Adam, inspired by the latest Knoppix live CD distribution, decided to install Red Hat 9 on his computer. I tagged along for the ride. After all, I rarely turn down any offer that allows me to gain more experience with computers and electronics. Every bit helps.

Adam has a relatively new and unsupported wireless ethernet device - a Siemens’ SpeedStream SS1022. After some searching, we discovered and decided on the rather unstable wlan-ng module RPMs, since they seemed to be most compatible with his operating system. Much to my dismay, the modules would not load (unresolved symbol errors), and after much work, we eventually decided on compiling the Linux kernel 2.4.21-rc1 source from scratch. It took several painful hours and an inordinate number of reboots to get all the kernel options correct, but by the end of the night, we were finally able to get the wireless device working.