sicc

Hey guys, I just switched over to linux two days ago, and haven't slept yet. I was excited about getting this all up and running, and as many of you probably know, It didnt take me long to come to a screeching halt.

First off it took me about 3 hours just to get my touchpad on my laptop working correctly. This was kind of a letdown, as I knew I would still have to do much harder configurations to get my orinoco classic gold to work correctly.

Well that is where I am. I was up all lastnight and today searching every and any site I could find on the subject. I found many people who seemed to have the EXACT same problems I was, only to find that the thread ended after their post, or that answers supplied didn't help. If anybody can help get me up and running with this id be greatful. I'm sure my problems are because I am not familiar with linux and the whole patching/compiling process yet, but I have a good linux book on the way. I just want to get my hardware configured before it arrives.

Ok now for some info:

I am running Mandrake 10 kernel build 2.6.3-7mdk

i am trying to patch/compile the drivers for my orinoco gold classic card

the drivers it says it is using are the orinoco-0.13e

i tried patching this with the orinoco-0.13e-dragorn-patch.diff and the orinoco-0.13e.2.6.2-patch.diff

the first one said it patched correctly, but after trying to 'make' afterwards it gave me errors that a file could not be found on line 4. Now I know this is supposed to point to your kernel source tree, and I THINK it is, but as I said, im new to this and don't fully understand yet.

Now I read on another site, that I need to install pcmcia-cs-3.2.1 first. so I tried that, only again to run into problems on the compilation. Every compilation I have tried in linux so far has brought me to a halt and it is very annoying. I can see what they mean now by configuring linux is a pain in the ass, but once its up its beautiful. I just hope I can get to that part.

Anyway, so pcmcia errors after I run ./Configure with all the default options. It says I need to disable the 32bit cardbus support. So I run it again thistime choosing N for 32-bit cardbus support, the rest still default. This time it tells me for kernel builds over 2.5 [im 2.6.3] the pcmcia needs to be configured in the kernel tree. To fix, reconfigure and rebuild your kernel with PCMCIA enabled. Now instead of throwing the laptop across the room, ive decided to finally give in and ask for help. It seems linux configuration is just one big downhill slide. In trying to install orinoco drivers, but first I need to patch them, but before that I need pcmcia, which you will first need to go get your kernel src before doing... etc etc

So instead of crawling deeper into this cave cluelessly, im hoping somebody will help me get out. Even though it seems theres TONS of these threads on the net about this exact problem, none of them have helped me.

Also a big problem I am running into is directory structure. As far as where to run the 'patch' commands from, where my actual drivers are sitting [/usr/src/kernel-2.6.3-7mdk/drivers ?], and where the actual 'kernel tree' is sitting. I am sure this will all be answered in my book, but if anybody wants to try and simplify it for me go right ahead.

EDIT: Also, i've read that uninstalling all the orinoco drivers and starting over has worked for some, yet I have no idea how to go about uninstalling them from the cmd prompt. Also, every package under 'development' was installed from the cd's, so I have gcc and all that.

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-sicc

sicc

Ok I'm gettin a little farther with the PCMCIA compiling, now I'm getting:

/usr/src/linux-2.6.3-7mdk/include/linux/modversions.h does not exist!
To fix, run 'make dep' in /usr/src/linux-2.6.3-7mdk.

I run make dep where it suggests, and it says make dep is no longer neccesary... heh really.... tell PCMCIA that

I am searching now, just leaving info here too in case somebody can help.

EDIT: Also, I guess the biggest problem I've run into is that the information I've found is all for kernel builds 2.4 and below, and I've read that there are different procedures involved between 2.4 and newer builds.

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-sicc

beakmyn

Are you dead set on Mandrake? If your answer is no then follow this excellent guide for installing Fedora Core 2 , Kismet, Orinoco drivers, etc. I used the guide on mine and it worked perfectly. Although you can use the 0.13e drivers and patch them the newest drivers have the rfmon stuff built in.

Yes, the touchpad drivers are a pain in the ass, I'm guessing your touchpad is a Synaptics brand. As I understand it they (Synaptics) refused to release any specs on how to interface with their chips so the drivers that are out there not fully compatible and sometimes don't play nice.

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sicc

Ya they are the synaptics drivers. Pain in the ass but I learned a lot from it.

I'm not set on using mandrake, but I like it so far [not that I have any others to compare to], and I would like to figure out why I'm running into this, and fix it, rather than switching to another.

I will download Fedora for later if I do not get past this, but I don't see that happening. I would rather learn on one of the more difficult distrobutions of linux, so that i can use any of them later.

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-sicc

sicc

I also noticed Fedore Core 3 was released yesterday. I'm wondering with linux, as opposed to windows, on average about how long is good to wait after new versions are released before using them.

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-sicc

Barry

You could also try Slackware, Chris is like the Slack god around here, full of cool info, even wrote a book around it. Using it right now, finally got my micro$oft (Pharos rip off) usb gps to work and am rebuilding from scratch. Doing the whole make config, make all, make install thing.

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sicc

Heh, that was actually my first attempt. After reading these boards that seemed to be the one to use. I got a crappy iso of it, and couldnt get it to boot. Since i downloaded Mandrake at the same time I just went ahead and used that.

The more i read about Fedora, I think it actually may be what I'm looking for if I reinstall. I like the fact it's based off of Redhat.

Also to answer my own question above I've realized the source files are in the /user/src directory by buildname... You would think that would be obvious to someone that didn't sleep for 52 hours. Anyway, I am loving the way linux is built more and more as I learn about it. Everything is so logical, I am still kicking myself for using windows this long. I've had linux on my 'to learn' list for about 5 years now ;\

Anyway, thanks guys for the suggestions, I'm gonna keep workin at this and see if I can avoid reinstalling.

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-sicc

sicc

Oh damn, i just realized, he wrote the book that I ordreed a week ago from that link! Hah, it should be here in a couple days. Well that answers it, Slackware it is. Is version 10 stable enough yet?

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-sicc

Barry

It's what I am hacking on right now. Works pretty good on my old laptop, once I get it on it. Should work like a dream on yours, don't know about the touch pad part though. My laptop has one of those eraser types. Got the wireless drivers all patched up, now I'm compileing ethereal. On a 266 cyrix compiles take forever, never did figure out distcc, that would be nice to have working right now....

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sicc

I'm up and running on Slackware 10. Here we go again ;]

how would I add 'cd..' as a command? I am so used to typing that, as opposed to 'cd ..'


EDIT: Got the touchpad up and running, piece of cake.

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-sicc

Barry

You can change that!! Eh, you'll get used to it. What is fun is when you have to work on dos boxen and try ls instead of dir...

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davisfactor

Peice of cake, just add this line to your ~/.bashrc file (~ is a shortcut to your home directory, and I'm assuming you're using bash)

alias cd..='cd ..'

then to apply the changes you'll need to run this: source ~/.bashrc

then test with cd..

sicc

Hah SWEET, I actually tried that already and it gave me errors. Since you mentioned it I tried messing around with the quoting, and got it to work like this: alias 'cd..=cd ..'

Anyway, thank you!!! That has been bugging the hell out of me, I start going so fast, that I don't even see the error 'command not found cd..' so like 5 commands I realize nothing's working cuz I'm in the wrong dir

I'm having the same problem others have had with Slackware not turning the computer off on shutdown... so that's probably the next 'annoying' thing I'll tackle... after I patch my orinoco driver of course.

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-sicc

Chris

I am assuming you mean after you type 'shutdown -h now' or 'halt' that it goes through the shutdown process and stops with the words 'Power Down' on the display?

If that is the case it is an easy fix. Change your kernel from bare.i to bareacpi.i

To do this...I would go about it this way (to ensure you haven't jacked it before it's too late).

Grab your slack CD and copy bareacpi.i to /boot/
(Note, the following assumes you are using the stock kernel from the CD and haven't upgraded with one of the kernels on the Slack webpage)

Then, rename it (doesn't really matter what, but I would try 'vmlinuz-bareacpi.i')
Next edit /etc/lilo.conf with the editor of your choice and scroll down until you see the lines that look something like this:

image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/hda2
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

Copy those lines and then repaste them in at the bottom of your lilo.conf.
Next, change the line that says image=/boot/vmlinuz to image=vmlinuz-bareacpi.i

And the line that says label=Linux to label=Linux ACPI

Close lilo.conf and save your changes (actually, save then close ;-))

Next, edit the /boot/boot_message.txt and a line lsimilar to this:

Linux ACPI - Slackware with power management

Run lilo from the prompt and you should see ouput similar to this:

# lilo
Added Linux *
Added DOS
Added Linux-ACPI

If you don't see the line that says Added Linux-ACPI then you screwed something up.

If you get the expected output, reboot and arrow down to linux ACPI and boot that kernel. When you are booted up, verify that everything is working as before and when you are satisfied, issue your normal shutdown command (shutdown -h now or halt). It should power all the way down.

If it did, and is the way you want it, you can get rid of the old kernel image by issuing the following commands (as root of course):

cd /boot
mv vmlinuz-bareacpi.i vmlinuz

Then edit the boot_message.txt to get rid of the Power Management line we put in, and edit /etc/lilo.conf to get rid of the vmlinuz-bareacpi.i lines we put in.

After you are done, run lilo again:


# lilo
Added Linux *
Added DOS

If that's all good, reboot and choose linux and you are all done.

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sicc

Wow... awesome info! I went through this just now, and my problem is, there is no boot_message.txt file anywhere on my linux drive.

Skipping this and running lilo gives the following

Added linux *
Fatal: /boot/vmlinuz-bareacpi.i neither a reg. file nor a block dev.

I don't know if i copied the wrong files from the cd or what [no path was specified], but I copied the /cdrom/kernels/bareacpi.i directory. This then seemed wrong to me, and I tried the process again using /cdrom/bootdisks/bareacpi.i. That also returns an error:

Added linux *
Fatal: Setup length exceeds 31 maximum; kernel setup will overwrite boot loader

Any ideas on that?

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-sicc