Installed FC5 off all 5 cdroms.
During installation, configured monitor for "LCD 1400×1050"
eth0 was auto-discovered, but not ath0 (wireless).
Get eth0 up: ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.222 up, route add default gw 192.168.1.1
vi /etc/resolv.conf, and add line "nameserver 206.13.28.12"
Downloaded madwifi drivers (.tar.gz) from madwifi.org
Untar’d to tmp dir
Requires kernel srcs! So, ‘yum install kernel-devel-[match kernel version].i686’
yum install gcc (for building madwifi)
cd madwifi_subdir
make
make install
modprobe ath_pci
ifconfig -a (should see ath0 now)
Load scanner: modprobe wlan_scan_sta
ifconfig ath0 up
iwlist ath0 scan (view APs in the area and which are encrypted)
iwconfig ath0 essid "default"
iwconfig ath0 key <wep key in hex>
dhclient ath0

(this is from the madwifi "newbie howto" doc)

Disabled acpi in kernel boot options (disable suspend/power management)
kernel … acpi=off rhgb quiet
(/boot/grub/grub.conf)

Disabled apmd (suspend results in freeze)
[root@localhost ~]# chkconfig –list| egrep apm
apmd            0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
[root@localhost ~]# chkconfig apmd off
chkconfig apmd off
[root@localhost ~]# chkconfig –list| egrep apm
apmd            0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:off   6:off

Change /etc/X11/xorg.conf to read:
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Generic Laptop Display Panel 1400×1050"
        HorizSync    31.5 – 90.0
        VertRefresh  59.0 – 75.0
        Option      "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "radeon"
        VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
        BoardName   "ATI Radeon Mobility M9"
        Option      "AGPMode" "4"
        Option      "EnableDepthMoves" "on"
        Option      "EnablePageFlip" "on"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1400×1050" "1280×1024" "1280×960" "1152×864" "1024×768" "640×480"
                Virtual  0 0
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Group        0
        Mode         0666
EndSection
(end of xorg.conf)

6/11/2006
Downloaded Knoppix 5.0 iso (single cd)
burned cdrom
NOTE: T41p Thinkpad had NO hard drive at all! 🙂
Booted off cdrom into knoppix
su to root
ifconfig -a (ath0 is wireless)
vi /ramdisk/etc/network/interfaces

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp
  wireless_mode managed
  wlan_ng_authtype sharedkey
  wireless_enc on
  # WEP key
  wireless_key xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
  wireless_essid default

as root:
# ifup -a -v –interfaces /ramdisk/etc/network/interfaces
[will print a few "if-pre-up.d" lines, then "pump -i ath0" will print then there’ll be a long pause, then "if-up.d" lines" and then you can ping.]