[SATLUG] Greetings

[Bob Tracy]

Nathan Turnage wrote:
> (...)
> Well, it isn't linux that is 
> the problem, it is the embedded Adaptec AIC-7899 that is giving me 
> fits. I am trying to get either Suse 9.3 Professional or Ubuntu 5.04 
> Hoary on it to do some work. Honestly, I would prefer Ubuntu (because 
> of Gnome), but as long as I can get the wretched aic7xxx driver loaded 
> properly, I don't don't care which works.

I probably won't make the ComputerBlast show: haven't made very many
of 'em, to be truthful.  If you're still having problems after the
show, gimme a holler and we might be able to work this off-line.  My
primary system here at home is SCSI-based and uses the aic7xxx driver.
It's basically Slackware 10 with a 2.6.12 kernel.  Can't speak to the
functionality of the aic7xxx driver in recent kernels when built as a
module: I seldom use the driver other than built-in.  However, I *do*
have a Dell laptop with an Adaptec cardbus adapter that makes occasional
use of an aic7xxx module :-).

Just as a suggestion, you might try a back-rev distribution just to
get up and running, then upgrade whatever needs upgrading to support
whatever bleeding-edge hardware is in your system.  As a rule, if the
CD/DVD will boot and it correctly detects your adapter, you *should*
be golden.  SuSE and RedHat (not Fedora Core) have both been good
choices in the past.  Fedora's a bit more finicky in my experience.
Mandrake (now Mandriva) used to be *the* distribution for decent laptop
support many years ago: I'm still using it on some systems, but
probably won't go to that well again when the time comes.  Slackware
just works: historically not much sizzle with your steak, but might be
worth trying as a sanity check.

-- 
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Bob Tracy                   WTO + WIPO = DMCA? http://www.anti-dmca.org
rct at frus.com
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