Simple question

TomorrowPlusX · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 2:17 pm Post subject: Simple question

Will gentoo 1.4 (or the current rcs) support pcmcia-cs (not the kernel drivers) out of the box?

The reason I'm asking is that a couple days ago I physically broke my trusty xircom pcmcia card, which I've used for 3 years with the kernel pcmcia drivers (I tripped over the cable and ripped out the dongle interface). So, last night I bought a netgear card which is explicitly supported by pcmcia-cs and spent a couple hours recompiling my kernel (as per pcmcia-howto instructions) and building the pcmcia-cs drivers.

After settings things up and rebooting, cargmr is loading the correct drivers, and gives me the "reasurring" beeps, but I'm having no luck.

So, I've got a handful options:
1: I install gentoo 1.4 (which I'd like to do anyway, since I'm still running a trusty 1.1a gentoo with gcc 2.95.3)
2: I try to install pcmcia-cs drivers via portage, by manually downloading the packages and hoping that the emerge scripts will do what's necessary in /etc/pcmcia and /etc/init.d etc etc.
3: Try to get what I installed last night working -- but that's a dead end if you ask me since the included instructions only explain how to configure pcmcia-cs drivers under redhat, suse debian and slack -- no gentoo. I'll be the first to admit: I'm no linux guru; I've used it for years, but still, for stuff liek this I have to follow instructions.

Can somebody out there point me to a resource, or better yet, tell me which is the best path to take? If gentoo 1.4 supports pcmcia-cs drivers on install, I'm happy to take that route.

What I *don't* want to do is have to give up and install knoppix or redhat or some other linux. I like gentoo, but right now I'm not too certain what my options are.

Please, any help would be appreciated.

bsolar · Bodhisattva Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 2764

This may be helpful: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=26716

TomorrowPlusX · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2003 7:16 pm Post subject:

TomorrowPlusX · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 10:17 pm Post subject: Craptacular

OK, so I spent several hours banging on my box last night following the instructions and trying to make it all work.

here's the oddity, and PLEASE... if somebody can help I need help. After I run cardmgr, lsmod shows me the right (as far as I can tell) drivers are loaded and the card starts up. I look at /var/run/stab and my card's identified and listed. So far all seems good.

If I run /sbin/ifconfig and set the static ip params and add a gateway through /sbin/route -add I get an ip adress, and I can ping any box in my apartment.

This all is good, and implies to me that the drivers *do* work.

Two problems, though.
One, I can't ping any ip address outside the apartment (e.g., local network), and further, because of this, name resolution doesn't work.

Two, dhcpcd hangs.

Oh, and three: When I ping inside the network (which does work) it's SLOOW, and I get about a 10 to 30% packet loss! WTF? Perhaps the driver's aren't right, after all? I don't know.

So, what could be the problem? When I used my old xircom, all it took was to compile the kernel with the xirc2_ps driver and run cardmgr, then everything was fine.

And, I've tried many permutations of kernel configs. I followed the instructions and built the kernel without pcmcia/cardbus support and did everytning I was supposed to.

Please, I would appreciate ANY help. Further, can somebody point me to the right log to look at? In my experience, determining the right file(s) in /var/log to be a sysiphean ordeal, at the very best.

TomorrowPlusX · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 10:28 pm Post subject: One more thing

Which ebuild(s) install /etc/init.d/pcmcia and /etc/conf.d/pcmcia and other pcmcia related startup scripts?

I'm fairly certain that when I manually installed pcmcia-cs from the command line it overwrote one or more of those file. I'd like a proper ebuild to put them back in order.

And, one more thing. Last night, I installed the sys-apps/pcmcia-cs-driver ebuild (copied to my machine via pendrive) and when building, I got the cryptic error (or something like this):
*error: kernel not configured with pcmcia enabled [ok]

Now, I was led to understand that your'e supposed to build your kernel without pcmcia support if you want the pcmcia-cs drivers to work.

So, what's the deal? I'm so confused, and frustrated. Frankly, I'm downloading redhat right now, just because as much as I like gentoo I need my computer to work, so I can work. I've got bills to pay!

Please, somebody help so I don't have to install the horridness of redhat

IamtheOne · Apprentice Joined: 27 Sep 2002 Posts: 158 Location: Iowa

I have not had any problems with the pcmcia-cs ebuild. Here are the steps i took:
Build the kernel without pcmcia support.
run emerge pcmcia-cs
set PCIC="182365" in /etc/conf.d/pcmcia
set iface_eth0="dhcp" in /etc/conf.d/net
run /etc/init.d/net.eth0 to start the device
run rc-update add pcmcia boot and rc-update add net.eth0 boot

if you are already using eth0 copy /etc/init.d/net.eth0 -> net.eth1 and use eth1 where I said eth0 above...

Also, a friend of mine was having trouble with 3.2.3 and his wireless card, I am using 3.2.1.