Re: Configuring a Compaq Armada for wireless
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
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