Re: Q: Why is linux-wlan-ng not an ordinary part of the kernel?
Mariano Kamp <mkamp@gmx.de> writes:
> I believe to have a prism wlan card in my notebook and while digging
> around what to do I came to the conclusion that I need a module,
> which is in linx-wlan-ng?!
Not necessarily. I believe there are also working drivers in the
kernel, and in the separate PCMCIA driver pack; look for "Hermes"
driver support.
> It is a kernel module and part of the official debian distro, isn't
> it? My expectation had been to see this turn up in menuconfig, but
> it doesn't. There also isn't a precompiled module for the current
> 2.4.22 kernel in the repository.
"Part of the distribution" doesn't necessarily mean "part of the
official kernel source". For linux-wlan-ng, you actually need to get
the source to the package, put it in /usr/src/modules, and use
kernel-package to build the modules (if you're building your own
kernel, which it sounds like you are). See
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html for more
information on building kernels "the Debian way".
If you're using Debian stable, there isn't anything official for
kernel 2.4.22 at all. If you're using unstable, it looks like the
maintainer hasn't built modules for that kernel yet; you might look
through the list of relevant bugs in the BTS and file a wishlist bug
if there isn't one yet.
> Is there any particular reason for this or is it just, that the
> module somehow is prevented from becoming a *first class* citizen of
> the kernel?
"The upstream maintainer hasn't convinced the upstream kernel
maintainers to include it."
--
David Maze dmaze@debian.org http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal."
-- Abra Mitchell
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