[Debian Etch] Unable to get eth0 working with 2.6 kernel (3c589 pcmcia card)

Elv13 · 03-01-2008, 02:45 PM

Hi, i installed debian sarge using floppy on an old laptop to try something and everything goes fine. Network was working fine but not the framebuffer (neofb). I was not able to load Xfbdev (an Xserver that load in less than 0.5sec even on that kind of hardware). So i upgraded to etch using dist-upgrade from sarge (no, i cant install it directly, the installer fail).

But in 2.6, my network card dont work. The greenlight is on, the modules (3c589_cs) is -supposed- to be loaded, but i am almost sure it is not. Eth0 is not created and network dont work at all.

In dmesg, i see few interesting line:

eth0: 3Com 3c589...
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference atvirtual adress 00000154
printing eip: c02116a7 *pde = 00000000
Oops: 0000 [#1]
Modules linked in: <some modules, i write it manually, too long>

Pid: 848, comm: modprobe Not tainted (2.6.24-1-486 #1)

Then follow a backtrace, stack and memory dump.

I ried with kernel 2.6.13 (sarge stable), 2.6.18 (etch stable) and 2.6.24 (etch testing)

Anyone can help me?

*It can be to get /dev/fb0 with neomagic on 2.4 kernel too, one or the other will solve my problem.

mumpster · 04-08-2008, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elv13

But in 2.6, my network card dont work. The greenlight is on, the modules (3c589_cs) is -supposed- to be loaded, but i am almost sure it is not. Eth0 is not created and network dont work at all.

In dmesg, i see few interesting line:

eth0: 3Com 3c589...

Try to install the latest 2.6 kernel from sarge - 2.6.8.
Actually it works fine on my Libretto CT50 with 3C589 installed.
The whole PCMCIA stuff was changed, check out that you have pcmciautils installed.

Elv13 · 04-09-2008, 10:24 AM

I fixed it, i found a way to install etch directly with almost no hack on floppies, now they all work. It work fine now. It was because the pcmcia management system use different package in sarge and etch, they are incompatible and when you upgrade them, all you do is breaking he whole pcmcia support.

mumpster · 04-10-2008, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elv13

I fixed it, i found a way to install etch directly with almost no hack on floppies, now they all work. It work fine now. It was because the pcmcia management system use different package in sarge and etch, they are incompatible and when you upgrade them, all you do is breaking he whole pcmcia support.

Glad to know that.
Hm...I've just done this (upgrade from sarge to etch/lenny) on my Libretto CT50. It works like a charm though I was aware about need to check/install new pcmciautils in place before reboot.
(I had a lot of such problems on RedHat version migration on another laptop in past so I know it for sure :-) ).
But apt-get has done the whole work for me, I have just checked out it is there.