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pcmcia network card configuration/installation...
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stuart...
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:17 am
Guest
I have a network card problem and I'm hoping that I can get some advice
and information here.

I've installed Slackware 12.2 on an old laptop I have. The problem I'm
having is to get the network card working.

I know the card is okay and works on this computer because I had it
working with a previous linux distribution, Fedora. But I want to try
Slackware, so I installed it. No network connection, the card just isn't
set up by the OS at installation time.

The computer is a Dell Latitude CPi A Series. The network card is a
Xircom Credit Card Ethernet 10/100 Modem 56 (CEM56-100).

I've searched the web and read up the Slackware installation guide and
I'm just about pulling my hair out trying to fix this thing.

The correct module for the network card is xirc2ps_cs which I have
installed.

Here is the output from lsmod:

Module Size Used by
.....
pcmcia 36524 2 xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs
.....
pcmcia_core 35604 5 /
xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic

(I've trimmed that to save space)

I know that xirc2ps_cs is the correct module because it's used by
Tinycore linux which I have booted and used in the computer just yesterday.

The pcmcia card is acknowledged by the kernel at boot. Here's the
relevant part of dmesg:

pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0

However there is no detail of the card in either lspci or lspcmcia.

Here's the relevant output of lspci -vv

00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 168, Cache Line Size: 128 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 30000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 20000000-23fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 24000000-27fff000
I/O window 0: 00001000-000010ff
I/O window 1: 00001400-000014ff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset+ 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket

00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 168, Cache Line Size: 128 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 30001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=09, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 28000000-2bfff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 2c000000-2ffff000
I/O window 0: 00001800-000018ff
I/O window 1: 00001c00-00001cff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset+ 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket

And lspcmcia -vvv produces this:

Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.0)
Configuration: state: on ready: no
Voltage: 5.0V Vcc: 5.0V Vpp: 5.0V
Available IRQs: 3, 4, 7, 9, 10
Available ioports: --none--
Available iomem: --none--
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.1)
Configuration: state: on ready: no
Available IRQs: 3, 4, 7, 9, 10
Available ioports: --none--
Available iomem: --none--

ifconfig -a

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


ifconfig eth0

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

/usr/adm/messages contains the following:

Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: CardBus bridge found at
0000:00:03.0 [0000:0000]
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC
interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.0, mfunc
0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: input: PS/2 Generic Mouse as
/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input2
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Socket status: 30000010
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: CardBus bridge found at
0000:00:03.1 [0000:0000]
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC
interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.1, mfunc
0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Socket status: 30000006

I'm a newbie to Slackware and while I've been using linuxes for several
years off and on, I'm getting out of my depth here.

What I want to know is what I need to do to get the system to respond to
the network card when it boots. I'd really like to know what is
happening at a more fundamental level too, but I'll be happy to have a
laptop that will connect to the network.

Can anyone offer any help or pointers, please?

Stuart
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allend...
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 10:02 pm
Guest
On Oct 25, 4:17 am, stuart <delet... at (no spam) frogspawn.org.uk> wrote:
Quote:
Can anyone offer any help or pointers, please?

Have you made /etc/rc.d /rc.pcmcia executable?
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Douglas Mayne...
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:59 am
Guest
On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:17:06 +0000, stuart wrote:

Quote:
I have a network card problem and I'm hoping that I can get some advice
and information here.

I've installed Slackware 12.2 on an old laptop I have. The problem I'm
having is to get the network card working.

I know the card is okay and works on this computer because I had it
working with a previous linux distribution, Fedora. But I want to try
Slackware, so I installed it. No network connection, the card just isn't
set up by the OS at installation time.

The computer is a Dell Latitude CPi A Series. The network card is a
Xircom Credit Card Ethernet 10/100 Modem 56 (CEM56-100).

I've searched the web and read up the Slackware installation guide and
I'm just about pulling my hair out trying to fix this thing.

The correct module for the network card is xirc2ps_cs which I have
installed.

Here is the output from lsmod:

Module Size Used by
....
pcmcia 36524 2 xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs
....
pcmcia_core 35604 5 /
xirc2ps_cs,serial_cs,pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic

(I've trimmed that to save space)

I know that xirc2ps_cs is the correct module because it's used by
Tinycore linux which I have booted and used in the computer just yesterday.

The pcmcia card is acknowledged by the kernel at boot. Here's the
relevant part of dmesg:

pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0

However there is no detail of the card in either lspci or lspcmcia.

Here's the relevant output of lspci -vv

00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 168, Cache Line Size: 128 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 30000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 20000000-23fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 24000000-27fff000
I/O window 0: 00001000-000010ff
I/O window 1: 00001400-000014ff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset+ 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket

00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 168, Cache Line Size: 128 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 30001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=09, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 28000000-2bfff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 2c000000-2ffff000
I/O window 0: 00001800-000018ff
I/O window 1: 00001c00-00001cff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset+ 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket

And lspcmcia -vvv produces this:

Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.0)
Configuration: state: on ready: no
Voltage: 5.0V Vcc: 5.0V Vpp: 5.0V
Available IRQs: 3, 4, 7, 9, 10
Available ioports: --none--
Available iomem: --none--
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:03.1)
Configuration: state: on ready: no
Available IRQs: 3, 4, 7, 9, 10
Available ioports: --none--
Available iomem: --none--

ifconfig -a

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


ifconfig eth0

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

/usr/adm/messages contains the following:

Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: CardBus bridge found at
0000:00:03.0 [0000:0000]
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC
interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.0, mfunc
0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: input: PS/2 Generic Mouse as
/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input2
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Socket status: 30000010
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: CardBus bridge found at
0000:00:03.1 [0000:0000]
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC
interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta TI: socket 0000:00:03.1, mfunc
0x01261222, devctl 0x66
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Oct 23 16:18:06 achilles kernel: Socket status: 30000006

I'm a newbie to Slackware and while I've been using linuxes for several
years off and on, I'm getting out of my depth here.

What I want to know is what I need to do to get the system to respond to
the network card when it boots. I'd really like to know what is
happening at a more fundamental level too, but I'll be happy to have a
laptop that will connect to the network.

Can anyone offer any help or pointers, please?

Stuart

Caveat: I don't have a Xircom network card to test. I have verified that

this card is supported by the kernel module you referenced by the
typical Slackware 12.2 kernels.

As noted by allend, you should make sure that /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia is
executable. The output from lspcmcia shows that it is probably already
executable. I guess you could try stopping and restarting pcmcia:

AFAIK, if the PCMCIA devices are not in use, then this sequence will not
cause harm:

# /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia stop

<plug in new device>

# /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia start

Check the dmesg output. On my system, I get this output when plugging
in a D-Link DFE-690:

yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: CardBus bridge found [1028:01c2]
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: O2: res at 0x94/0xD4: 00/ea
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: O2: enabling read prefetch/write burst
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: ISA IRQ mask 0x0ca8, PCI irq 18
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: Socket status: 30000820
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: pcmcia: parent PCI bridge I/O window: 0x2000 - 0x2fff
pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x2000-0x2fff: clean.
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x8c000000 - 0x91ffffff
yenta_cardbus 0000:03:01.0: pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x88000000 - 0x8bffffff
pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
pci 0000:04:00.0: reg 10 io port: [0x00-0xff]
pci 0000:04:00.0: reg 14 32bit mmio: [0x000000-0x0001ff]
pci 0000:04:00.0: supports D1 D2
pci 0000:04:00.0: PME# supported from D1 D2 D3hot
pci 0000:04:00.0: PME# disabled
8139too 0000:04:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
8139too 0000:04:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
8139too 0000:04:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
eth1: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x2000, 00:11:95:27:a7:0c, IRQ 18
eth1: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'

After that, I could attempt to get an IP address:

# dhcpcd -t 10 -d eth1

Another file which helps in debugging problems like this, is to look at
how udev is recognizing devices. For network devices look at the file:

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

The devices are generally recognized in the order that they are "seen."
If there are devices which you want to eliminate or tweak, then
that is where to make changes. The file can also be deleted, and it will
be recreated at the next boot. For example, if the device is assigned eth1
and you would prefer that it be eth0, make the change to that file.

Also, I have been very impressed with with the wicd package. Primarily it
is responsible for doing wireless connections, but it can also manage
wired connections. I recommend it for use on laptops. It is included in
the "extra" package group.

The only other things I can think of is to make sure that the physical
connection is tight and that the PCMCIA slot works. I have seen Dell
laptops of that vintage with one broken PCMCIA slot. Usually, only one is
broken and the other works, which is weird.

--
Douglas Mayne
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Thomas Ronayne...
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:41 am
Guest
tcstuart wrote:
Quote:
I have a network card problem and I'm hoping that I can get some
advice and information here.

Stuart
I had a similar problem with 12.2 on a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a Zoom

Supra PC Card 56K Faxmodem -- it had worked prior to 12.2 but no matter
what I did I could not get it going. So I used the Windmodem with
drivers from Linuxant (http://www.linuxant.com/company) that worked just
fine followed by a Zoom USB modem that works fine also.

Strange thing is, I installed Slackware 13.0 and, just for the heck of
it, plugging in the PCMCIA card and, whadda ya know, the thing worked,
no fiddling around, just set KPPP pointing at it, and away you go.

I should note that most new laptops do not include a PCMCIA slot
(they've got this new express something or other) and your PCMCIA is
worthless with a newer machine (I just bought a Dell Inspiron 17 to
replace the 6000 which has a given-up motherboard display controller and
the new one cost about $85 less than the repair cost of the old one,
mumble, grumble).

You might want to bite the bullet and get a USB modem so when you
upgrade the box at some point you won't be running around trying to find
something that will work. Dial-up is like wooden computers with stone
keyboards but if you're not where there's anything else it's all ya got
(dammit). Not a lot of demand for dial-up so I'm figuring cover my hiney
and get one now before they're banned to the Smithsonian.

Hope this helps some.
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stuart...
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:01 pm
Guest
I wrote:
Quote:
I have a network card problem and I'm hoping that I can get some advice
and information here.

...etc.

Thanks to allend, Douglas and Thomas for your help and advice. I tried
it all but nothing worked.

I've given up the struggle with Slackware 12.2 and downloaded 13. It's
installing as I write and the network dongle plugged into the pcmcia
card is showing a light, so the OS has detected it.

I'm sorry to have to give up that struggle, but my time is taken up with
study, work and various other hobbies, so fighting through hardware
configuration had to go.

I still find it a fascinating problem. Just how does the system work?

Stuart
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Grant...
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:56 pm
Guest
On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:01:30 GMT, stuart <deleteme at (no spam) frogspawn.org.uk> wrote:

....
Quote:

I still find it a fascinating problem. Just how does the system work?

Things improve over time? Slackware is getting easier to install.

Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.id.au
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