[CentOS] Linux on a Thinkpad R40

John Summerfield

debian at herakles.homelinux.org
Tue Feb 13 13:28:27 UTC 2007


I've just acquired a use IBM Thinkpad R40 model 2722-GDM.

I'm contemplating what to run on it, and longer-term the likely 
candidates are:
	Centos 5
	SLE{D,S} 10
	OpenSUSE 10.2
	Kubuntu - the latest.
	Kubuntu - Long Life (aka 6.04, Dapper, ...)

I've booted Knoppix 4 in it and most seems well, including the Atheros 
Wireless card Windows can't find.

The major flies in the ointment are the wireless and the inbuilt modem 
(Agere something). Google tells me the modem can be made to work, and 
I'm pretty sure from my Acer that the Atheros wifi also work with some 
minor fiddling: I've build the driver from source.

The problem is, I've done enough fiddling* over the years. I've built 
enough kernels, attaced enough configuration files with vim, and I want 
an OS that just works.

I'm sure RHEL 5 will not have a driver for my wireless, and I suspect 
not for my modem.

Now the point: do the auxilliary CentOS repos have the missing bits so 
that I can commit to CentOS4 (or even RHEL5 beta) in the short term, 
knowing that it's a simple upgrade later?

How will CentOS reflect the different RHEL 5 versions? Will it simply 
merge them into one product, or would one expect to choose different 
boot media? I ask this because I see SLED doesn't have some of the stuff 
I want - it's in SLES though, but then SLES doesn't have the madwifi stuff.


* There's fiddling and there's fiddling. I'm getting tired of doing the 
same fiddling all the time; it's time for new adventures.


Thanks for your time.

-- 

Cheers
John

-- spambait
1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu  Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu

Please do not reply off-list



More information about the CentOS mailing list