On Tue, Oct 10, 2006 at 19:19:26 -0500, Marsh Eric wrote: > Hello, > > I recently purchased a Compaq Armada E500 laptop with a 500mhz P3. I > installed Debian 3.1 r0 on the computer from a set of CDs I've had > for a while. When I installed Linux there was no networking card so I > didn't install any networking drivers. I then ordered a 3 Com PCMCIA > Office Connect 802.11 a/b/g card and now I'm trying to get the > wireless card to work. At this point I'm not sure how to proceed. > > I guess that the ethernet drivers were not installed. I see that > there is a madwifi project that is supposed to support this card but > I'm guessing that it comes with later versions of Sarge. It also > appears that I need a new version of the kernel to get the madwifi > modules to work. > > Of course I can't download any upgrades directly to the computer > until the wireless card is working so I guess I need to download CD > images. Not sure if I need the whole set or just one or two to get me > going. > > Can anyone point me in the right direction to help me get this thing > going, even if it just means referring me to an article somewhere?
You could try one of Kenshi Muto's customized Debian Sarge installers which have backported versions of newer kernels: http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/ That is probably easier than trying to compile and install a backported kernel without network access, especially since the newer kernels require other changes to the system as well (e.g. a newer version of udev). If you have a separate partition for /home then your personal data will not be affected by the re-installation (but having backups is always recommended, of course). Alternatively you can try to download all necessary packages for the new kernel from www.backports.org and burn them onto a CD or something, but that can be quite some fuss, especially if you are not too familiar with Debian yet. Please note, however, that I have no experience with your wireless network card, so I cannot say anything about how well it will work with the new kernel. -- Regards, Florian -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
