Inspiron 7500 + Linksys + FreeBSD 4 or 5?

[Liam J. Foy]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004 09:35:39 +0930
Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog at FreeBSD.org> wrote:

> On Friday, 11 June 2004 at 10:50:07 -0400, Timothy Luoma wrote:
> > On 6/11/04 3:12 AM, "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog at FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> >
> >> On Friday, 11 June 2004 at  2:53:28 -0400, Timothy Luoma wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I have a Dell Inspiron 7500 which is no longer my primary machine, therefore
> >>> I want to use it to learn FreeBSD.
> >>>
> >>> I will be connecting to the internet via a Linksys Wireless Network PC Card
> >>> WPC11 v3
It depends on the chipset of the card. I had a Linksys WPC54G-UK which
is broadcom which of course doesnt work. Saying that, some Linksys Cards 
are support by the ath drivers. Look at:

http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts
and
http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ath&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+5.2-RELEASE+and+Ports&format=html

> >>>
> >>> and was wondering whether folks would suggest FBSD4 or FBSD5 for this.  It
> >>> will not be a production-level machine, however I'm new enough that if 5 is
> >>> too "raw" then I'd be content with 4.
> >>
> >> I have both on my 7500.
> >
> > *LOL*
> >
> > Hrm.... I think if we checked, we'd find that you were a bit more skilled &
> > familiar with FreeBSD than me :-)
> 
> Barely possible.
> 
> > Do you have the WIFI card working or know if it is supported under
> > either/both versions.
> 
> I'm using an Orinoco card, and I have had no trouble with it.  I don't
> expect problems with the Linksys.  I did have trouble (which I fixed)
> with old Aviator (802.11 FHSS) cards, but they're obsolete 2 Mb/s
> cards.  The problem there was that they need 56 kB I/O space (one
> chunk of 48 kB and one chunk of 8 kB), and the 7500 only has 48 kB.  I
> solved the problem by overlaying the memory areas.  I don't expect you
> to have that sort of problem with other cards.

I have an Orinoco Classic Gold. No problems here:)

> 
> > I guess the remaining questions are:
> >
> > 1) Is there anything I can do w/ FBSD5 that I couldn't do with FBSD4 that
> > I'd want to do?
> 
> It's generally more up to date.  It handles PCMCIA/CardBus cards
> better.

If you new you want to stay away from CURRENT look at:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html

> 
> > 2) Is the install process for one any easier than for the other?
> 
> No.
If you follow the handbook you should be ok :) (famous last words)
> 
> > Sent using the Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac Test Drive.
> 
> Hmm.
=/
> 
> Greg
> --
> Note: I discard all HTML mail unseen.
> Finger grog at FreeBSD.org for PGP public key.
> See complete headers for address and phone numbers.
> 
Good Luck,
-- 
-Liam Foy
http://liamfoy.kerneled.org
"Do only what only you can do."