receive replies from pinging until you enter a CTRL+C.  This will stop the ping process.
• Now let's check to see if the NIC can access the outside world.  This will be determined by pinging the Sinclair DNS, which has an IP of 140.106.52.6.  If the NIC is working on the network, you will receive a reply.   As before, enter CTRL+C to terminate the pinging process.
• If you've successfully passed all these tests you are correctly connected to the network with a working NIC.
• As a good system administrator, you should make a final check of the resources allocated to the NIC.  We'll look at the interrupts and ioports files located in the /proc directory.  Refer to the earlier exercise to list the contents of these two files.  Record the ioport and IRQ used by the NIC.