Used Laptop donations wanted

As some who read my web log might know I'm involved with a number of organizations trying to get computer hardware in the hands of those less fortunate than those of us who can afford to buy a 1GHz+ notebook.

I've joined up with a group of individuals in both the U.S. and Canada and we've decided to start sending recycled notebooks with K-12 software overseas, but we need donations. If possible we're trying to get as many of the same type as possible in order to minimize the amount of work required to get Linux on the notebooks - that way volunteers installing Linux don't have to learn all the intricacies of configuring the hardware - we can set up a couple and tailor our distribution towards a specific notebook.

If you're a big company looking to unload a bunch of notebooks please contact me at: charm@porchlight.ca

Please note that I have pretty high spam filters, so I may not get all mail, try to avoid spam keywords.

Thanks,

Charles

WiFi Tips under SuSE 9.2 Professional

When I went looking for a WiFi card for my notebook I brought my notebook with me and asked various retailers if I could test their WiFi cards in my machine. Some said no, but a surprisingly equal amount said yes. Out of 6 cards, only 1 configured itself without me having to install a driver. Needless to say, I ended up buying the card that I could simply plug-and-play. That card is as follows:

Symbol Technologies Model: LA-4121-1100-1C
Nortel Networks eMobility 802.11b Wireless DSSS PC Card

One of the things I learned trying to set up WiFi on my notebook is that it seems that regular ethernet apparently conflicts with the WiFi routing. I say apparently because I haven't looked into it enough, but it seems to me that it shouldn't, and that those who told me are in fact mistaken.

Regardless, I've disabled regular ethernet and created a "PROFILE" for WiFi, so all I have to do to switch between ethernet and WiFi is change profiles.

Another pointer is to make sure when you're configuring your WiFi card that in Hostname and name server configuration you have selected the box for Update name servers and search list by DHCP.

Cambridge, Ontario Installfest results

The Cambridge, Ontario, installfest has come and gone. Though the installfest was much quieter than the one which took place almost a year ago at The University of Waterloo, I would count it as a success.

I managed to install Debian/GNU Linux 3.0rc2 on a Compaq Contura notebook with the following specs (486DX100 16MB RAM, 700MB hard drive, no CD-ROM). I did a network install using http and ftp. Unfortunately there wasn't time to install the XFree86 packages, but I've worked on the machines before and successfully installed XFree86 3.3.6 on a similar box.

I'd like to thank John, from Netdirect, for the ride up and for pointing me in the right direction regarding my Lucent winmodem (I'll relate this in a subsequent post). I'd also like to thank Gary, Richard and Megan for organizing the event, and a special thanks to Shayne for the lift home - we'll get IceWM on there yet.