How to get Laptop specific stuff working (battery meter, etc)

[xzvf]

Howerver now that internet wont work. I assuming I just gotta configure it, but whats the command?

netconfig

it would be in nice 1024x768 resolution wit the little penguin on top. Now with 2.6 kernel, its in a horrible low resolution and no penguin. How Do i get this back?

Add one of these to your lilo.conf (remove the #), should be the same for 2.6 kernel:

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769

Choose one that best fits your screen.

run /sbin/lilo after

[SenorDingDong]

Ran netconfig, didnt do anything.

I dont think its recognizing my ehternet card now...
Heres what ifconfig gives me.

Heres the shot of when it worked in the 2.4 kernel

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3...L3D8217QQ6NT4Z

Heres the shot of when it doesnt work with 2.6 kernel

http://s37.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2...Q1CRX7C4FXHX84


Also. I recompiled the kernel to include the frame buffer support to display the penguin and higher resolution text, now its just all black! I can see when it finishes loading though, and if i type my user and pass, then startx, kde will load and i can see it. so its working, i just cant see it. Main problem is internet though,

[xzvf]

At the moment, 2.6 is still relatively new, that's why I stick to 2.4 until I can be sure to compile and everything works.

[SenorDingDong]

At the moment, 2.6 is still relatively new, that's why I stick to 2.4 until I can be sure to compile and everything works.

Alright, so theres no way to use the 2.4 kernel and get the ACPI stuff working? Suse 9.3, had it all, what kernel does that run?

Theres gotta be a way to fix it. Id rather not go back to Suse, as it has way more crap in it, and I found generally ran slower then Slackware. Plus I need thsoe quotes

[Nephroth]

The 2.6 kernel has been around long enough that only curmudgeons are still saying that it's unstable. And if you want support for WiFi, decent USB, or IDE CD burning without IDE-SCSI emulation, you're going to need it.

Make certain that ACPI is compiled into your kernel, that is most likely the cause of your troubles. Also, if you have a battery monitor, make certain that it's not pointing to the wrong (or a non-existant) device in /dev. I can't remember for the life of me what device slackware uses for that, but poke around and look for things that look suspect. Besides, who doesn't like using cat on devices to see what they have to say?

As for the framebuffer console: When you configure your kernel, make certain that the framebuffer console option is turned on, then look at the devices and choose the default VESA device. I've have not had much luck with using hardware specific drivers for the framebuffer console (I got a blank screen just as you did) but you are welcome to mess around with them at the expense of your sanity.

And lastly, you probably just forgot to enable your ethernet chipset in the kernel. If you use lspci, you should see your device in there somewhere, add that device to your kernel and recompile and you should be good to go. Alternatively, you could just enable all of the ethernet devices in the kernel config as *modules* and let hotplug deal with it at boot. That will be a little slower and will prevent you from disabling hotplug (to save power) but it will be the foolproof solution.

If you use the second one of the options proposed up there, you could always just let hotplug find the card once and use lsmod to find out which module it loaded for your card and then add that to your /etc/modules.conf file. That would allow you to run without having hotplug running.

[SenorDingDong]

Well the battery stuff worked fine. So that wasnt a problem. I guess ill just try enabling all network devices. And ill mess around with the frame buffer more too, ill let you know how it works out, and posts screens of what I did incase it doesnt.

[SenorDingDong]

SUCCESS!! I did what you said, and just loaded a lot of network devices as modules and everything works. Fixed the console too, so it works now.

[Nephroth]

Excellent! Also, I did some poking around yesterday while I was in a rather boring staff meeting and I have narrowed down the exact modules that are necessary for the battery statistics, they are "battery" and "ac". If you run #modprobe battery it will give you the battery charge statistics, but it will think that it's charging from AC and it won't give you time remaining, if you #modprobe ac it will give you those missing stats.

I know you've already got it working, but I figured you'd still like to know the specific modules.

[SenorDingDong]

Excellent! Also, I did some poking around yesterday while I was in a rather boring staff meeting and I have narrowed down the exact modules that are necessary for the battery statistics, they are "battery" and "ac". If you run #modprobe battery it will give you the battery charge statistics, but it will think that it's charging from AC and it won't give you time remaining, if you #modprobe ac it will give you those missing stats.

I know you've already got it working, but I figured you'd still like to know the specific modules.

Thanks. Now do you know how I can get my wireless working?

I have the Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG, and I found this site for it.

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

Which has some drivers and firmware but im not sure how to install it all.

[Nephroth]

Well, the best thing to do is read the INSTALL file, which has some basic requirements for you:

2.6.x kernel, I'm assuming you're running from a current kernel source, otherwise you'll have to configure a new one which is kind of pain. It's not particularly hard, you just need to make sure you have all of stuff you want configured.

Wireless LAN support in your kernel, you won't need to select any specific drivers because your chipset isn't currently supported by default in the kernel.

Beyond that, it looks like you just download the source for the driver and firmware and install, it should be pretty straightforward. They name all the kernel dependencies that you'll need for WEP and such so try all that and recompile (if it isn't already configured) and if you need help beyond that, you know where to ask