[PLUG] Redhat 7.3 2.6.9 kernel upgrade...

[plug_0 at robinson-west.com]

Quoting Alan <alan at clueserver.org>:

> On Tue, 2005-02-22 at 13:06 -0800, plug_0 at robinson-west.com wrote:
> > It looks like I need the newer ndisutils to get the Realtek mini
> > pci 8180 Rev, 20 to work.  That requires the 2.6.9 kernel from
> > what I can tell.
> > 
> > I can't get modutils-3.0.1 from kernel.org to compile.  I'm wondering 
> > if I need to update my compilers?
> > 
> > The ndiswrapper-0.12 says the hardware is detected and all, but 
> > when I go to do the modprobe ndiswrapper I get a ton of 
> > unresolved symbols errors.
> > 
> > I got a 2.6.9 kernel with NFS root set to compile.  Admittedly, I'm 
> > wondering what some of the new stuff under the iptables section is.  
> > It would be awfully nice to have an NFS root howto for 2.6 kernels.
> 
> Redhat 7.3 uses the 2.4 kernels, not the 2.6 kernels.  There are a bunch
> of things that you have to upgrade.  If you are going to that trouble,
> why not upgrade to a later version of Redhat?

Going to that kind of trouble when doing NFS root is a lot of 
trouble.  You have to install the distribution you want to export 
on the machine you want to export it to, or at least a machine 
that has the same processor, etc.  RealTek made Redhat 7.3 
drivers, it is pathetically ridiculous that they don't work.  
What is even more frustrating is that I got this card thinking 
it's Linux compatible.  I'm tempted to try Slackware 10 if I 
have to get a newer Linux system.  I ran into a web site that 
said ndiswrapper and my card work under Slackware 10 and a 
little more research suggested that Slackware 10 is 2.6 ready.

If there's a way to upgrade to get a Realtek 8180 chipset card 
working it's worth doing, I'd rather not take the machine down 
to do another hard drive installation of a newer Linux 
distribution.  That would be a royal pain in the neck.  I've
never done NFS root of any 2.6 system let alone Fedora and 
the 2.6 kernel has a lot of options that I don't know much 
about.  2.6 systems are far more complex than their 2.4 
predecessors.  Besides, I'm worried that Fedora and Slackware
10, even without X, will run painfully slow on a 300 mhz 
K6-2 system.  Frankly, why do I need a Linux distribution
designed for modern Pentium 4's and Athlon XP's just to run
a Realtek 8180 wireless card?

It looks like I am going to have to take the machine down
and try to update with a newer version of Linux, if it 
will take a newer version.  Has anyone ever gotten 
ndiswrapper to work on a 2.4 system with a RealTek 8180
chipset 802.11b wireless card?

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