RedHat8.0 + Cisco MPI350 802.11b = grey hair

[Dylan Baxter]

Hey list. I'm really hoping someone can help me out here. I have installed RH8.0 on my IBM ThinkPad T30, model 2366-EU9. This model has an on-board Cisco Aironet 350 802.11b, dubbed the MPI350. I have searched high and low today for a way to get this thing to work. I've installed the drivers from Cisco using two of the installation methods suited for the PCI version of the card. The Cisco script method installed but couldn't find my card, and the RedHat method didn't agree with my kernel and crashed the X server, so I tried recompiling and managed to hose up the whole thing. Then I read that RedHat 8.0 has LOTS of support for this model, including RFMON! So I installed it. Now it looks like all I have to do is recompile the kernel to add support, as RH8 sure hasn't found it yet!   Well, if only I could recompile the #&$% kernel successfully I may be able to take advantage of this new functionality.   The steps I took to recompile the kernel: cd /usr/src/%linuxversion% make xconfig   From here I went right to the Network Cards section and then into the Wireless Cards section, and enabled the appropriate card to load (I selected "Y", not "M" to enable the driver). I saved the new file, and returned to the prompt. I did not make any other changes to the new file. From here I did make dep, got no errors, so I made bzImage. Once again, no errors.   Then I added the new entry to /etc/grub.conf, crossed my fingers and rebooted. And after another two hours trying to get GRUB to actually load the new kernel, it finally booted, only to get a string of errors on my screen about loading a bunch of modules I've never seen before. I got to the prompt and ran lsmod, to find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING loaded.   What did I do wrong? Has ANYBODY gotten Linux to work with the Aironet MPI350? Where did I go so wrong with the kernel compile?