PCMCIA card freezes DSL

Forum: Laptops
Topic: PCMCIA card freezes DSL
started by: MarcoF

Posted by MarcoF on May 29 2004,18:17

I have a NEC VERSA 6030x laptop and a RE450CT Ethernet PCMCIA adapter. Everything
worked fine until RH7.something.

If I boot with Slax or Damn Small Linux live CDs, when I plug the card in I hear one
bip only, then the whole thing freezes, and only a power cycle
restores control.

How can I make it work with DSL or at least figure out exactly what
the problem is? Please don't hesitate to ask for test, specific logs,
whatever.

TIA,
Marco F.

Posted by MarcoF on May 29 2004,22:34

Still me.
If I boot with the card already inserted, cardmgr 3.2.2 says:
cardmgr[55]: socket 0: NE2000 Compatible Ethernet
cardmgr[55]: executing 'modprobe pcnet_cs'

with one beep. At that point it freezes.
This message:
< http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0305.2/0894.html >
hints at similar problems, but how can I fix it in a live CD?

Can I make it work with some boot options?
Which ones?

Please also let me know by email (mfioretti,
mailserver is mclink.it)

TIA,
Marco

Posted by Masco on Aug. 18 2004,02:53

wondering if you ever got this problem figured out. i'm having same problems with my old toshiba satellite 1555 except it freezes at modprobe orinoco_cs. i'm using 0.7.3 now which i hoped would fix the problem but no. The only way i can boot is with nopcmcia.

Posted by dukkieduk on Aug. 18 2004,20:18

Hello all, i have the same when i insert my pcmcia adaptec 1460b scsi card
didn't found an answer yet, if somebody knows one, please let us know...

dukkieduk

Posted by Bri on Mar. 03 2005,04:31

I had the same problem with my Fujitsu Lifebook 785tx (P200, 288M ram). During a boot from floppy with the 0.9.3 image on hda1 it would hang at "modprobe orinoco_cs. Inserting the card after boot up would result in instant hang, only way to recover is power-down.

For some reason this does not happen when I boot from a 0.9.3 CD. With the cd it works flawlessly. Any idea what's going on?

Thanks,
Bri

Posted by mclien on Mar. 03 2005,08:19

I had the same problem with a Thinkpad 570, suse8.2 and a xrircom combo (ethernet/modem).
I found a hint which had to do with exclude an adress-range in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts.
Don't know which range to exclude, but I found a report for ThinkPad 380XD :
(it says it's a conflict with the sound ):
exclude port 0x220-0x233, port 0x530-0x537, port 0x538-0x53f, port 0x200-0x207

here is the link:
< http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-l....47.html >

Posted by andy_g_gray on Mar. 13 2005,17:47

I had the same problem ie hanging during boot when I put a PCMCIA card in, with an old toshiba satellite 300.

I fixed it by changing the BIOS settings.

There were 3 options in the PC card section

1. Auto controlled (the default) - on this setting the machine stalled
2. Cardbus/16bit - this one works
3. PCIC compatible - did't try this one since my card is 32 bit

Hope this helps

Andrew Gray