Me vs. Linux 2.6.0

I'm slowly knocking out each of the short list of bugs and annoyances in Linux 2.6.0 on my Inspiron 3800.

I fixed the following:

• PPP was not loading because devfsd had been instructed to create /dev/ppp, which then got in the way when the ppp_generic module tried to create it. PPP now works.
• The serial_cs module was not loading for my 3CCFEM556 PC card. I almost never use that modem, but it kept my NIC from initializing. I trashed my automatic setserial config, which seemed to be trying to initialize 4 serial ports when only 2 exist on boot without the modem. I excluded known IRQs from /etc/pcmcia/config.opts, specifically IRQ 2, which setserial -g was listing. That got the PCMCIA serial device started properly.

I still have these things broken:

• ALSA, esd, mpg123, and my Maestro3 sound chip are doing odd things with scheduling. At times it seems like it tries to play too quickly and skips bits of the sound. This causes music beats to sound irregular. Some kernel/alsa people have been sending me patches to try.
• I've not tried to build the Mach64 DRM/DRI stuff against this kernel yet. I suspect those modules for previous instability in my X server, so I'm waiting. I'll just have to do without my pretty screensavers for a bit.

With everything getting closer and closer to working, I think I'm about ready to try it on my server over the weekend. I've built a kernel for it already. Wish me luck...especially if I host stuff of yours! ;)