Networking with SuSE 7.2 Professional

So graphics-wise, with my ThinkCenter S50 running SuSE Linux 7.2, I was where I wanted to be, but there was another problem, the ThinkCenter’s network adapter appeared a bit too new for the 2.4.4 kernel:

1. deepblue:~ # modprobe e1000
2. /lib/modules/2.4.4-64GB-SMP/kernel/drivers/net/e1000.o: init_module: No such device

It’s not that I expect to do a lot with networking on a device that won’t be able to do modern https or imaps. But if I don’t want to tranfer files using floppies of at most 1.44 MB, or have to figure out how USB sticks work on this OS, I do need some kind of network connection.

At SourceForge (where else) I located sources for the e1000 module that my ThinkCenter needed to understand its on-board ethernet. I chose version 5.0.43 since according to SourceForge, it was from 2005. Since I didn’t have any luck mounting USB disks, I formatted an HD (1.44 MB) floppy using KFloppy on my ThinkCenter to copy the downloaded tarball (which was just over 17 kB, so no problem there) from my PC to a directory on my ThinkCenter. Next, I had to install the kernel sources, which were available on CD #3.

Once I had those, I could untar the tarball and build the driver:

1. $ tar xzvf e1000-5.0.43.tar.gz
2. $ cd e1000-5.0.43/src
3. $ make

Compiling the e1000 module

This gave me the e1000.o file, which was the module. To let my kernel know about it, I switched to a tty where I already had a root logged in and there I did:

1. # cp /home/diederic/e1000/e1000-5.0.43/src/e1000.o /lib/modules/2.4.4-64GB-SMP/kernel/drivers/net/
2. # depmod -a 2.4.4-64GB-SMP
3. # modprobe e1000
4. # lsmod | grep e1000

And since it was there, why not:

1. # ifconfig -a

Returning to my KDE shell, I still had the YaST2 Control Center application open from installing the kernel sources. I navigated to Network/Basic → Network card configuration and found myself looking at a window that proposed using DHCP on network device eth0. And then, my ThinkCenter, which its Futurama-inspired hostname deepblue, had an IP address and DNS.

Communicating still appears tricky, though:

1. $ ssh deepblue
2. Unable to negotiate with 172.16.1.193 port 22: no matching host key type found. Their offer: ssh-dss
3. $ ssh -Q key
4. ssh-ed25519
5. ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com
6. sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com
7. sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com
8. ssh-mldsa44-ed25519@openssh.com
9. ssh-mldsa44-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com
10. ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
11. ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com
12. ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
13. ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com
14. ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
15. ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com
16. sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com
17. sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com
18. ssh-rsa
19. ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com

No ssh-dss, then.

Since it’s just for exchanging files between two computers inside my network, perhaps setting up FTP on my main PC is easiest. There’s a Netscape icon on my desktop, but like ssh, any site using https is out of the question. Lots of sites still use TLS1.0/1.1 and certificates can be imported. But old browsers also lack cryptographic implementations and cipher suites. Netscape’s mail client does imaps but will have the same problem.

These seven CDs, though, are filled to the brim with software (“over 2000 applications!”) for people who, 25 years ago, didn’t have an internet connection that allowed for downloading software. I already compiled something locally after downloading it from the internet too, so perhaps there is a way to install even more software. In any case, I’m eager to see what else I can do with it.

To be continued.