[Sheflug] Debian Groan

[Alex Hudson <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just been updating my laptop, with respect to kernel version (it was running 
2.4.3). Now, previously, it had been running a self-compiled kernel, which 
was fairly modular and didn't have a great deal special (previous versions 
had FreeS/WAN in, this one didn't, and there were a couple of 
non-kernel-config #DEFINEs to work around some bios bugs).

Anyway, I decided to install a Debian testing kernel - 2.4.9-586tsc, to be 
precise, basically because I couldn't be bothered downloading the source (I'm 
still doing StarOffice - might get finished tonight if I go really late!!!). 
In the name of ALL that is HOLY...

First off, it completely broke the ethernet networking, utterly, completely. 
(Yes, I realise it's a testing kernel, but let's ignore that for this flame 
;). Usually, when I 'ifconfig', I see lo and eth0 as usual and as expected. 
This time, however, I was also presented with a 'tap0'. This appears to be 
ethertap (according to Google :), which I don't need and certainly don't 
want. One 'ifconfig tap0 down' and a couple of #'s added to 
/etc/modutils/pcmcia later and the blasted thing was gone. Of course, 
networking immediately started working again.

I see that they also appear to have taken modularisation to its.. er.. 
logical conclusion. On my kernel, a simple 'lsmod' would have revealed about 
six modules or so, mostly pcmcia stuff, sometimes some extra for SCSI had I 
plugged my Zip drive in. But not on this one. lsmod fills more than the 
screen now!! Including such highlights as the ide subsystem, the ext2 
filesystem, and other assorting things I need to even bootstrap. Whether or 
not this is Debian's attempt to turn Linux into the Hurd I don't know, but 
the list is long and I have trouble getting my small brain around it :( I 
also have this whopper initrd sitting in /boot, but I suppose tis the nature 
of modern things. But this Linux feels very different to my one :(

		Alex.
___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk . 
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to 
shef-lug-request@list.sheflug.org.uk with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.