I read in Michael Lewis's Absolute BSD that the best way to learn the system is to explore /etc/ so I decided to take a look at the files in /etc/ and see if I could find out where control of loading modules at boot time lies. I thought that finding references to `modprobe` in the files in /etc/ might give me a clue so I did:

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It's a week or so since I did anything to that laptop. I've got a working OS on it but I don't have a network connection, not to mention X or any other pretties.

First I want to get the network up and running. I know that the NIC works as I explained before, so that's not a problem. It's a Xircom Credit Card Ethernet 10/100+ Modem 56 CEM56-100

I know that the machine is connected to the pcmcia cardbus:

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I have an old laptop computer that I have had an old distribution of Fedora running on for ages. I wanted to use the laptop with QCad to create drawings of a brake van that I am helping to renovate at my local steam railway.

I could have installed QCad on the Fedora setup but it was very slow and clunky and I thought that with a more stripped down installation it might be quicker. So I decided to install Slackware 12 that I got on the DVD that came with a copy of Linux Format Magazine...