[NTLUG:Discuss] success story

[Charles Cashion]

I have a long term goal of using Linux exclusively.
My needs are not that great...surfing, email, news (NNTP),
study of linux, etc.

But a few small things have been holding me back.  For
one thing, my Linux cannot print to my Canon i550.  For
another, my wireless link would not talk to my wireless
router.  On Thanksgiving day, I had something for which
I am thankful.  One of the problems was solved.  My
wireless pcmcia adapter will now talk to my wireless
router.

         SHORT STORY

My son said that Fedora Core 4 (FC4) would support my
wireless adapter

    "right out of the box".

But fortunately, he also has experience compiling and
loading driver modules. My pcmcia wireless adapter will
now talk to my wireless router.

         LONG STORY

1. In the beginning, before I asked for help, lspci -n
     indicated that my wireless adapter is an Airlink+
     AWLC3025 and it has a Texas Instruments ACX111
     chipset.

         #lspci -n  ->  104c:9066

2. I already had FC3 on my laptop, so what I initially
     wanted to do was just add the driver for the
     pcmcia wireless adapter.  I did a search of the
     internet and located a driver.

3.  I asked my son for assistance in building that
     driver.  My son said to forget that driver, FC4
     will talk to my wireless adapter "right out of the
     box" so lets just load FC4.

4. I downloaded and burned 4 CDROMS of FC4 and 1 CDROM
     for the rescue disk. (anybody wanna borrow them?)

5. FC4 was loaded onto the laptop. (This took less
     than two hours).

6. My son then showed me how to run "yum update". We
     then departed to a friends house and celebrated the
     Thanksgiving meal. When we returned, yum was done.

     By the way...I had previously heard of "yum",
     but this was my first real exposure.

7. Then my son changed his mind about the online
     driver. FC4 does NOT talk to an AWLC3025
       "right out of the box".
     So he downloaded and unpacked and compiled and
     installed a driver.
       http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php
       acx100-0.2.0pre8_plus_fixes_51.tar.bz2
      (that web site AND the driver version has
        changed since we used it)
     We installed it, and it was still mute. Then
     we downloaded the supporting script and ran it.

                 IT IS ALIVE !!!

Thank you for letting me share the joy.
--
Charles

PS Now if I can just get either of my Linux boxes to
talk to my Canon i550.  Kevin (email dated 11/25) has
already found a driver for a i560, and suggested that
something similar might exist for the i550.