PCMCIA WPC54Gv2 ok on live CD, dead on frugal

Forum: Networking
Topic: PCMCIA WPC54Gv2 ok on live CD, dead on frugal
started by: jeanspv

Posted by jeanspv on Feb. 19 2007,13:48

I am using a Sony PCG-N505X 333mhz 128 ram. Linksys PCMCIA wireless card WPC54G v2 (TI Chip).DSL 3.2
This laptop boots from PCMCIA. Once I have booted from live CD and specified installation I have to move Cd to a USB CD drive as the Koppix files are not found on the pcmcia cd drive.

After booting from live CD, I successfully use Ndiswrapper to install the lstinds.inf windows driver and my wireless works beautifully.
Now I get on with the Frugal install using Apps.
Rebooting into Frugal shows that lstinds.inf cannot be loaded. Trying ndiswrapper from control panel tells me "connection failed" (ram usage at 25%).
Looking at DSL panel / pccard control shows a card is detected without ident and info. Incidentally, none of the controls operate; after physically inserting another pcmcia device,in order to see its settings/irq with the config tab I have to reboot.
lspci shows the card with its chip name.
lsmod: "pcmcia_core 39840 0 [ds yenta_socket]
iwconfig: lo no wireless extensions.
lspci -vv: wireless card not shown but everything,including cardbus, apart from screen on same IRQ.
Finally, I have checked Ndiswrapper 1.14 is started.

If anybody can help me out, then I will have found out, with DSL, what I ve been looking for, for a while.

Posted by jeanspv on Feb. 23 2007,23:15

Deafening silence...

Now, this is where the ndiswrapper setup of the pcmcia card halts:
"__alloc_pages: 7-order allocation failed (gfp=0x21/0)
ndiswrapper (....):couldn't allocate 409600 bytes of un-cached DMA memory"

Is there a way out?

Posted by roberts on Feb. 24 2007,00:09

Are you running toram mode? Using many extensions?

Ndiswrapper needs mucho un-cached DMA memory.
Swap will not help.

Solution: add more ram, or use less mydsl .dsl type extensions use only UCI and UNC.

Posted by jeanspv on Feb. 25 2007,22:42

Thanks Roberts for the much appreciated reply.
As mentioned in my initial post the pcmcia card does not work after a frugal install: but it works in toram and in live cd.
Memory is not an issue: 409600 bytes appear to me to be muchissimo(ndiswrapper works with Mandriva and KDE).No extensions.

I have narrowed down the circumstances when the card will not work:
1. Ndiswrapper on Control panel will finish the job only if product info is available in ident tab of pc card control. This happens only with toram or live cd, and only if the card is inserted at boot.
2. If the network settings are saved during the next reboot in toram or live the Ndiswrapper files will not be found and there will not be any product info in pc card control.

Maybe dhcp is making some trouble on boot up.
Still: Getting rid of the network back up and doing a disk install there is no product info in pc card control, ndiswrapper does not get through and no network.

Posted by roberts on Feb. 25 2007,22:57

Whenever I use a wireless card on frugal, I always add the nodhcp option so as to not interfere or have dueling pumps.

Also, perhaps using control control to do a reset will help initialize the card? I have found that I sometimes need to do that as well.