Hey there, I'm new to linux and have been messing around with Slackware. The CD I received from a friend is version 10, and after figuring out/configuring necessities like the x server and ALSA, I discovered a nifty little ongoing project called slapt-get..

.. then the trouble began..

I updated the core packages that slapt-get needs in order to do the --dist-upgrade and pull down packages from the slackware distro sources/install them. (These were glibc-solibs, pkgtools, and sed.)

I then proceeded with the upgrade, downloading 567MB of updated packages, including the 2.4.29 kernel (whereas 10 was 2.4.26).

I went through /etc and tweaked all the *.new config files and removed their .new tags, then rebooted. System comes up fine, but I notice the boot process seems a little on the skinny side. (Some hardware wasn't detected, like my ethernet card.) So I log in as root and enter "lsmod." The drivers for my modem and my nvidia card are the only reported modules. No more sound, no more ethernet, no more anything else.

I recompiled the 'new' 2.4.29 kernel (customized for my system of course) and rebooted. Absolutely no change, (cept' for the things I tweaked o' course.)

I'm not exactly sure what kind of information you might find useful, but I can tell you this: The Slackware 10 CD installation comes with "stock" drivers for my sound/ethernet/mobo. Atleast, those things all work. (It's an ECS K7S5A Pro plugged with a Duron 1GHz, 512MB SDR, geforce 4 MX420, SB Live! 5.1, and Conexant chipset linmodem. Yes.. I paid $15 to Linuxant to get full 56k bandwidth off that stupid modem, it was cheaper than buying a hardware modem. Broadband isn't available out here...)

So far the only drivers I've had to download are video and modem, which happen to be the two that are still there... Interesting eh?

I'm hoping my oversight is a small one and this is easily fixable... Sorry for writing a chapter, and thanks for the consideration at the least.

~Davatar

New info: I recompiled the kernel _again_ using the guide pinned to the top of this forum. (The one designated for newbies.) A number of modules are now actually loaded, including some of my drivers that hadn't been before. I still don't have it all back though. I noticed during boot there is a brief message: "Modprobe: Could not find and load module ide-scsi"

I receive the same message for other mods that I try to load manually. Possibility of scripts/configs still pointing in the wrong places? I'm not sure why I regained some of them though, and others are still missing.

Is there any way to run a "hardware scan?" I know that there is limited plug and play support, but I'm just wondering if I can scan for hardware manually somehow?

~Dav

Try enabling hotplug at bootup. hotplug should detect most of your hardware.

Error messages such as ide-scsi is because you don't have them (either you built them in, or you don't have the module full stop), but the Slackware startup scripts still tries to load them.

'lspci' or 'lspci -v' should be helpful to you.

Thanks, I'll try downloading specific motherboard drivers too. I do have hotplug enabled at boot.

Do you think I should upgrade to kernel 2.6.x?