I recently started back at school and, being one of the leading academic postgraduate institutions in the world, there is very good network access. However, not surprisingly, the support for linux is minimal - and being that I run Debian on an old powerbook, the computer help desk people all seemed to be more impressed with my machine but unable to help. They use Red Hat, though, and I was able to get one of the guys to show me the dhcp server logs, which was great as I could then tell what was working or not...

One of the great difficulties I had was getting the wireless configured on my new setup. There are many links and howtos scattered around the internet, but actually not one of them was what I needed - or really explained the nitty-gritty details: they all just skimmed over a few bits, presumably assuming that if you're clever enough to get debian running, you must know how to get the networking sorted. Or, maybe I just missed the ones that could have really helped me.

The result is, I've decided to write some brief notes about what I did to get stuff working. It should also be noted that I'm prompted to do this not only by dkg but also cos I'm trying to clean up my homedir a little bit, and I had some old notes lying around that would otherwise get lost and forgotten.

So I'm going to pick up the story after my hard drive crashed recently. At that point, the primary concern was the data loss, which was pretty annoying. However, it really has turned out that I have not lost that much, most stuff was - in one way or another - backed up. So then the emphasis turned to sorting out the computer. It was still under Apple Care Warrancy, which I had bought literally hours before my eligibility ran out. It has proved worthwhile, and I would do it again. First, I had to get it enabled: that involved telephoning the support line. But I had all the appropriate documentation still (original invoice, receipt, delivery notes, etc) so it was fine. Then, getting an appointment at the apple genius bar at the regent street store. The first time I went in, I was served by a real jerk of a guy who had obviously been told to learn the company style as his own would have been too bad. I'm sure there must have been complaints about him. Anyway, I got the manager who came over and offered to replace the screen and the top casing, which had worn away under the sweat from my wrists one hot summer in new york, but said i'd have to pay for the bottom casing and hard drive as there was clear evidence of damage. It was noted in the records - which I was only allowed to see at a strange angle after absolutely insisting - and I left.

I came back a few days later, having decided that I would have the cosmetic repairs done, but leave the hard drive. What a sensible decision that seems to have been! The big catch with apple was that if they replaced the hard drive, they would only do like for like (i.e an 80GB hard drive for another 80GB one) and they would keep the old, damaged one. That didn't seem fair, as it had all my data on it - albeit encrypted. Even so, I wanted to be able to attempt to get it off.