Slacko 5.3.3 doesn't see PCMCIA card in Toshiba laptop

[Elias]

You might have better luck trying an OLDER version, like Puppy 431.

I just finished trying it...and nothing.

I give up.

Thank you very much,

Elias

[tempestuous]

Type the command

Code: Select all

lspci -nn

No no. "lspci" will only reveal the identity of the Cardbus controller device
- and in Elias' case, this device is "Toshiba ToPIC95".

To identify the Cardbus devices connected to the controller, you must follow the procedure I explained way back in 2006 -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1707#31707

Here it is again:
- Check if the PCMCIA system recognises your PCMCIA device with these 2 commands -

Code: Select all

pccardctl status
pccardctl ident

If you cannot see your device listed, reset the Cardbus interface like this -

Code: Select all

pccardctl eject
pccardctl insert

Now run "pccardctl ident" again.
If still no success, it's possible that Puppy failed to detect the Toshiba PCMCIA interface at boot up, and failed to initialise the PCMCIA subsystem (pcmciautils)
As a short term fix, run this command -

Code: Select all

pcmcia-socket-startup

Now run "pccardctl ident" again - hopefully you will see a network device listed - then go ahead and run the Network Wizard to ensure the correct driver is loaded, and configure the network.

If this last step (running the "pcmcia-socket-startup" command) was successful, you can make this fix permanent by following forum member tubby's instructions to modify Puppy's start up script -
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 413#461413

[Elias]

Type the command

Code: Select all

lspci -nn

No no. "lspci" will only reveal the identity of the Cardbus controller device
- and in Elias' case, this device is "Toshiba ToPIC95".

To identify the Cardbus devices connected to the controller, you must follow the procedure I explained way back in 2006 -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1707#31707

Here it is again:
- Check if the PCMCIA system recognises your PCMCIA device with these 2 commands -

Code: Select all

pccardctl status
pccardctl ident

If you cannot see your device listed, reset the Cardbus interface like this -

Code: Select all

pccardctl eject
pccardctl insert

Now run "pccardctl ident" again.
If still no success, it's possible that Puppy failed to detect the Toshiba PCMCIA interface at boot up, and failed to initialise the PCMCIA subsystem (pcmciautils)
As a short term fix, run this command -

Code: Select all

pcmcia-socket-startup

Now run "pccardctl ident" again - hopefully you will see a network device listed - then go ahead and run the Network Wizard to ensure the correct driver is loaded, and configure the network.

If this last step (running the "pcmcia-socket-startup" command) was successful, you can make this fix permanent by following forum member tubby's instructions to modify Puppy's start up script -
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 413#461413

Hi tempestuous.

The device is listed - it's a Planet ENW-3502-2T - but the Network Wizard cannot see any active network interface even after running 'pcmcia-socket-startup'.

obs. I'm using slacko 5.3.3.

Elias

[rcrsn51]

I hunted around for more info about this device. I found several references to the ENW-3502-T where it was reported to work in Linux, but not the 2T.

[Elias]

I hunted around for more info about this device. I found several references to the ENW-3502-T where it was reported to work in Linux, but not the 2T.

Sorry, the card is in fact a ENW-3502-T, not a "2T".

Elias

[tempestuous]

The device is listed - it's a Planet ENW-3502-T

OK, that's a promising start.
When you run the "pccardctl ident" command, can you tell us exactly what information is reported for the card?
In particular, I want to know the device ID of the card - this is usually listed as "vendor ..." and "product ..."

[Elias]

The device is listed - it's a Planet ENW-3502-T

OK, that's a promising start.
When you run the "pccardctl ident" command, can you tell us exactly what information is reported for the card?
In particular, I want to know the device ID of the card - this is usually listed as "vendor ..." and "product ..."

Here is:

# pcardctl indent
Socket 0:
product info: "PLANET", "ENW-3502-T", "", ""
manfid: 0x8a01, 0x0100
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
no product info available

# pccardctl status
Socket 0:
5.0V 16-bit PC Card
Subdevice 0 (function 0) [unbound]
Socket 1:
no card

[tempestuous]

manfid: 0x8a01, 0x0100

Wow, that's an obscure device ID.
But Google indicates that the pcnet_cs driver should be compatible with your device, so I suggest you try to forcibly load this driver. There are various commands I can give you to load this driver, and also perform diagnostics to see how the driver loaded ... but for now, a quick and easy way is just to go to the Network Wizard, click on "Load module" then select "pcnet_cs" from the list.
Does the Wizard now report a valid network interface?

[Elias]

manfid: 0x8a01, 0x0100

Wow, that's an obscure device ID.
But Google indicates that the pcnet_cs driver should be compatible with your device, so I suggest you try to forcibly load this driver. There are various commands I can give you to load this driver, and also perform diagnostics to see how the driver loaded ... but for now, a quick and easy way is just to go to the Network Wizard, click on "Load module" then select "pcnet_cs" from the list.
Does the Wizard now report a valid network interface?

I already tried loading it. But after a few seconds the Wizard says that the interface was not found. In fact I tried all the modules with Wizard's autoprobe.

[tempestuous]

Older Puppies used a PCMCIA/Cardbus subsystem called "pcmcia-cs" which relied on the hotplug mechanism and a configuration file - /etc/pcmcia/config - to match device ID's and descriptions to compatible PCMCIA drivers.
It's possible to modify that configuration file to change things.

But from Puppy 4.x onwards, our PCMCIA/Cardbus subsystem moved up to the "pcmciautils" system, which relies on udev.
I think that the matching of device ID's is done within the pccardctl utility, and this is difficult to modify.

So here's a long-shot - I have supplied you with an old-style configuration file which defines your device ID as being compatible with the pcnet_cs driver.
Go ahead and install this dotpet, then reboot.
Run the Network Wizard, and if you're lucky, the system may have autoamatically loaded the pcnet_cs driver and created an interface. If not, manually load the pcnet_cs driver as before.

If still no success, I'm reasonably confident that this configuration file would get you going with a version of Puppy Linux prior to ver 4.x.
I suggest Classic Pup 2.14X -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42553

[Elias]

Older Puppies used a PCMCIA/Cardbus subsystem called "pcmcia-cs" which relied on the hotplug mechanism and a configuration file - /etc/pcmcia/config - to match device ID's and descriptions to compatible PCMCIA drivers.
It's possible to modify that configuration file to change things.

But from Puppy 4.x onwards, our PCMCIA/Cardbus subsystem moved up to the "pcmciautils" system, which relies on udev.
I think that the matching of device ID's is done within the pccardctl utility, and this is difficult to modify.

So here's a long-shot - I have supplied you with an old-style configuration file which defines your device ID as being compatible with the pcnet_cs driver.
Go ahead and install this dotpet, then reboot.
Run the Network Wizard, and if you're lucky, the system may have autoamatically loaded the pcnet_cs driver and created an interface. If not, manually load the pcnet_cs driver as before.

If still no success, I'm reasonably confident that this configuration file would get you going with a version of Puppy Linux prior to ver 4.x.
I suggest Classic Pup 2.14X -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42553

Tempestuous,

Unfortunately none of these options worked.

Thanks, Elias

[tempestuous]

I think that obscure device is too difficult to deal with in Linux.
It would cost you just a few dollars to replace it with an alternative Cardbus Lan card, or get a USB-LAN dongle instead ...
or forget about ethernet LAN, and get yourself a wifi card.

[01micko]

Hello Elias, tempestuous,

Just trying to do a binary chop here to rule out any pcmcia bugs.

My Marvel netgear wg511-v2 (wireless) is working fine here after disabling the onboard intel wireless. You may recall that one from a few years ago, tempestuous. Even working fine with WPA2-AES, albeit with ndiswrapper [ ].

This is running pfix=ram, from a usb stick on an IBM thinkpad r51, pentiumM (centrino) @1700MHz 400MHz FSB, 512 RAM shared, 32M for graphics, 533-4g version.

Elias, by your response, I gather you did try 2.14X?

Cheers

[rcrsn51]

FWIW, I found this post where someone got a Planet ENW-3502-T working in Debian using the old-style PCMCIA system.

[Elias]

Elias, by your response, I gather you did try 2.14X?

Cheers

Yes, I tried tempestouos' pet in 5.3.3 and 2.14X.

[Elias]

I think that obscure device is too difficult to deal with in Linux.
It would cost you just a few dollars to replace it with an alternative Cardbus Lan card, or get a USB-LAN dongle instead ...
or forget about ethernet LAN, and get yourself a wifi card.

Ok, I'll consider this option.

[Elias]

Hi tempestuous,

I bought and tested a wifi usb dongle and it worked, but not a hundred percent - after a few minutes the connection is down. Besides this the general performance with this laptop is unsatisfactory. Ok, no problem.

On the other hand, I installed slacko 5.3.3 in a PC DELL (dual boot with win XP) and everything is fine. As a old user of Xenix and Unix I'm very happy using a Unix system in a daily basis again.

Thanks,

Elias