Yeah, well Slackware likes to be ultra conservative. They are using kernel 2.4.33 as the standard with 2.6.21 as an option. Now here's the question: there is a kernel-generic-2.6.21...., a kernel-huge-2.6.21... and a kernel-huge-smp-2.6.21... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say I want the generic version. Anyone know what the huge versions are for? And the kernel-modules for 2.6.21 is 50 megabytes! I suppose that's for all the various devices.

I still haven't gotten the new LAN to work and the CDROM is behaving strangely (It seems to mount and I can do 'ls' successfully but data reads fail) but the most irritating problem so far is in the BIOS monitoring CPU fan speed. About half the samples are way off, frequently it says 0, them 2300 then 300, &c. The result is that every boot ot interrupted for fan speed errors, despite the fan functioning normally.

If you are talking about reboot vs boot. This is common and a hardware glich (nothing can really be done). What happens is the cpu is already warm. During boot, the system checks the cpu temperature before it starts the fans. It sees that the cpu is warm and that the fan is not running (yet) and it freaks. There is probably a setting in bios to ignore this. It is probably better to just continue doing it the way you have been. Once the system is set up there will be very little need for reboots.

CD, I would check the data cable connections and if that does not work swap out the cable.

I assume that you are using lmsensors. If you have not found a custom sensors.conf, you will probably have to dial it in for accurate results. The other problem is that a fan is not a fan. They use different methods of controlling speeds. One motherboard my be fine with one fan and another may not.

As to the lan, which kernel did you choose?

I suspect that the HUGE kernel is for use with 4GB RAM and up. The smp is for dual-core CPUs.

As for LAN, I posted an article some time ago that described how to get LAN functional on a Gentoo system; it appear that the module (Via Rhine) will fail unless it is compiled into the kernel (the author assumed that this would be different for more recent kernels but apparently was not 100% sure).

On the boot/reboot thing, I am rebooting and the fan never stops. When I look at BIOS h/w monitoring, it is measuring the fan speed all over the place. I don't know how it measures the speed but it is unreliable.

CD, okay I will change the cable out. The BIOS is saying I don't have a cable something, I don't really know what it means, but changing the cable is easy.

Re LAN, I am trying to get the files DL'd so I can go either way. I will go 2.6.x if I can figure it out, 2.4.33 if that seems more doable. Right now I am having problems DL'ing the files because Windows (my internet system) is changing the file sizes when I DL them. As soon as I can get good files in place I will load it up. I found an extra HD so I can load the system up without messing up what I have running. That should make the process easier.

Have you tried using firefox instead of IE?

No, not FireFox. I can say however that Opera does the same thing. I don't remember this happening before. I will give FireFox a try.

Okay, I am nearly up and running. The CD is now working with a new cable, good call. I got installed from floppies and I am running 2.4.33 now and I have 2.6.21 right there for the choosing. The /boot dir looks thus:


lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2007-05-09 11:28 System.map -> System.map-ide-2.4.33.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 731149 2007-04-30 14:43 System.map-generic-2.6.21.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 629105 2006-09-01 01:51 System.map-ide-2.4.33.3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 2007-05-09 11:28 config -> config-ide-2.4.33.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 72350 2007-04-30 14:43 config-generic-2.6.21.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41810 2006-09-01 01:51 config-ide-2.4.33.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5032 2006-08-08 00:34 diag1.img
-r-------- 1 root root 1276633 2007-05-09 11:42 vmlinuz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1620344 2007-04-30 14:43 vmlinuz-generic-2.6.21.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1313255 2006-09-01 01:51 vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3

Now what the LAN driver wants is the kernel source. I have an archive (rhinefet.tgz) which expands into source code and when I do 'make' it wants kernel source. Unfortunately Apache, samba, mysql are all broken with the new kernel so I am having to do some gymnastics going back and forth to boot 2.2.16 to copy stuff over then boot to 2.4.33 to install etc. Messy.

I suspect the fan thing is due to the fan being low power. I think the speed is detected by the way the fan modulates the 12V supply and running a low power fan doesn't modulate it enough. Just a theory, of course.

Anyway this thread has been a huge help to me and I can't thank all of you enough.

rdx

I think you have the right idea about the fan. I could not remember the correct words.

I have had the system running for months now and despite everything I have tried, the onboard LAN does not work with Linux, and the ASUS people only speak Windoz. I like the AMD processor and the BIOS lets me slow down the clock in summer to keep the temp down. But I am having some weird problems and I don't know their source. For example, I can't get LILO to work. Maybe because the first partition is swap? I Dunno. And I can only get the bare.i kernel to work, the others don't boot, and I can't compile a kernel, they also won't boot (and come out smaller than bare, something wrong there. Anyway, the system works well for basic things but the LAN was a big thing to me and not being able to make it work sours the experience.