I've been using the 2.0.34 kernel for some time and have had a smallish problem. I have quite a lot of stuff that comes with the Debian distribution installed, and am also running with Appletalk enabled (and Netatalk installed).
The IP address and routes are set correctly in /etc/init.d/network, still the system doesn't have an IP address when it comes up, only an Appletalk address. I have to log in as root, run /etc/init.d/network (which seems to wipe out the Appletalk address) and the /etc/init.d/netatalk restart. Irritating, to say the least, and completely unsuitable for a server which I'd like to be able to reboot remotely and have it come up again in a usable state. I've also been playing with ipchains and couldn't get it to work. I just got a handful of error messages each time. Then I read that ipchains isn't really available in the 2.0 kernels and that I should use a 2.1 kernel instead. I installed 2.1.125 after having configured it the same way as my old kernel. When the system booted with the new kernel, I got all sorts of error messages that had to do with networking. Also, ifconfig definitely didn't want to work. I just got a number of error messages (and yes, IP and Appletalk are both enabled in the kernel). This was unexpected, since people on this list seem to have been able to just install the 2.1 kernel and have it work without having to do much else. Oh well, back to basics. I was going to return to 2.0.34 but figured that there might be a later kernel so I checked and yes, there it was, the 2.0.35 kernel. I installed it instead and everything worked just as well (or as bad) as with 2.0.34 during the boot process. Then it was going to start xdm, and the display just started to flicker on and off. My monitor shuts itself off when it can't sync with the display adapter, and the flickering seemed to indicate that there was something terribly wrong with the graphics modes in 2.0.35. Oh yes, I have a simple ATI 3D Graphics Turbo card in this computer (hey, it's a server). Next I booted with 2.0.34 again, and the graphics worked just as it did with 2.0.34 and 2.1.125. So, what's going on here? What's the problem with that I can't get networking in 2.1 to work? What's the problem with the graphics in 2.0.35? And what do I really need to use ipchains? /Robert
