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Old 05-17-2006, 08:57 PM   #1
Old_Fogie
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Madwifi for Slackware 9.1: Can it be installed? I really cannot tell.


Hi all,

I just installed 9.1 WOW it flies on old hardware. KDE is so bloated but nice.

Anyway, I'd like to see if I could get the Madwifi for Artheros to work, but I cant find a how-to.

Does anyone recall if this could be done?

Thank you.
 
Old 05-17-2006, 11:06 PM   #2
chrisg631
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a lil searching and this turned up

http://www.slackware.com/~alien/doku...ckware:madwifi
 
Old 05-18-2006, 12:32 AM   #3
Old_Fogie
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ty. so the way I read that is that I pretty much add the wireless scripts to my slack 9.1 and use then compile from source as I don't see a build script there for it, or a package at linuxpackes.

Sound right?
 
Old 05-18-2006, 01:20 AM   #4
chrisg631
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Here a some packages for madwifi
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...dwifi-old/pkg/

I didnt see one for 9.1 tho... you might have to build your own package from madwifi source if the kernel you are using is not one of those above.
 
Old 05-18-2006, 03:53 AM   #5
Old_Fogie
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Can the Alsa in slackware sound card software in Slackware 9.1 be un-installed?

Here's my issue: I have this old laptop, that ran slow, but good enough to surf the internet wirelessly at nigth while I watch TV.

It has an es-18xx onboard audio on the motherboard. In slackware 10.2 it picks up the sound card great, but in Slack 9.1 it does not get it with the default kernel.

So I figured, since I already had a known .config file for a kernel that I used on this laptop that I made for Slackware 10.2 I took that same very config file off of an image I have, used the same "master download file" for the kernel, and compiled and installed it in slackware 9.1

That custom config file has support for this es-18xx onboard sound as module, and it worked in 10.2 but not in 9.1

The computer flies with that kernel and I can mount NFS, samba, etc and I see it calling for 802.11 on boot up as a network protocol. I haven't tried the drivers yet, I just saw your reply there.

So I'm thinking that the alsa in 9.1 might be messed up. Can that be un-installed and I just download a later version and recompile that? I did verify that the modules snd-es18xx was in /lib/modules/kernel/sound/isa

I tried modprobe snd-es18xx and still not luck, tho I didnt try keying any other items in, like mpu=xx, dma1=0, etc. I just thought maybe my rc.modules didnt see it.

Any thoughts? If not I can try slack 10 or 10.1 I want to try and go a little older as the KDE is kind of bloated in 10.2 for my hardware, and the slack current is no way for this pc. KDE is way too huge now.

Thanks.
 
Old 05-18-2006, 04:21 PM   #6
Bruce Hill
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Just a couple of thoughts...

There was no ALSA driver in Slack-9.1, so we had to either use a module in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules (but that would be OSS and not ALSA) or build from the source at the ALSA Project site. Your ESS Technology instructions are here.

So the easiest thing to do IMO is build from the source there ^^^. You will need:
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/drive...1.0.11.tar.bz2
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/a...1.0.11.tar.bz2
ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils...1.0.11.tar.bz2

Then follow the instructions under Quick Install on that page for the ESS chipsets. Ignore the text in red on that page. Like this:
Code:
Make a directory to store the alsa source code in.

        cd /usr/src
        mkdir alsa
        cd alsa
        cp /downloads/alsa-* .  NB: Change the /downloads/alsa-* to your PATH

Now unzip and install the alsa-driver package

        tar -xvjf alsa-driver-xxx
        cd alsa-driver-xxx
        ./configure --with-cards=es18xx --with-sequencer=yes;make;make install

The snddevices script sets the permissions for the devices it creates to root. You should

	chmod a+rw /dev/dsp /dev/mixer /dev/sequencer /dev/midi 

Now unzip and install the alsa-lib package

        cd ..
        tar -xvjf alsa-lib-xxx
        cd alsa-lib-xxx
        ./configure;make;make install

Now unzip and install the alsa-utils package

        cd ..
        tar -xvjf alsa-utils-xxx
        cd alsa-utils-xxx
        ./configure;make;make install

Now insert the modules into the kernel.

 modprobe snd-es18xx;modprobe snd-pcm-oss;modprobe snd-mixer-oss;modprobe snd-seq-oss

Now adjust your soundcards volume levels. All mixer channels are muted by default. You must use a native mixer program to unmute appropriate channels, for example alsamixer from the alsa-utils package. Note that some usb-audio devices do not have internal mixer controls.

        alsamixer (as user, not root)

Then to save your settings run:

        alsactl store (as root, not user)

And you're done.

NB: I shortened the unpacking to one, rather than two steps, if you compare to the ALSA website. 
Hope that's not too much instruction.

As for Madwifi, you can follow Eric's instructions and use his new scripts for Slackware 9.1 just as we do in later releases. I don't know if anyone has confirmed for him whether or not they work in Slackware 9, so you can be the guinea pig -- they should. Then build yourself a Madwifi Slack package from the ./build directory of his repository. Once it's built, use "installpkg /tmp/madwifi-blah.tgz" to install the package, then run "modprobe ath_pci" to load the modules. Last you should run "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 ath0_restart" to get the comp online wireless. (You must build and install as root.)

This presumes you know how to edit "/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf" for your setup. If not, post back, we'll be glad to help. Or check out Eric's guide referenced earlier in this thread.

For older hardware you might want to try a more lightweight window manager such as Fluxbox or Xfce, rather than a bloated desktop environment such as KDE. Fluxbox, for instance, only takes ~ 2MB of memory to run. You can right-click on the desktop to get a menu, and if something you want isn't in there, you edit ~/.fluxbox/menu to add (or remove) it. Fairly easy once you get the hang of it. This will save your resources for stuff such as redrawing images in web pages, rather than running all the KDE bloat. For me, I don't need all those KDE services running -- reminds me of Windoze.
 
Old 05-18-2006, 05:15 PM   #7
shepper
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Madwifi can be done in 9.1 but I would consider upgrading to 10.1 or 10.2 since this has rc.wireless
in the initiation scripts and would make your life alot easier. I think if you add rc.wireless to an
older version you have to change some other init scripts in rc.d. I can not think of any reason
that 10.2 should not run as fast as 9.1. Speed is more a function of the desktop and if you are
worried about speed try a lighter weight desktop than kde.
 
Old 05-18-2006, 05:27 PM   #8
Alien Bob
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I think there should be no problem in replacing rc.inet1* and adding rc.wireless| to the /etc/rc.d/ directory. The scripts are plugin-compatible with previous versions.
But to get wireless working in Slackware 9.1 with a recent 2.6 kernel, I guess there are more packages to upgrade. I'd look at module-init-tools and wireless-tools for sure. Maybe more.
Let us know.
My advice would be to move to Slackware 10.2 with XFCE instead of Slackware 9.1 plus KDE. XFCE Will be benign to your old hardware. With apps like firefox, thunderbird, gaim, xmms and xine you'll cover most of the things you want to do with that box, and won't touch KDE cruft at all.

Cheers, Eric
 
Old 05-19-2006, 03:19 PM   #9
Old_Fogie
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Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies.

I was 'going back in time' in Slackware versions on this 300 mhz laptop just to see if there would be any big noticeable differences in performance, etc. Which it does.

edit:
got sound working by keying in sound values into modules file manually for the sound card

Last edited by Old_Fogie; 06-10-2006 at 05:11 PM.
 
Old 05-19-2006, 09:15 PM   #10
cwwilson721
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Just unchoose the KDE packages when you install, even if you do a 'full' install, you get the options for a, b, t, etc... Just uncheck KDE
 
Old 05-20-2006, 03:37 AM   #11
Old_Fogie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cwwilson721
Just unchoose the KDE packages when you install, even if you do a 'full' install, you get the options for a, b, t, etc... Just uncheck KDE
Hi all,

edit: problem solved on different thread keyed in values manually into modules file for the yamaha.

Last edited by Old_Fogie; 06-10-2006 at 05:13 PM.
 
  


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