On Wed, 9 Feb 2000, scott taylor wrote:

[...]

compile the appropriate kernel modules and link them together with a special Ethernet cable called a "crossover" cable (which is designed for linking two machines direct to each other).

The above paragraph does not mean much to me I know my Laptop has to be linked to my Computer via cabling but what's this bit about kernel modules?

You may need to compile additional kernel modules to allow the kernel to talk to your network (interface) card(nic), similar in some respects to drivers under windoze. However most kernels in distributions such as Mandrake usually have all the kernel modules you need precompiled, and located in /lib/modules/<kernel version> or as a part of the kernel itself. (if there are lots of things that could be modular compiled into the kernel it may be worth recompiling it anyhow to remove or modularise the things you don't want, decreasing the amount of memory the kernel uses and probably increasing the start up time)

I don't know specifically how mandrake works, however, there's probably a setup program somewhere (linuxconf?) that will write all the config files for you to tell the kernel, kerneld, and/or the init scripts, which kernel modules you need and the associated address(es) for the nic.