Madwifi, Commands That Don't Work, And Why I'm Not Liking Linu

Ok, I have a Samsung R20 laptop: Core Duo 1.86GHz, 1GB RAM, Atheros Wireless Card, ATI Radeon Xpress 1250m, OpenSUSE 10.3 fresh install.
When I say fresh install, I mean it. Just installed of the KDE CD. The only other thing I've installed is MadWifi (at least I think I have)

So, I downloaded the RMP fromhttp://madwifi.org/suse/10.3/i586/ (the one at the top of the list), moved it over the the laptop and went "Install with YaST". Looks like it's installed properly.
Then I did what it said here:http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/FirstTimeHowTo and opened up the terminal and typed (running as root): modprobe ath_pci. This returned "FATAL: Module ath_pci not found". Since then I've been looking around to find a solution, none have come up.

I did try restarting, that didn't help.

Then I found this:http://susewiki.org/index.php?title=...Wireless_cards Which suggests I install madwifi-kmp-default, which I tried to do, but recieved a nasty error from yast which was long and, to be frank, I didn't understand. [Note: I just tried to install it again. This time, it didn't give any error, but doesn't appear under the packages list :S]

Please note, I'm a complete linux noob, but pretty advanced on windows

Jem Matzan has a nice little howto for Atheros on his hacking opensuse page. Try it. You'll need to add the madwifi repository to yast installation sources.
http://www.softwareinreview.com/linux_opti...nsuse_10.3.html
Post back with questions. Atheros are by far the best engineered drivers for Linux wireless. You should not have any problems once you figure it out.

That doesn't really address my problem.

Then I found this:http://susewiki.org/index.php?title=...Wireless_cards Which suggests I install madwifi-kmp-default, which I tried to do, but recieved a nasty error from yast which was long and, to be frank, I didn't understand. [Note: I just tried to install it again. This time, it didn't give any error, but doesn't appear under the packages list :S][/b]

You MUST have madwifi-kmp-default for your madwifi to work. Any previous attempt to get madwifi to work without this was a complete waste of time.

You need to know for certain if your madwifi is installed. You can NOT be nebulous about this. It either IS installed or it is NOT. YOU have to figure this out.

Try typing:
<span style="font-family:Courier New">hwinfo --wlan</span>
and copy and paste/post here exactly what you get. Based on that, maybe some suggestions can be made

As for your subject line "not liking linux", .... well, a new OS is going to be painful. When I first started with Red Hat in 1998 it took me a long time before:
a. I managed to get X windows working, and
b. I managed to get my PCMCIA modem working with Internet access, and
c. I managed to get sound working.
I succeeded in the end, and as the years have gone by I have learned more about Linux. I now know much more about Linux than I know about windows (which in truth is really not saying very much, since I know next to NOTHING) about windows. But my point is, there WILL be a learning curve. And there will be major pains along the way.

Good luck.

rpm -qa | grep madwifi[/b]

I get: "madwifi-0.9.3.3-0.1"

uname -a[/b]

"Linux JmsLaptop 2.6.22.5-31-default #1 SMP 2007/09/21 22:29:00 UTC i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux"

hwinfo --wlan[/b]

Some stuff flashes up really quickly, each line replacing the one before and finally gets replaced by the superuser prompt, it all goes far too fast for me to read.

hwinfo --wlan | more

I get: "madwifi-0.9.3.3-0.1"
[/b]

You are missing madwifi-kmp-default. Hence madwifi will NOT work for you. You must install that package. There is some guidance here:
http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_madwifi

hwinfo --wlan | more[/b]

When I do this whatever comes up is immediately replaced by the prompt text

Whenever I try and install madwifi-kmp-default it complains about a dependency on kernel-default, kernel-source, bash and kernel(default:vmlinux)

I have kernel-default, kernel-source and bash installed for the correct kernel version (2.6.22.5-31-default). I know 'cause I'm looking at them in the package manager right now, but it still complains...

When I do this whatever comes up is immediately replaced by the prompt text[/b]

Try:
<span style="font-family:Courier New">hwinfo --wlan > wlan.txt</span>
and then open wlan.txt with a text editor to see if there is any input.

I believe (I'm not 100% certain) you need root permissions for "hwinfo --wlan".

Whenever I try and install madwifi-kmp-default it complains about a dependency on kernel-default, kernel-source, bash and kernel(default:vmlinux). I have kernel-default, kernel-source and bash installed for the correct kernel version (2.6.22.5-31-default).[/b]

2.6.22.5-31-default is an old kernel. The most current for openSUSE-10.3 (with all the security fixes) is 2.6.22.17. Its possible that madwifi is setup for the latest kernel. ... Still, its puzzling that there is no easy madwifi for the 2.6.22.5 kernel. Please confirm you are getting this madwifi from here:
http://madwifi.org/suse/10.3/i586/

per instructions on this url:
http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_madwifi

Still, its puzzling that there is no easy madwifi for the 2.6.22.5 kernel. Please confirm you are getting this madwifi from here:
http://madwifi.org/suse/10.3/i586/

per instructions on this url:
http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_madwifi
[/b]

If worst comes to worst, you can get a madwifi for the 2.6.22.5 kernel from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/...SUSE_10.3/i586/
Edit: upon reflecting up this, the "EEE" has me suspicious that these may be for the EEE PC and not for your laptop.


But thats should be a very last resort. Its more important we learn EXACTLY which atheros you have (from the hwinfo --wlan) and more important you try the madwifi-kmp-default from the http://madwifi.org/suse/10.3/i586/ site.