Driver questions

[mike_bike_kite]

I have an old laptop (Toshiba satellite pro A60) which has only little memory (256MB) so I installed Fedora Core 5. Everything runs fine except I get no sound and the USB wifi dongle doesn't appear to be recognised. The wifi thing is a Micronext but I also have a Edimax if that's any use. Could someone explain how I can set any of these things up please.

I do understand unix shell but know nothing about admin. The laptop is for my son so he's a bit keen on being connected to the internet and listening to music etc.

Is there a simple guide on how to install programs - I'd like to put chess and backgammon on for him in the faint hope that he might be encouraged to play.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

[coopstah13]

most of the time, it will be better to install a lightweight modern distro than an outdated one that is lighter than the current installment as you have done

FC5 will have much worse hardware support than a modern distro

I've heard good things about puppy and antix but I can't personally comment on them

[mike_bike_kite]

I don't mind doing another install - I've already tried knoppix 3.6 as well but am I just going to get the same issues (no sound/wifi) after downloading antix/puppy and installing it?

PS the laptop is only about 5 years old but in dog years that's ancient.

[reed9]

You should definitely use a modern lightweight distro over an old unsupported release.

As mentioned, Antix and Puppy are both nice. TinyMe is also looking quite nice, though they haven't put out a final release yet.

Anything that uses a standalone window manager like openbox, fluxbox, jwm, pekwm, or icewm will do fine though. (Or uses the lightweight LXDE desktop environment, which is openbox + some extras.) There are community spins of the main distros which optionally use these.
LXDE - FedoraProject
CrunchBang Linux - A nimble Openbox Linux distro
2010.0 What's New - Mandriva Community Wiki

For the USB wifi adapters, we'd need more info. Read the wireless setup sticky. In many cases, USB dongles still require the use of ndiswrapper.

[mike_bike_kite]

Well, I now have an antrix laptop - any ideas on how to set up the sound and the wifi ?

[reed9]

Follow the link to the wireless setup sticky I posted above. The info we collect from that will include some info on your sound card as well.

[mike_bike_kite]

I quite like this Antix distro - it makes the old girl seem pretty quick. The sound also seems to be working now so that's ticked off my list. The wifi usb dongle thing is still an issue though. The Edimax dongle looks like it might work (the led goes green when I plug it in while the micronext one stays red). I've provided the info that was required in the wifi sticky so hopefully someone will be able to tell me what I need to do next.

Cheers Mike

Oddly when running the script I got the following errors

./wirelessSetup: line 24: ifconfig: command not found
./wirelessSetup: line 27: iwconfig: command not found

This was the output from the program

============ lspci ============
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: ATI Technologies Inc R200 AGP Bridge [Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP] [1002:cab3] (rev 05)
	Kernel driver in use: agpgart-ati
	Kernel modules: ati-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc PCI Bridge [IGP 340M] [1002:7010]
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc OHCI USB Controller #1 [1002:4347] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
	Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:13.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc OHCI USB Controller #2 [1002:4348] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
	Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc EHCI USB Controller [1002:4345] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc SMBus [1002:4353] (rev 18)
	Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c-piix4
00:14.1 IDE interface [0101]: ATI Technologies Inc Dual Channel Bus Master PCI IDE Controller [1002:4349]
	Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
	Kernel modules: atiixp
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:434c]
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP200 3COM 3C920B Ethernet Controller [1002:4342]
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP150 AC'97 Audio Controller [1002:4341]
	Kernel driver in use: ATI IXP AC97 controller
	Kernel modules: snd-atiixp
00:14.6 Modem [0703]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP AC'97 Modem [1002:434d] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ATI IXP MC97 controller
	Kernel modules: snd-atiixp-modem
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility 7000 IGP [1002:4437]
02:06.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac50] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
	Kernel modules: yenta_socket
02:07.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
	Kernel driver in use: 8139too
	Kernel modules: 8139too, 8139cp
02:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [104c:8026]
	Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
	Kernel modules: ohci1394

============ lsusb ============
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 7392:7711  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

============ lsmod ============
Module                  Size  Used by
radeon                125984  1 
drm                    63144  2 radeon
binfmt_misc             9224  1 
ipv6                  231556  10 
fuse                   46108  1 
ndiswrapper           158620  0 
joydev                 10304  0 
pcmcia                 30380  0 
irda                   91832  0 
crc_ccitt               3840  1 irda
snd_atiixp             15884  0 
rtc_cmos               10400  0 
rtc_core               14620  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 4352  1 rtc_core
snd_atiixp_modem       12680  0 
yenta_socket           22540  1 
rsrc_nonstatic         11136  1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core            29972  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_ac97_codec         89380  2 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem
serio_raw               6660  0 
ac97_bus                3456  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                58756  3 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq                41968  0 
snd_timer              18440  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          7564  1 snd_seq
psmouse                34704  0 
snd                    42660  7 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               7648  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8584  3 snd_atiixp,snd_atiixp_modem,snd_pcm
i2c_piix4               9232  0 
i2c_core               19604  1 i2c_piix4
parport_pc             24228  0 
parport                29804  1 parport_pc
container               5376  0 
battery                 8192  0 
ac                      5120  0 
button                  7952  0 
ati_agp                 8204  1 
shpchp                 27028  0 
pci_hotplug            24736  1 shpchp
evdev                  10144  6 
8139cp                 18816  0 
ohci1394               26544  0 
8139too                22656  0 
mii                     6016  2 8139cp,8139too
ohci_hcd               21520  0 
thermal                17436  0 
processor              34860  2 thermal
fan                     6276  0 
thermal_sys            11944  3 thermal,processor,fan

============ dmesg-firmware ============

============ kernel version ============
2.6.27-1-mepis-smp

============ ifconfig ============

============ iwconfig ============

[reed9]

So there is a staging driver for your card, the rt2870sta, but it doesn't appear in the kernel staging area until kernel version 2.6.29. To get this working you will need to install a newer kernel. Antix is completely compatible with Debian, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Instructions here:
rt2870sta - Debian Wiki

You can also use the smxi scripts to install a newer kernel, which as I recall Antix now includes. In a terminal type

smxi

EDIT: The Antix page directs you to some info here when installing a new kernel.
antiX-forum • View topic - How to: Set up /boot/grub/menu.lst for automatic updates

And you should be using the Debian Lenny bit of the above guide.

[mike_bike_kite]

I became quite good with apt-get after installing vim and java on the machine. Sadly the smxi script eventually failed stating there was a failed dependency on madwifi. I tried adding things to the sources.list file but this didn't improve matters. The main boot option to load the latest kernal now fails but I can just point at an older kernal (whatever one of those is) in the list.

Have I provided enough information for help or can someone advise what info to supply? The smxi screens shot by and I couldn't grab them - perhaps they are in a a log file somewhere?

Mike

PS I now have the backgammon and chess programs working fine on the machine - I could just load them from the main antix games menu.

[mike_bike_kite]

I reinstalled Antix after getting in a mess with smxi and I bought a 2nd hand pcmcia wifi card hoping it might work. I didn't but at least the system recognises it's existence. Could someone suggest how I can get it to work. To be brutally honest I'm not even sure I have it in the right slot - is it supposed to stick out about an inch and the little plastic pin is sticking out next to it.

In the mempis network assistant it showed:

00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP200 3COM 3C920B Ethernet Controller [1002:4342]
02:07.0  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
03:00.0  Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] [1260:3890] (rev 01)

It said these were the drivers:

ndiswrapper           158620  0 
p54pci                 10624  0 
p54common              11392  1 p54pci
prism54                46856  0 
8139cp                 18816  0 
8139too                22656  0 
mii                     6016  2 8139cp,8139too

On the wireless page I tried scanning for access points but it found nothing - it said default access point not found try scrolling down to see more - but there was nothing there to see other than the name of my network which I typed in.

Any clues folks ?

Mike

PS I know this is mempis/Antix now so I'm not sure whether to carry on posting here or whether it should be moved.