Ok I am totally new to Linux and I have just set up a dual boot system with xp and Mandrake. This was done on a Dell Inspiron 5100 and I am having a problem getting my wireless Dell True Mobile 1150 card to work. So far i have read a huge amount of material from different websites about installing a pcmcia-cs-2.3.7.tar.gz file from source forge and then installing the card driver (i think its an Orinico card relabled by dell).
So I downloaded the pcmcia file in windows, put it in a fat32(vfat) partition so I could access it from linux. I then unzipped it with gzip and tar'ed it to /usr/src as instructed in the how-to file. Next im supposed to run 'make config' but when I do this it says that the linux kernel is not in usr/src. I cant find the kernel anywhere, even the KDE GUI didnt find it when I found an option to view the source kernel tree.
Anyway with all of that said, I dont have a freekin clue what to do next. I dont know if i need to build a new kernel(whatever that means), or update the kernel(however you do that??) or just find where the kernel tree is located(its got to be there somewhere otherwise linux wouldnt run , right??).

Please tell me if installing the pcmcia-cs thing is what I am supposed to do before installing the network card driver? Also is the dell true mobile 1150 a repackaged Lucent Orinoco with the Hermes chipset, and if so which drivers do I download there are a bunch of different ones out there.

Someone please direct this newbee to linux heaven!!!
thanks

It sounds like you need to get a hold of kernel source (the source code for linux). If you have an RPM-based distro, you probably can install a package for this (otherwise you'd download a tarball and extract it to the appropriate directory). If you tell us what distro you're using (That's what "Distribution:" is for :-)), I'm sure you'll get more specific help.

I'm using Dell 5150 and i've got Dell TrueMobile working on that. Firstly i have to tell you that I'm running 2.4.25 kernel. If there is no kernel in /usr/src, that means u don't have kernel source installed.

I would suggest downloading kernel-2.4.25 or 2.4.26 source from www.kernel.org and recompile the kernel. I got a web page explaining what i did to get it running (www.dfernando.com/dell_setup.html). But those instructions are for Debian distro. U'll need to download pcmcia-cs, rpm package and install it.

Good luck
D

Ok Im using Mandrake 9.1 and the kernel is 2.4

Should I go ahead and get the 2.6 kernel from www .kernel . org?
And what do I do with this kernel that i download? Do i just unzip and tar to the usr/src/ directory? Or do i have to compile something? If so how do I compile and build the kernel?

Thanks again

Whether you choose to d/l the 2.6 kernel is up to you. As for what to do with it, yes, you need to unzip it and then choose your configuration settings. There are several good threads here at LQ that describe the process in detail (such as DaOne's post). Good luck with the upgrade. -- J.W.