Hi all, I just compiled a custom kernel on this laptop.

I used the configuration file from the old kernel, and disabled some things I didn't need (like bluetooth and pcmcia card support, this laptop has neither), ran make, make modules_install and make bzImage, installed the kernel etc etc.

Everything went fine and dandy, but when I type ifconfig or iwconfig when using said kernel, it doesn't show wlan0 or eth0.

I played around with /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and got eth0 to show up and work, but I can't for the life of me get wlan0 to show.

Any ideas?

~Steve

What wireless adapter is in your laptop, and which original/new kernels are you using?

Probably have to load the kernel module for you particular adaptor which is . . . Only you know that one. Then alias it to wlan0 or what have you then make it perminent by adding it in your init script.

I'm using an Atheros 5001 wireless adapter. I have the stock kernel that comes with Slackware 13.37 and the new one is the newest one from kernel.org, 3.4-rc2

I told the kernel to compile the module into the kernel itself. Then I recompiled it as a regular module, loaded it and it still didn't work. eth0 is showing up (the actual ethernet port on the side of the laptop) but wlan0 still doesn't show, even though it's right there when I check for it with lspci.

Did you tried to use wicd ore something similar? A don't know much about Atheros chips, but it is possible problem in firmware. A have had similar problem on stock Slackware64 13.37 kernel with broadcom adapter(i.e lspci showed module b43 is loaded, but interface is unconfigurable), then I tried to use wicd - without success. Then I examined /var/log/syslog and found error entries about missing firmware. Installed firmware and interface began to work flawlessly(w/o wicd).

Yes I did. I used wpa_gui to see if anything was connecting and-- what do you know, "wpa_supplicant not loaded". Console, "wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf", error about wlan0 not existing. :/