Suggestions Needed
Hello everybody,
I'm quite happily running (stable) Debian/Linux on a 486DX4-100 laptop,
thanks to patient reading of docs and mailing list messages.
At the moment I just need some suggestions maily related to installation
details:
1- I've installed kernel support for several modules, including some
I don't really need. How do I avoid these extra modules from being
loaded at boot time ? Shall I just delete them from the list in
/etc/modules (if I remember correctly) ?
2- As for network support, I just need PPP, not SLIP (although the SLIP
module is needed eventually to run diald, I understand).
After several unsuccessful attempts and some (hard) reading of messages
on this mailing list, I realized that at boot time only
the SLIP devices are configured (cat /proc/net/dev shows only sl0, ..., sl4),
and that the script "ppp" in /etc/inet.d should be edited to change
a 0 to 1, in order to have ppp activated (IMHO this info should be
made easier to find ...). At the end, I got ONE device (ppp0) which
allowed me to run pppd successfully. Now, how do I get rid of the four SLIP
devices I don't need ? Why I got only one PPP device, instead of 4 ?
(Although it's not clear to me if I need the other three devices ...).
3- In order to use the modem I've to load the PCMCIA card manager daemon.
In the docs, they suggest to put "rc.pcmcia start" in rc.M, but I understand
this is the default init setup under Slackware. Debian/Linux has a more
complex setup (rc0.d, rc1.d, ..., rc6.d), and other docs suggest to query
Ian Murdock in order to add other init scripts. So, the question:
what is the proper way to fire up PCMCIA daemons in Debian/Linux ?
I will have a similar problem, I guess, when I will rebuild the kernel
to support Advanced Power Management: where and how is better to
start the apm daemon ?
4- I understand that diald doesn't work with cua? devices, but only with
ttyS? ones. My PCMCIA card manager (by Dave Hinds) dynamically links
/dev/modem to the first /dev/cua? available. Is there anyone which already
solved this problem, i.e. use of diald with PCMCIA modems ?
5- Finally, one suggestion I would like to give to developers:
In order to have my PS/2 busmouse working, I had to manually create
the /dev/psaux device (hinted at by the Busmouse.howto). Why this device
is not part of the standard setup ?
Sorry for the length of this message. I hope this may also help other users
of Debian/Linux on laptops.
Thanks in advance to everybody for any help
Antonio Maggio
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