Please excuse me if this question is a bit simple, but I have just started using Slackware after using Ubuntu for some months. Anyways the install went pretty well no major problems other than my centrino wireless adapter will now work. Under Ubuntu I believe it loaded a module called ipw2200 and everything was fine.

Slackware found my ethernet adapter, but not the wireless adapter. Doing ifconfig -a shows only eth0 and lo. I suspected that the module had not been loaded and doing an lsmod seems to prove this as I do not see the ipw2200 in the output.

I have read some other threads that suggest I need to upgrade the kernel to a 2.6 version to have support for this hardware. Needless to say I never had cause to do this before under ubuntu. Anyways I tried upgrading via the suggestion in the slackbook guide I was following to help with the install. In that guide it says to copy over the 2.6.13 kernel stuff from the install CD to the /boot directory. I then changed the relevant symlinks, System.map, config and vmlinuz to point to the new files.

I then rebooted my pc. It does boot up to the 2.6.13 kernel and I can log in, but this time it fails to load the 8139too module for me wired ethernet adapter. Of course my wireless adapter doesn't work either. I know i'm missing a vital bit of information here (duh), but if someone could point me in the right direction that would be great. I don't mind doing some reading to get things working it's just that there seems to be too much (if that's possible) and I'm a little confused at what's the best place to start.

Do I have to recompile a new kernel? If I do does it automatically compile modules as well, or do I have to do that as a seperate step? Can I use the 2.6.13 kernel supplied with the installation CD?

Thanks in advance.

oh one more thing how does the kernel interract with other packages ie if Slackware 10.2 uses kernel version 2.14.31 does changing this mean i'll have to recompile all my other packages as well? Or are packages compiled for the platform you use and are therefore independant of the kernel version that you are using?

try first to setup/install your network and ethernet settings (wired)
ThenThat should load your wireless.
Check your wireless settings (and see if the wireless driver is working) by typingYou should see your wireless adapter name.
Then typeor whatever the device name is.

Then should show both the ethernet and wireless with IP addresses

You probably forgot to install 2.6 modules too, you can find them on CD 2 or any Slackware mirror.
Take a look here, this is ipw2200 official homepage, you probably want to check requirements section: http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

Take a deep breath, you'll start learning about kernel and modules trying to get your card working

The secret is to want to do it and be ready to read.