Re: PCMCIA

[Heather <star@starshine.org>]

> Boll Weevil wrote:
> > Pay attention to:
> >         lsmod
> >         cardctl config
> >         cardctl ident
> > to diagnose your problems.
- - 8< - - 

> The light on the hub isnt lit!
> 
> cardinfo --> Anonymous Memory
> 
> lsmod -->       Module          Used
> by                                         comments
>                 memory_cs       0
> (unused)                                      is think this can be a
> conflict or not?

A card being incorrectly detected as a memory card appears to be a fallback
to the fact that memory cards were one of the earliest types of pcmcia cards,
and um, really didn't have much to say to identify themselves.

I get it on one of my IDE cards if it's getting hot - reset times are too
long, or the signal is scrambled while it's initializing.  I consider this
a good time to stop using the card for a little while.

But, I also used to get it on another card which was simply not supported at
all.  (showing it to FreeBSD revealed that it really *wasn't* saying anything,
so of course it looked like a memory card.)  

> cardctl ident -->       Socket
> 0:                                               see nothing
>                                 no product available
>                         Socket 1:
>                                 no product available
> 
> cardctl config -->      Socket 0:
>                                 Vcc5.0V Vpp1 5.0V Vpp2
> 5.0V                     but what are this?

power levels.  That's 5.0 volts, possibly as opposed to 3.3.

>                         Socket 1:
>                                 not configured
> 
> Question Nr. 1: How can I kick the memory_cs modul? It is up from start?

you'll have to rmmod it for the moment

> Question Nr. 2: How can I make that the xirc2ps_cs Modul always startet?

if you can find out what would identify it uniquely, you can create a new
entry for it in /etc/pcmcia/config ... not config.opts, but the long file
that lists all the supported cards and which module(s) and other options
they need.

> Question Nr. 3: Do you have any ideas what I must do now? I has run the
> pcnetconfig script for config /etc/pcmcia/network.opts. 

If you *don't* load cardmgr, and you manage to get a usable card by doing
"by hand" those tasks which cardmgr would usually perform, then it should
in theory be possible to add it to the cards list.

If the serial portion of the card can't identify itself alone, you can
probably add it into the other half's section, see other combo cards for
some examples.

it still might not work, or be flaky :(

> A other thing from the howto:
> --schnip
> The cardmgr daemon configures cards based on a database of known card
> types kept in /etc/pcmcia/config. This file describes the various client
> drivers, then describes how to identify various cards, and which
> driver(s) belong with which cards.
> --schnap
> Mus I make configure /etc/pcmcia/config special? 
 
You can look in there and see other examples of cards which we have discussed
on the list.  From that you should be able to infer how those are detected,
and -try- to write up a similar entry for yours. 

Apologies for the vaguery of my answer, it's been a long while since I had
an unsupported card in hand, so my experience of this kind of messing with
the configs is rusty.  To someone who may be new to the config files at all
it probably isn't much... but I'm giving what I've got anyway.
 
> cu
> Benj

best of luck.

* Heather Stern * star@ many places...