[ltp] SuSE 8.0 on TP 600E *beware*

[Eric Jorgensen]

On Thu, 9 May 02 13:41:55 -0500
walt <walt@interaccess.com> wrote:

> This has not been fun.
> 
> 1)  Upgrade from 7.3 to 8.0 went smoothly, except that my wireless card would
> not configure (SMC 2632W), the wlan-ng package is used in this release and it
> insists on using the prism2 driver which doesn't work.  I tried to force it to
> the orinoco_cs drivers but the scripts are broke.  (This is also found
> discussed on the suse-linux-e list.)  I did not fix this.
> 
> 2)  Viewing things as sufficiently screwed up, I went for the scratch install.
>  SuSE 8.0 by default uses the kernel pcmcia extentions which hang on my 600E.
> I got around this by booting to single-user and changing in
> /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia the variable PCMCIA_SYSTEM from kernel to external.
> 
> 3)  Now booting, it doesn't recognize my 100baseT card.  Plain old 3COM
> 3CXFE575CT.  ifconfig hangs because the card is not recognized I guess.
> 
> Anybody else making better progress than I am?


	All of these sound like kernel / driver build problems. I think you're being
unreasonably harsh, not that there aren't good reasons not to use SuSE anyhow
(case in point: it's annoying). But there has never (ever) been a
distribution-supplied kernel that was worth a plug nickel more than five minutes
after installation was completed. this is linux for crying out loud. 

	Unless, of course, SuSE has modified the way that the pcmcia_cs scripts work.
If that's the case, the coders responsible, and their managers,  should all be
lined up and horse-whipped. 

	Exactly how did you try to force orinoco_cs? There's only one or two right
ways. I ask because I've had no trouble under any distribution shuffling
wireless drivers. Maybe you just have a pcmcia configuration problem, and the
current reality is that a distribution isn't likely to be able to anticipate the
needs of every laptop. Some assembly required. but, hey, this is linux for
crying out loud. 

 - Eric 

----- The Linux ThinkPad mailing list -----
The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
http://www.bm-soft.com/~bm/tp_mailing.html