On Friday 20 June 2008 05:12:24 pm Gus Wirth wrote: > Randall wrote: > > To all: > > > > How does a newbie get beyond a speed bump like this? I downloaded Suse > > 10.3 linux from the openSuse archives, and let it auto-install a 64 bit > > version for my Athlon 64 3200+ processor MOBO. > > > > Then I found my onboard sound card (Nvidia MCP61) didn't work. I > > followed all the dumb approaches listed on Google including the > > troubleshooting sound card web site that openSuse had created just for > > sound card troubles. > > > > It finally turns out that I had to rebuild the kernel (2.6.22.18) and > > enable the onboard sound chip support module to fix the problem. > > > > How is a newbie supposed to know how to rebuild his/her kernel to fix a > > problem like this? > > They aren't. A newbie would use a distribution that supports their > hardware.
And how would they know that? Install all the distributions on a trial per trial basis? This is not very practical. > > > It's like jumping from newbie to kernel-hacker in one step. > > Hardly. If you had chosen wisely, either hardware or software, you > wouldn't have had this problem. yes, provided I had lots of $$$$. > > Is this why people get discouraged about linux? > > Who's discouraged? Why aren't you angry with the motherboard manufacture > for not supplying you a driver? Since a solution exists, why hasn't > Novell created an update to fix your problem? The motherboard is made in China for MS Windows XP or Vista machines. They read the handwriting on the wall. Linux just isn't too viable. At the local Fry's I have watched the linux distros dry up. > > Just asking (probably rhetorical) > > The first thing you should do is see if someone else has solved the > problem for you. It may turn out that waiting a short time may result in > an upgrade taking care of the problem. I'm not familiar with how fast > openSuse does updates, but Fedora 8 is already on the 2.6.25 kernel and > includes custom patches from Redhat. Your system is three releases behind. I knew this was a risk and I knew that I could take that risk, and yes, some items popped up. > In your case you only need to rebuild a single module. There is no > longer a need to rebuild the entire kernel. See these directions for > Fedora <http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel> at the very > bottom of the page. openSuse is very similar to Fedora and works the > same way. You will need to get the kernel module source then apply the > patch and build the module. The additional package you need is the > kernel-headers. A similar how-to is available for Debian-like (Debian, > Ubuntu, etc) here: > <http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/build-linux-kernel-module-against-installed- >kernel-source-tree.html> Thanks for the link. In my case, it was just turning on a module to be built. I was willing to take the 20 mins to rebuild the kernel, since I wanted to play with the kernel builds anyway > Gus -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-newbie
