Networking :: pcmcia network card not working since dsl2.1b

I have searched lots of forums but I haven't solved this problem.

I'm using hp omnibook 5700ctx.
My 3com 3cxfe575ct pcmcia network card worked fine with dsl2.1b but it doesn't work with newer versions of dsl. Card is detected but the text "Network device eth0 detected" doesn't show up in start phase and ifconfig doesn't show eth0.

I noticed that 2.1b uses kernel 2.4.31 and 2.4RC2 kernel 2.4.16. Is my system missing something important? Is the support removed?

I can always use 2.1b but I'd like to use my network card in 2.4RC2 too. I have tested dsl 2.2, 2.3, 2.4RC2 and it doesn't work in any of those.

Can somebody please help me?

I would either stick to DSL version 2.1b or I would give DSL-N (Damn Small Linux - Not!) a try since it uses a newer kernel version.

My laptop has 166MHz cpu and 96MB ram. It can't boot from cdrom. I have to use DSL boot floppy and syslinux cd.

So is it possible to boot DSL-N? Isn't that isolinux cd image, that is available?
And I think DSL-N might be much slower on my laptop but I could give it a try.

There are two possible ways that I can think of.

1) Get the "Smart Boot Manager" and create a SBM floppy disk. Hopefully you can use it to boot DSL-N CD disk.

2) Do a "Loadlin Install" where you place the linux kernel file and miniroot file on a FAT or FAT32 partition and boot up DOS/Win95/Win98 and then run the loadlin bootloader.

I am sure there are other ways, but these ones should work.

I downloaded Smart Boot Manager and DSL-n but it didn't work either with my network card. I guess I'm going to stick with 2.1b. Thanks for your help.

Is it safe to use 2.1b or is there important security updates in newer releases?

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