Ok, all, here goes. I have searched every page here, and can't find a clear answer for my situation. I would like to get online. And I am dieing to be the first PCG-K23 on the hcl here and on linux-on-laptops...

My equipment...

Sony Vaio PCG-K23 running XP. Wired and wireless works fine(In windows)
Dual boot to Suse 10.0 i386 works great also. Video works fine, and mouse, keyboard, display settings, everything is great.
I installed to my freshly deleted D: drive, and am having great fun with Suse. Grub works perfectly. This is where my questions begin. Boot to Suse. 10.0 i386, if anyone cares.

lspci says (among other things)

00:09.0 Ethernet controller:Atheros Communications, Inc. AR 5212 80211abg NIC (rev01).

ifconfig says:

eth0, and

lo, RX packets 916, TX packets 916, no errors.

I also get

wlan bus pci 0000:00.09.0 failed

on boot

I am guessing that my wlan card is seen, but Suse doesn't know how to talk to it.
So I got the madwifi driver, and this is more headaches for a noob. I try to make this, and get...
cat:/lib/modules/2.6.13-8-default/build/include/linux/wireless.h
No such file or directory.
What else do I need to install to be able to make and make/install modules??? I have dl'ed several files and have only been able to compile one so far. Is there checksums for linux drivers??? Please help.
I am getting error messages everytime I try to make, so maybe, I don't have all utilities that I need?
Anything will help here.... Thanks,

Making baby steps. I was able to configure my ethernet nic with Yast, and now here under Suse. I installed all the developer, kernel, and networking modules I could find on my CDs. Now, when I go to make my madwifi drivers, I get an error saying

cat: /lib/modules/2.6.13-8-default/build/include/linux/wireless.h: No such file or directory
cat: /lib/modules/2.6.13-8-default/build/include/linux/wireless.h: No such file or directory
Checking if all requirements are met... FAILED
Only kernel versions 2.4.x and above are supported.
You have .
make: *** [configcheck] Error 1

uname -r returns

2.6.13-8-default

Where do I go from here?

Thanks

Did you check if /lib/modules/2.6.13-8-default/build/include/linux/wireless.h is actually available (its most likely missing)?

If it is not there, try installing the kernel headers, if thats an option for you (or if thats possible under Suse - I have not used that before). Also try installing the kernel source, if thats available with your distibution.

Now, you mentioned that you installed the kernel and development modules. What exactly do these contain?

In my opinion, it would be better to build a custom kernel (Get one from www.kernel.org) ( that only support what your system needs ). That way you would have a kernel configuration as well as the source and headers and a "custom" kernel.

Also, does your kernel come with ACPI support enabled? I am not certain, but the pci failure could be caused by the mis-allocation of IRQ's due to the lack of ACPI support. Without ACPI support, my sony laptop started acting up, and hang whenever I tried to use the sound card. In my case, I recompiled the kernel configured for my system and all was well after that.

P.S.: If you customize your kernel, distro updates might not work anymore / break things.