Linux on a Thinkpad 600x

With the help of many web pages, I was able to get my Thinkpad 600x to run Linux fairly well. Here are a few odd things/problems that I've had, documented here so you can benefit from my wasted hours. <grin>
  1. Wireless

    I had a heck of a time getting my SMC2632W pcmcia card to work. First, I didn't understand about the difference between the orinoco_cs/orinoco/hermes system and the prism2_cs system; and that it seems to have changed in going from the 2.4.x kernels to the 2.6.x kernels. And my SMC2632W card was old: firmare 0.7.2. And I really really wanted WEP encryption, since I live in the suburbs. Finally, here's the deal:
  2. PCMCIA

    I have ocasionally had problems with some PCMCIA cards. I found this incantation somewhere on the net; I forget exactly where......

    Add these lines to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts

    include port 0x100-0x4ff
    include port 0x800-0x8ff
    include port 0xc00-0xcff
    include memory 0xc0000-0xfffff
    include memory 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff
    include memory 0x60000000-0x60ffffff
    
  3. Booting

    A long time ago, I changed from LILO to GRUB for booting. I guess the Grub was half installed, because I got to the state where I could boot most linux kernels that were less than 1megByte in size. And there other wierd things...

    I use Debian/testing/apt-get to keep my laptop up-to-date. I had a real hard time getting most of the 2.6.x kernels to boot. The only one that was stable was 2.6.3-1-386. All the others would stall, or give various error messages early in the boot, such as:

    It turns out that all this was due to an improperly installed GRUB. It took me almost a year to isolate it, though. Once GRUB is properly installed, I can boot any 2.6.x kernel, including the -686 ones. YAY!

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