[KLUG Members] installing new driver

[bill]

Got a new 3com eth card I want to install (3c905CX).

Because it's brand new, I want to use the latest driver. In this case, I'll use
the Linux driver that came with the disk.

On Windows, I would install the card and then install the driver off the disk
using plugnpray, or force it by other means if that fails.

On Linux, my understanding, if I may use that term so loosely, is that the
drivers somehow "already exist" in some occult location related to the OS.  I
was thinking of using that auto-detection program that occurs during Linux boot
but...

The driver that came with the card requires that the driver for linux (2.4
kernal) be compiled.  They even provide a batch script for doing so, but, alas,
the batch script came back with:

gcc: command not found

So, my questions are:

How can I find out if I have the latest version already?  This is RH 7.3.

How do I compile this driver without gcc?

Can I assume that the new-hardware-detection program that runs during boot will
allow me to add this latest driver and that this detection program is the proper
place to do so?

thanks in advance,

bill hollett