Hi gang, this is David Johnson, a long-time Linux fan and dabbler, I'm nowhere near an expert but have been playing with Slackware and RedHat for several years. Lately I've been working with Mandrake 9.1 and want to get a Netgear MA401 wireless NIC playing on my Toshiba 325CDS laptop. Netgear provided driver for Redhat 7.3 and I hope this works for Mandrake. Seems like a lot of steps. First I found I needed source code for the kernel on my machine. Hey no problem I used the Mandrake RPM manager to install the kernel sources, and confirmed the path so I could specify this correctly in the the make config for the wireless card driver. But I found it also needed the sources for the pcmcia drivers. I did already install this package from the RPM manager, but I don't think (or don't know) this also gave me the sources.
I think my question is this (oops many questions):
How can I get the sources out of the RPM file? Is it possible to extract the sources from any RPM file?
How can I be sure to know the path of the sources when I do extract them to my system?
Ahhh, seems I am so close, I really want to try this driver!
Don't get mad at me, I do use Winblows since I get paid to support that stuff (euphemism) but I love playing with, and learning, Linux. Please help! Maybe I need a different NIC but I am determined to try everything that's available to get this Netgear card going if at all possible! (Would be a shame if it could only be used with Win system!)
I'm looking forward to the TriLUG meeting this month, my first time to join you at the meetings! Had the pleasure to meet some of you at the Durhamfest.
Well, no doubt I could give a lot more tech details on my Qs above, but if you need it to provide a specific answer please let me know what details you need.
I like Mandrake as a general distro, but am also playing with minimal distros for older systems, and networking boot disks like Barts Boot Floppy and Freesco. Those things ROCK.
Are there others interested in using older machines to make things happen in a dedicated and efficient way, when there is no requirement for the cutting edge?
I'm a ham radio operator and interested in TCP/IP over radio. Anyone else into that?
Oh I've got a Samba question... I will send separate message on that, since I've already started a tome...
THANKS gang,
David ARS WA4NID
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