[lug] KRUD install problems

[Jeffery D. Collins]

Most of the install of KRUD 7.0 on a Sony PCG-F690K laptop went
smoothly.  Here are a couple of problems that remain:

1.  XFree86 detects the video card (ATI Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x) and
selects the ati driver.  However, the server fails to start and the
last few lines of the log are:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<stuff deleted>

(EE) ATI(0): cannot continue
(EE) ATI(0): Unable to correctly retrieve adapter BIOS.
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvbe.a
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libddc.a
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libint10.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

<bug reporting stuff deleted>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In looking through the driver list or th RH7.0 distribution, there are
several with at version 3.3.6.  The ati driver is 4.0.1a.  Should I
try upgrading the server to 4.0.2 or downgrading to 3.3.6?  A collegue
of mine has an identical machine and successfully install RH6.2 with
X, so the 3.3.6 driver must be working properly.


2.  Network card

I have a PCMCIA network card (Megahertz CC/XJEM3336 Ethernet/Modem)
that works fine on my Inspiron 7000 and is also properly detected by
the Sony (same text in /var/log/messages).  I hand-configured the eth0
interface by copying the file
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 from the Inspiron to the
Sony.  The card is connected to a Sprint broadband "modem", that uses
dhcp to determine the IP address.

The problem is that only once did I establish a network connection
with the Sony (and it was on the nth attempt).  I haven't been able to
repeat the process which lead to a successful connection, but it
involved plugging the card in, powering down and booting.  Of course,
this shouldn't be necessary.  I can plug/unplug the card from the
Inspiron all day and it will properly restart the network interface
each time.

As a side note, the machine came preinstalled with Win2K.  It detected
the card, but whether I configured the IP/Gateway/Netmask manually or
set it up for dhcp, no network connection was ever achieved. 

BTW, what is the difference between netcfg, netconf and netconfig (and
that found in linuxconf)?  Do they all affect the same set of config
files?


Thanks,

Jeff