lots of problems..
 

1. i've installed mandrake9.1 on my toshiba satellite a10 laptop... but it seems that my function keys for adjusting of brightness does not work. my screen looks so bright...

2. i can't connect to the internet using my cable modem (went to the control panel, network,(ard there) 'update') still gave me a 169.*.*.*

3. i can't get my pcmcia wireless lan card to work.

As to #3, take a look here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=48902
It looks like a lot of PCMCIA wireless cards aren't supported by Linux due to a lack of enough information to write a driver. As to the laptop brightness adjustments, I'm afraid I'm of little help.