New hardware probe stops bootup

[MikeB]

(Foolishly?) I added a wireless network card in the addhardware preference panel. I now realize that I had set its location incorrectly (not to mention that I don't have drivers for it). IAC, bootup now freezes while the system looks for new hardware. How can I get the system to bypass this step?

On a secondary note, the card (PCI card) carries the mark of a company called Sweex, but it uses drivers from Realtek. I found Realtek drivers for Redhat 9. I am running Fedora FC2. Does anyone know if one of the drivers packed with the system will work for a network card like this?

Thanks for any help on either question.

[Jman]

Try pressing i for interactive setup and not doing hardware detection. Or boot CD 1, enter linux rescue and when you get a text prompt run chroot /mnt/sysimage; chkconfig kudzu off which should disable kudzu, the hardware detection.

There is a RealTek ethernet driver in the network config tool, but I don't think that will help.

[crackers]

You can't use a driver package intended for a specific distribution/kernel version on one that is not exactly the same. If you manage to get a RH9 driver installed in FC, it still won't work correctly and can cause the kernel to hang or panic.

One easy way to get around your problem at boot time is to shutdown, power off, and remove the card, then start up again. Of course, you're pretty hosed about being able to network without it, but at least the computer will boot... ;)

[MikeB]

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately, when trying the rescue mode, when I issued the "chroot /mnt/sysimage; chkconfig kudzu off" command, the reply was kudzu could not be found. So, assuming the system was worse than I had thought, I decided to just reinstall. So far so good, though, like many others here, I also have sound problems. So, on to the next problem!

Thanks again.