I was excited to set up my brand-spanking-new copy of SuSE Linux Professional 8.2 on a machine I'm planning to use for testing and review. Everything went smoothly except for installation of the Orinoco Silver PC Card network adapter. Several hours and unsuccessful tacks later, I can claim victory, and maybe save you time if you tackle the same task.

The key file that controls the PCMCIA NIC is /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-pcmcia. I first tried editing it manually, but there's a much easier way.

Use SuSE's YaST2 installation program. Click on Network Devices, then Network Card, and click the Configure button. Now you can check the Wireless Device box. Change the operating mode to Automatic, and enter the ESSID of your access point. If you're using encryption (and I suggest you do) enter the key. I use 40-bit encryption, so my key looks like "0102030405," with no dot separators.

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