not sure about the omiting of the equals sign, I think though that since it is a .conf file it is another program handling the aliasing, as in it is a config param, not a bash command.

I am not sure how to turn off the verbosity, I generally keep it going.

the modules should be in /lib/modules/[kernel version here]/kernel/drivers/[somewhere in here]

In a moment of amazing genius (for a newbie), I tried `ls -R . | grep prism` in /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers, which lead me to /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.ko, but I don't think this is the one. I suspect it's not generating the proper output file.

this excerpt from make was dismaying:

make[4]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/build'
/bin/sh: line 1: /home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/../.tmp_versions/prism2_usb.mod: Permission denied
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
*** Warning: "wlan_unsetup" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "p80211netdev_hwremoved" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "unregister_wlandev" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "register_wlandev" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "wlan_setup" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "p80211netdev_rx" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "p80211skb_rxmeta_attach" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!
*** Warning: "usb_kill_urb" [/home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.ko] undefined!

I can get rid of the permission denied message using su, but the 'undefined' warnings persist. Can you make any sense of them?

Speaking of newbie cleverness, I can't think of a way to search for a file and also find out what directory it's in, because ls -R | grep gives only the filename. What's the trick for this?

there is a config script you nee dto run it will ask you if you want usb device drivers, the script is most likely called configure or configure.sh and should be int eh directory of the driver source.

(oh, and I know about locate, but I know it doesn't necessarily find everything...)

One line of make's output was
CC [M] /home/dpiepgrass/Download/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre23/src/prism2/driver/prism2_usb.o

This led me to discover a .ko file by the same name in that directory. ko is the binary for a kernel library, yes? Why did the locate command find the .c file but not the ko? And is it just me, or is it strange to compile the binaries into the same folder as the sources?

So I guess this means it compiled but failed to put the output file in the right place.

Anyway, do you think I should try copying that file to one of the subfolders of /lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers/? Also, there is a p80211.ko, maybe I should do something with that too?

do not copy it, it is most likely incomplete, and when a binary file is compiled it is compiled into the source directory then moved where it needs to go. also .ko is specifically a kernel module. you need to run the configure and compile again so it will build the usb version and install it properly. do nto try to copy it yourself, ti will likely not work (there is a slight chance it will however)

I ran ./Configure, but it seems to do exactly the same thing as make config.

(and yes I did ask it for USB support. I've also tried make clean and repeating make config just to be sure...)

ok, well instead of going with default options try out alternate options, somewhere inside if you give it the right info it should ask you if you want to make the usb version, read the README or other notes int he directory.

on a side note locate works with a database, so files created after the database ar enot found, you can rebuild the database with updatedb, but ti takes a LONG time. I recommend using find instead of locate, here is an example: find / -name "prism*" syntax is find followed by directories to look in, then use -name to specify find by name and then give it a name, sometimes it requires quotes (short searches I think) so I just always put them in there.

oh hmm, missed the second half of your last message, sorry.

In the spirit of trying non-defaults, I tried the kernel sources installed by yum in /usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.358 by supplying that folder name to `make config`. It gave this error:

Linux source tree /usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.358 is incomplete or missing!
The kernel header files are present, but not the full source code.

Which suprised me. Would you happen to know a command to find out the size of an entire folder? The package was 43 MB so I wonder whether it unpacked all of that to /usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.358. Certainly I would expect so. I used that find command to find the rpm file, then I opened it with 'FileRoller'. Everything listed in the RPM is unpacked to /./usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.358/... so certainly I expect all 43+ MB of source code is there...

du -sch /path/to/dir

-s = single (will not show you the size of every single subdirectory and file within the file/directory you give it)
-c = give you a final total of all the specified files/folders
-h human readable i.e. megabytes instead of bytes.

It's 219M in size. So... do you have any more ideas I could try?

I recomend trusting the ditribution and letting it use the kernel sources it is happy with, no matter where it finds them.. at this point you might go ahead and try moving the usb_prism.ko to the modules directory. you might also start a new thread int he hardware section summerising all of this, chances are you till get more responces from people other than me. honestly I stopped using that card months ago simply cause I didn't need it anymore, it was for my laptop to use wireless at my school, I get there and wham, wireless at the school (CC) is $50 a month so it fell out of use.

The school charges $50 a month? Insanity, I tell you!

I find wireless is really convenient at home on a laptop BTW.

Hmm, after my most recent make install as root, I used that find command and found the two ko's in /lib/modules/2.6..../linux_wlan_ng. Do you suppose that's the right place? all the other drivers .ko's are in kernel/....

Anyway, I think I'll go through all the other instructions again at this point, in case my compile worked this time...

yes that is where they should be.