Config Linux BIOS: Is it possible (Re: [OLPC-devel] DOS in Windows Flash Disaster Recovery Utility?

[Jordan Crouse]

On 06/09/06 09:46 -0600, Ronald G Minnich wrote:
> supat at supat.eu.org wrote:
> 
> >At this moment I bring back old BIOS already and every thing go back.
> >(Marvell wireless can work under slackware)
> 
> this is not as simple as it sounds. Insyde uses a full AMD-supplied VSA. 
> The VSA does a lot of tricky magic. My guess is that the combo of 
> slackware+VSA is the issue, not Insyde per se. We still need to see what 
> is going on.

Slackware, like Fedora (and everything else) is just a combination of
packages.  Of these packages, only the kernel happens to interact with the i
hardware and BIOS in any serious way.  If you are not using the correct
kernel for this platform and situation, then bad things can and will happen.

Slackware has no possible way of understanding the USB wireless or how to
configure it.  Fedora Rawhide knows, but only because it is up to date, and
we have a crack Fedora staff that will do our bidding (insert evil laugh here).

Supat will need to make sure that he does the right things to see the
wireless:

1) Make sure the antennae are attached
2) Use a recent kernel - with libertas included
3) Use the recommended LinuxBIOS version
4) Mount usbfs on /proc/bus/usb and ensure that the marvell device 
is listed in 'devices' (vendor=1286, product=2001).
5) Follow http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images and make sure that the
most recent firmware is installed in /lib/firmware/usb8388.bin

If all of these happen together and in the right order, things should work.
If any ofthe steps should fail, then please open a ticket to ensure
that we track any problems.

After all that, he is welcome to create slackware packages that will ensure
others don't have to work so much to see wireless.  Its not always fun being
the early adopter, but it is rewarding.


Jordan

-- 
Jordan Crouse
Senior Linux Engineer
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
<www.amd.com/embeddedprocessors>