As promised Fedora Core 4 setup

I've just upgraded to the latest kernel (2.6.12-1.1398_FC4) and thought I'd use it as a guide for what needs to be done to set up FC4 on a Dell Latitude D600 laptop.

FC4 should install without any problems and should recognize all hardware except for the wireless network card. After the install I strongly recommend that you do the following:

1. Run 'yum update' to get the latest versions of the installed packages. As far as I know the stock standard FC4 install CDs/DVD come with 2.6.12-1.1369_FC4 kernel which is already getting a bit old so you'll probably want to update to the new version.

2. Once the upgrade has been completed you can set up your wireless network card by following the instructions from this link. The simplest thing would be to use the driver that is shipped with the kernel and just install the firmware v2.2. I have personallyhpersonallyole decided to go with the full install approach and have installed firmware v2.3 and driver v1.04. As I am writing this I have just noticed that a new version of the driver (v1.06) is available and I might try that later on tonight.

3. If you've followed the instructions from the website and have rebooted at the end of the install you should have a working wireless connection except if you are running a network that uses WPA for security (as is the case with me). To get the WPA authentication to work you'll need to install the wpa_supplicant. Either Google for a recent FC3/4 RPM or download the source and compile it. Personally I had problems compiling it on FC4 so I opted for a slightly older version for which I was able to find an RPM. Once you install it all you will need to do is configure it ,edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, and set it up to run at startup:

echo wpa_supplicant -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -wB >> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless
echo killall wpa_supplicant > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-wireless
chmod +x /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-wireless