PCMCIA problem on old Toshiba Tecra

Forum: Laptops
Topic: PCMCIA problem on old Toshiba Tecra
started by: Richard (MQ)

Posted by Richard (MQ) on Oct. 13 2007,17:44

DSL 3.4.3 on Toshiba Tecra 510 laptop (c. 1996 vintage, 133 MHz P1 + 3G HD + 144M RAM) - Hard Disc install, mostly default options.

Runs sweetly (and so quick!) but I can't get PCMCIA network to behave (or sound either, but that will wait for another thread)

When I plug in e.g. a 3C589 NIC, /var/log/messages gives a a strange response - the system tries to load the wrong module:

...cardmgr[59]: executing 'modprobe memory_cs'
...cardmgr[59]: + modprobe: Can't locate module memory_cs
...cardmgr[59]: modprobe exited with status 255
...cardmgr[59]: module /lib/modules/2.4.26/pcmcia/memory_cs.o not available
...cardmgr[59]: get dev info on socket 0 failed: Resource temporarily unavailable

indeed there's no memory_cs.o at /lib/modules/2.4.26/pcmcia

lsmod shows 3c589_cs is loaded but unused, also yenta_socket, pcmcia_core and ds are there.

Using Control Panel -> PCMCIA control -> reset slot 0 results in
...cardmgr[59]: Anonymous memory

lspci shows
...
0000:00:02.0 Cardbus Bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC95 (rev 07)
0000:00:02.1 Cardbus Bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC95 (rev 07)
...

More info available if it will help, but must transfer with a floppy (remember them !?)

Has anyone got any idea what's happening here & what to do to fix it? Please!?

Cheers
Richard (MQ)

Posted by roberts on Oct. 14 2007,17:38

In order for me to use the newer cardbus pcmcia on my vintage laptop, I need to use the boot option:

pci=assign-busses

Posted by Richard (MQ) on Oct. 14 2007,19:05

Thanks Roberts,

Just tried adding "pci=assign-busses" to the end of the boot line, made no difference at all - loading of memory_cs is still automatically attempted at boot time but fails as it can't find the module (more-or-less as I reported earlier, though I hadn't remembered to include the fact that it happens at boot time too).

Is there an equivalent to 'lspci', 'lsusb' etc. for pcmcia?

This used to work with an earlier DSL (not sure which version) and exact same hardware works with other distros too (but is unusably ssslllooowww...).

I do remember needing with an old SuSE needing to tweak /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia but can't find a similar entry in DSL

Has no-one seen anything similar?
--
Cheers
Richard (MQ)

Posted by roberts on Oct. 14 2007,21:12

I recall someone recently had problems with pcmcia and they solved it with cardcontrol.lua which is a gui interface to the cardctrl command. cardcontrol.lua can be accessed via the DSLpanel as PCMCIAtool.

Check the ident tab, and try various options to reset and even eject.

Posted by Richard (MQ) on Oct. 17 2007,09:08

Yes, already found the cardcontrol panel, it doesn't seem to see it. Also tried (as root) in a terminal e.g. cardctrl ident 0 - nothing there :-(

Since then, I've installed 4.0rc5 - behaviour is just the same (though a nicer menu - rather more like KDE and M$)

It seems that the autodetection is the problem, in both versions - it is incorrectly detecting a Yenta cardbus interface when it should be Intel i82365. If I rmmod yenta_socket (need to rmmod ds first) I can do modprobe i82365 but it fails with an unhelpful error message - I've no idea what parameters might be required.

Is anyone who knows about PCMCIA / Cardbus drivers and / or autodetection reading this thread? Please!?
--
Cheers
Richard (MQ)

Posted by roberts on Oct. 17 2007,15:47

See if you can enable PCIC for PCMCIA devices in BIOS.

Posted by Richard (MQ) on Oct. 17 2007,18:56

Thanks Roberts - indeed switching to PCIC mode in the BIOS settings makes it burst into life - I'm sending this from the Tecra.

Now the only problem is the lack of sound - I'll start another thread.

Thanks for your help
Cheers
Richard (MQ)