Hi all, I've been trying, on and off, to get a working debian install on my Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop. I can generally get a working install, but I lack the necessary clue to make it work just right. I wondered, then, if there was any chance of a little guidance...
My first problem is PCMCIA. To avoid the machine locking up completely during boot, I need to add the line "exclude ports 0x800-0x8ff" (or similar, I'm not 100% sure now..) to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts -- am I confused, or is this going to stop PCMCIA working at a later date? If it is, is there anything else I can do to get around this problem? My other problem is with the nvidia drivers - I'm still not particularly confident about compiling kernels and/or modules[1], and all the docs I've found for the nvidia drivers seem to assume the reader is :-( If anyone has any fairly straightforward instructions for fixing them, or has a simple[2] explanation of what I need to achieve, I'd be most grateful. I keep going back to windows on this machine - my one last windows box, after debianising the rest of my network - but I keep getting hacked off with Windows crashing all the time, and not behaving sensibly. To clarify, the machine is almost identical to that described at http://www.theonline.org/linux/vostok.phtml , except with half the size disk, a CD drive instead of DVD, and a mere 866MHz CPU. And I have no intention of dual booting - for various reasons, I've never really seen the point... I get the feeling there were other problems, but I think each of them is surmountable if I can just get these two issues cleared up. Then I just need to play with ALSA to support my soundcard... (Creative Extigy, USB) Thanks in advance! [1]Kernels compiled: 1. Kernels that booted: 1. Kernels that had network support: 0. Doh. Add in the fact I was doing this remotely, and perhaps you see why I'm so very wary about such things.... [2] It doesn't necessarily have to assume no prior knowledge or intelligence, but it would be nice if it didn't assume I hack kernels in my sleep ;-) -- James Green || jkg[at]ox[dot]compsoc[dot]net This sig brought to you by huggietag, the letter D and the number 20 http://www.earth.li/projectpurple/progs/htag.html
