My efforts to install Arch on my Inspiron 8000 have been completely and utterly derailed by a kernel panic every time I insert the wireless card (another Linksys WPC11 v3, an Orinoco). I’ve never seen anything quite like it — I mean, I’ve run into kernel panics before, and usually I could at least circumvent them or avoid them by pulling this, disabling that or updating those.

This is like bringing the computer to a screeching halt by pushing in the PCMCIA card. It’s amazing, in a weird and twisted way. I get some error messages about invalid EIP and unexpected IVR SMT on CPU0, etc. It means nothing to me, since I lack the experience to understand what’s being said there.

I can install the system without the card, update all the way to testing via the wired connection, but after that, it’s a lost cause. I push the card in, the system locks down and is dead. Like a switch.

So anyway, it’s probably back to Ubuntu after this. I could ask about the problem on the forum, but in my experience, errors of this magnitude are seldom fixed except at the innermost levels, which are way beyond my ability. I don’t even know if I could explain it fluently.

I’d do better to wait a while, and wonder. For now I need a working system, and pronto. I’m relying on an 8-year-old Pentium II to keep me in business. 😯