OK, when I got a usable 8.1 system with kernel-2.4.8-26mdk running, I decided to try one more time with kerne-2.4.17.8. This time, instead of doing a source build I just installed the binary and rebooted. It booted up and...jus as with my own build attempts, pcmcia failed miserablely and sound was dead. What I get are several things. First, and REALLY unfortunately, with the 2.4.17 kernels it appears that pcmcia-cs is fully incorporated into the kernel. This makes fixing the pcmcia problem very difficult. First off, ALL the friggin' pcmcia modules are there where they are supposed to be but pcmcia doesn't exist in /etc/init.d so it doesn't/can't start at bootup. I built and installed pcmcia-cs-3.1.31 and then did the /etc/init.d/pcmcia start thing and the kernel complained that i82398.o and ds.o doesn't exist. I looked and they DO exist exactly where they are supposed and expected to me. They are really really there but they are invisable somehow to the 2.4.17 kernel. I have gone back to 2.4.8 and have pcmcia working as Buddha intended. 2.4.17 IS dicked up and I would like to address the very real problem with integrating pcmcia into the kernel source. I have a couple wireless lan cards. To make them work properly I need linux-wlan-ng source. Linux-wlan-ng requires pcmcia-cs sourcecode that is properly configured for your kernel/system...and it must have a pcmcia-cs-x.x.x directory of some sort with the config information in it in order to build and install. With the pcmcia incorporated into the kernel and scattered all over several different directories, it is impossible to build linux-wlan-ng. The drivers for my wireless cards in the kernel-supplied pcmcia are crippled. They do not allow for monitoring mode, instead forcing the wimply wvlan_cs module on prism2 cards that have the capability to operate in promiscuous and monitor mode. The wvlan_cs driver doesn't allow this, not on the prism2 cards and not on orinoco cards for which it is better suited. ONLY the linux-wlan-ng drivers allow this full functionality from prism2 wireless cards. Until/unless Mandrake incorporates linux-wlan-ng prism2 drivers instead of pcmcia-cs crippled prism2 drivers into their newer kernels, it will remain absolutely necessary to download, build, and install linux-wlan-ng source based on a separate pcmcia-cs source package. This is a very real problem.
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