Great Minds, I implore you!

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

I have been at war with PCMCIA/CardBus for almost 6 months now. I won't tell the whole story [room sighs in relief], but I will have to spend a little time explaining...

I have 4 PCMCIA NICs. 3 are CardBus adapters, and they do not work, ever, in Gentoo. The 4th is a 16-bit NetGear 802.11b. It works even when I don't have the orinoco support compiled... OR don't even have any cardservice function of any kind at all! I can completely disable pcmcia in the kernel, all drivers related to pcmcia network cards too, and it still works....

Point is, this ain't right! And I'd like to be able to use a wired NIC, like my Intel/Xircom MBLA3400 [Pro/100 CardBus II].

It would have been nice for someone to say that I have to "emerge pcmcia-cs-drivers" for 32-bit a long time ago.... But oh well, I know now.

I went hand to hand with emerge for telling me the package is still masked, when I created the .unmask file....

So, against orders, I commented it out of the .mask file. I now finally get to run the emerge but the compile time process tells me this:

diebels · Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2004 11:37 pm Post subject:

Have you tried compiling pcmcia and related drivers as modules in kernel.

That's what I've done, and only using
sys-apps/pcmcia-cs

Think my modules get's loaded when /etc/init.d/net.eth0 script, which contains

codergeek42 · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 12:12 am Post subject:

I'm using a generic PCI<->PCMCIA cardbus for my orinoco-chipset PCMCIA 802.11b/g wireless card. I compiled cardbus support into my kernel statically, emerge'd pcmcia-cs, edited /etc/conf.d/pcmcia to use my network ESSID and WEP key, edited /etc/conf.d/net to make iface_eth0 use DHCP then did

b0fh_ · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 12:16 am Post subject:

Hmm.

Try compiling everything PCMCIA as a kernel module, not built-in.
Much easier to fiddle with, and AFAIK most pcmcia-hotplug scripts need this.

No need to install pcmcia-cs-utils, I do fine without it (only sys-apps/pcmcia-cs here).

Don't forget to compile the drivers for your pcmcia network cards as modules too.

Peace.
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"Contrary to popular belief, UNIX is user-friendly. It only happens to be picky on its friends."

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

Unfortunately, the kernel doesn't seem to support:

Intel Pro/100 CardBus II [MBLA3400]
Intel Pro/100 CardBus II [MBLA3300]
D-Link AirPro 802.11a/b [DWL-AB650] (NOT a "+")

So pcmcia-cs-drivers was my last hope, and it has had no effect. I have tried compiling all kernel available drivers both into kernel, and as modules, no effect. I've used both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. No effect.

As things stand, the system recognizes that a CardBus device has been inserted, but it doesn't do anything after that. Doesn't load anything or do anything but say "Yup, there it is, now I DARE you to find a way to use it!"

I'm beginning to think that this simply can't be done, and that my old 16 bit NetGear card is all that Gentoo/Linux can handle.

I appreciate the helpful suggestions, but it's all stuff I've tried already.

Lets not even talk about the Sound, and the USB mouse that only (halfway) works in 2.6 kernels.......

I'm willing to make a wager on this one.... I'll bet $50 that it can't be done, and I'll mail this thing to anyone who wants to prove me wrong and take a shot at the money!

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

I've wasted enough of my life on this. This Laptop is going back to Windows. Gentoo/Linux simply can't do the job.

diebels · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 2:47 am Post subject:

Kernel config for pcmcia and cardbus:

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

I don't see anything PCMCIA/CardBus related in those listings... But don't think I haven't already tried it. ;-)

I've done some pretty off-the-wall stuff in the last several months. Hoping that the PCI drivers for completely unrelated cards, would work, isn't the strangest.

It's time to accept that fact that Linux just hasn't got broad enough support on PCMCIA to be useful.

I hate M$ as much as anyone, but at least it works... My desktop will remain Gentoo, but this Toshiba Portege 7200CTe is going back to Windows.

I'm simply unwilling to invest any more time into this. If someone else wants to take the time to prove me wrong, the $50 bet is no joke. I'm not wasting anymore time on it.

diebels · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 4:19 am Post subject:

stop, think, breathe, act :wink:

The text you are reading now have been transferred trough a 3com 3c575 pcmcia network card. Using the "pci" drivers for "unrelated cards" (3c590/3c900 series 592/595/597) says the readme.

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

I would not deny your incredible degree of patience by giving up, even when I want to... ;-)

It would be too rude, even for me!

I comprehend the elimination of the pcmcia-cs-drivers and ...cs-tools. I have done this. Prior, however, I was compelled to take the extreme action of downloading and compiling the code manually, ie, no emerge. I manually built and installed 3.2.7. I think I got rid of it, or at least the system's inclination to use it, by deleting the source directory, and switching back to my 2.6.5 kernel. During boot, there are no longer any references to the drivers built by the manual compilation. However, during boot, the system simply states that it is watching 2 slots when the Intel adaptors are present.

I did as you have instructed, and added the PCI support. I tried it as both module and in-kernel. There was no effect. I would give you the output kernel messages, but there were none... The system no longer acknowledges even the mere presence of the Intel Adaptors. I may as well be plugging in a diaper, a head of lettuce, or several credit-card shaped rocks....

But that NetGear MA401 just keeps on truckin' no matter what I do/screw up. I bet I could induce a Kernel Panic of some kind, and the card would find a way to fix it.... I kid you not, this thing runs and connects to the AP with no config or support of any kind! I don't even know the SSID.... Pulls an IP off of my Router's DHCP (which somehow is getting assigned to the loopback (lo) device).... Oddity, I never get beeps when I unplug or plug it in.... It used to when I was on the 2.4 kernels with pcmcia-cs-drivers.... but it works......

NDISwrapper? Say it ain't so......

I compromised, I'm dual-booting with Win2K. I'd love to do without Windows, but I've at least got to be able to put it to practical use.

Any other ideas?

Rainmaker · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 7:03 am Post subject:

do you have hotplug emerged?

My PCMCIA modem card (some Tornado thingie) wouldn't get recognized before I had hotplug running
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ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

Should I put hotplug in the boot or default runlevel? I've tried both, but not with PCI drivers enabled.

BTW, I'm using Links for web browsing (which is REALLY fun in the forums...) because KDE just spontaneously decided to quit... DCOMserver crap, I'm trying things I found elsewhere in the forums to fix that... Oddly, KDE will not unmerge. Emerge says that it can't find any packages to remove. I can only alter it by emerging an older package version, then re-emerging the newer version. Great fun on Pentium III 600Mhz...

Anyway, I'm going to try out this hotplug thing again, with the PCI drivers. I'll try both runlevels too....

ixtow · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 102

Many thanks to diebels for telling me to try it anyway.

Though it defies logic, reason, and possibly the Physical Laws of the Universe too, my Intel cards are working!

But that is only two-thirds of the issue. DWL-AB650 is still not working, but I really didn't do anything to try to make it work yet...

I'm going to pick a bunch of maybe-d-link-related non-pcmcia/non-cardbus kernel modules, and see what happens.

This seems like I just pumped water into my gas tank, and my car still runs just as well as with gas... Why would any sane person try it in the first place? It's not logical.

Can someone explain the general principal upon which cardbus functions? Perhaps that will allow me to understand why this actually works.

My best guess, is that it operates more as a conduit for the PCI protocol; when 32-bit CardBus devices are involved. Kinda like PPTP over DSL/Cable. If that is the case, then yes, it makes sense... But I'm just guessing.

Rainmaker · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:38 am Post subject:

if you're into that stuff, take a look in /usr/src/linux/Documentation

I'm sure there's a document in there explaining the cardbus basics
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diebels · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:55 am Post subject:

Nice to hear you got it working

I guess mostly pcmcia network cards are identical to pci cards of the same model in different package. Thats why they run with the same drivers. There are specific drivers that take care of the pci or pcmcia part.

I was a bit confused with this myself when going to 2.6 kernel and not finding drivers for my card in the pcmcia section of make config. Tried one in the pci section and it worked.
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