I have a couple questions about installing slackware on this laptop I just got as a gift.

First, I hear that there is no native Broadcom driver, so I would like to know how to set that up in slackware (with ndiswrapper I guess, but I've never done that before)

NExt, the graphic chip is a SiS760, does that work with Xv extensions, I really need them to use Cinelerra and Kino et cetera, and what is the state of its 3D acceleration (blender).

Last, I want to know if the PCMCIA chip is support, as I want to add a firewire card to the system.

I'll post an lspci later, but I have to run right now, thanks in advance!

Jeffrey D Whitehouse

I had to write it down (so some stuff's abbreviated) but here's my lspci for hardware:

Host Bridge: SiS 760/M760 (rev 03)
PCI Bridge: SiS SG86C202
ISA Bridge: SiS85C50315513
IDE: SiS 5513
Modem: SiS AC97 Modem Controller
Audio: SiS Sound Controller
USB: SiS 1.0, 1.0, 2.0
Ethernet: SiS 900
Cardbus Bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC Card Cardbus Controller (Rev 02)
Network Controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown Device 4318 (Rev 02)
Host Bridge: AMD K8 Northbridge */says that one four times*/
VGA Compatible: SiS 661FX... 760/M760 PCI/AGP */its a 760 so I shortened the list*/

Anyhow, the parts I'm really worried about (Since Garburew booted into X) are the PCMCIA slot and the Broadcom, if I can get those to work under Linux I'd like to install slack. SO if anyone has any pointers about laptop installations, I'd really like to know them.

Thanks in Advance,

Jeffrey D Whitehouse

Alright, don't bother, got it working myself

but a note for future users: dhcpd doesn't really work, add your DNS to resolv.conf and use ifconfig wlan0 192.168.***.*** to give the card an IP addy

What exactly did you do to get the wireless to be recognized at all?

I had to use ndiswrapper to use the wireless chipset. I can't remember exactly where I got the wireless inf files, but it was a zip file of Broadcom drivers from late 04 that extracted into a file called 802bg.... if anyone needs this file e-mail me at geemail, same account name

There are two .inf files one is bcmwl5 and the other is bcmwl5a, use "bcmwl5a.inf" I kept the entire unzipped folder, I think that this is necessary as it rejected the file by itself. (I may be wrong though)

you will also need the wireless tools (of course) iwconfig is a great help in making sure your network is functioning.

For the rest of this post: I have an 802.11B wifi not G, and I would imagine the chip works differently with G as its rate automatically goes to 54Mbps, but it can be set to work with 802.11B anyhow.

For my 11Mbps network, dhcpd did not work, and "iwlist wlan0 scan" would return no results.
After configuring my laptop "iwlist wlan0 scan" returns both my and my neighbor's wireless networks.

activate the "/etc/rc.d/ >> rc.wireless; rc.wireless.conf files" ("chmod +x" standard slackware/bsd drill)

next you need to fill in the information in "/etc/r.c.d/rc.wireless.conf" with information for your network, mine looks like this:

# Generic example (decribe all possible settings)
*)
INFO="Fill with your own settings..."
# ESSID (extended network name) : My Network, any
ESSID="WLAN"
# NWID/Domain (cell identifier) : 89AB, 100, off
# NWID="Cell 01"
# Operation mode : Ad-Hoc, Managed, Master, Repeater, Secondary, auto
MODE="Managed"
# Frequency or channel : 1, 2, 3 (channel) ; 2.422G, 2.46G (frequency)
FREQ="2.462"
CHANNEL="11"
# Sensitivity (cell size + roaming speed) : 1, 2, 3 ; -70 (dBm)
# SENS=""
# Bit rate : auto, 1M, 11M
RATE="11M"
# Encryption key : 4567-89AB-CD, sassword
# KEY=""
# RTS threshold : off, 500
# RTS=""
# Fragmentation threshold : off, 1000
# FRAG=""
# Other iwconfig parameters : power off, ap 01:23:45:67:89:AB
# IWCONFIG=""
# iwspy parameters : + 01:23:45:67:89:AB
# IWSPY=""
# iwpriv parameters : set_port 2, set_histo 50 60
# IWPRIV=""

You can usually get this information from your router. use the laptops builtin fastethernet or another computer to access it, if you can't use either of those, pray you wrote the information down before you destroyed windows (which comes with the laptop in all cases I think).

Since DHCPD did not work for me I also had to add my DNS servers in "/etc/resolv.conf" . Yet again, information from your router.

Also you will have to add your router as a gateway "/sbin/route add
default gw 192.168.2.1 "

Although I might have mistyped the commands normal usage of "iwconfig" wouldn't change my chips settings, but changing the boot files did work for me. I can't really explain this, but it may be of use to know if you have the same issue.

PS: This kind of issue is where slackware shines, autoconfiguration programs would most likely just break on this kind of unsupported setup (kwifi stuff sure did).

I hope this helps all of you, it certainly made my laptop more usable in my room,

Jeffimix