[CentOS] Recommendation for a Linux alternative to Centos - ATH9K disaster

[Benjamin Smith]

For years, I've been using Fedora Core for my desktop/laptop systems and 
CentOS for my servers. It's a good balance, because upgrading Fedora Core 
takes about an hour or so, plus a day or two of occasional interruptions to 
shake out various drivers and stuff. Also, I don't have to keep two different 
Operating Systems sorted out 

On my hard disk, I have my /home, /boot, and / directories each on their own 
partitions, and when I'm upgrading my Fedora, I just format / and /boot, and 
leave /home alone. Although I've transfered it a few times between hard disk 
and computer upgrades, I've been using the same /home directory for well over 
10 years now, with nary a hitch! 

Make sure you have backups, etc., especially when upgrading versions, though 
I've not had much problem. 

Fedora Core is "cutting edge" and had no particular trouble shaking out 
drivers on my recent Dell Precision M4500. 

-Ben 

On Tuesday, January 25, 2011 09:49:39 am Always Learning wrote:
> I persuaded a reluctant friend to buy a new computer. I enthusiastically
> extolled the joys and benefits of Centos and promised to install it on
> his new machine - dual booting with Micro$oft Windoze 7.
> 
> His super-duper new laptop arrived. Acer, AMD 4 core, fast etc. but not
> as nice looking as my impressive HP DV5. The wireless refused to
> connect.
> 
> After 8 hours on Saturday I could sometimes see hubs in the
> neighbourhood but could not connect to my own hub using WPA2.
> 
> 	iwlist wlan0 scan
> 
> produced technical details of local hubs - but still could not connect.
> NetworkManager sometimes froze.
> 
> Spent many hours Googling for his wifi adaptor Altheros AR928K which
> uses a driver known as ATH9K.  Many others have had a similar problem.
> Kernel 2.6.27 apparently includes this driver but Centos 5.5 is 2.6.18.
> 
> On my Sony Vaio netbook I abandoned XP and installed Centos 5.5. No wifi
> (yet XP had) but luckily for me I eventually discovered the Altheros
> AR8132 needed ATL1E which, for Centos 5.5, means a kernel modification.
> Luckily it is on Elrepo as kmod-atl1e. A quick Yum and I was connected.
> Many thanks to Elrepo.  The netbook comes to life with Centos. Its now a
> really usable machine. XP on a netbook was pure crap.
> 
> However ATH9K for Centos 5.5 does not exist.
> 
> This afternoon I had to tell my friend his brand new computer is
> incompatible with Centos and wifi.
> 
> Please can anyone recommend a suitable Linux variant with a kernel >=
> 2.6.27 that is a bit like Centos ?
> 
> Does anyone know if Centos 5.6 will be on 2.6.18 and whether it will
> have drivers like ATH9K ?
> 
> Anyone any idea what kernel version Centos 6 will have ?
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Paul
> GB
> 
> Centos on 2 VPS, 2 desktops, 1 laptop and 1 netbook.
> Going cheap : genuine Windoze 95 and 98 installation disks :-)
> 
> 
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