I have a Toshiba Portege 7020ct and docking station with Redhat9 installed. I have a 3com 3CRWE62092A wireless card using the poldhu_cs driver. The network adapter on the dock is eth0 and the wireless is eth1. As long as the laptop is docked, all works well. When I undock the laptop and boot it, it tries to set up the wireless card as eth0 instead of eth1.

How can I keep the wireless as eth1 when undocked or switch how they are configured so the wireless is eth0 even when docked?

I tried changing them in the network config but that doesn't seem to be working either.

I don't use the adapter in the dock so can I disable it somehow? There is nothing in the BIOS to turn it off.

Currently, I re-installed RH9 and have the wireless card out until I can get this working right.

Please help

You're out of luck, I'm afraid. The numbering if ethernet interfaces is always done in the order they are initialised. If your dock's ethernet interface gets eth0, that means it is encountered first by the kernel, and will get eth0.

What you could do, is modify the source of the pohldu_cs driver so that it registers its interface under a different name (e.g. wl0 or something). That way, you are guaranteed that the card will get a unique interface name whichever your situation (docked or not). If you feel uncomfortable with this, just tell me which version of the driver you're using, and I'll try and make you a modified version.

Shortly after I posted this, I saw another one similar to my problem

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=107313

It suggests a couple things that I may try later tonight. If it works or not, I'll post the results.

The version of poldhu I am using is 0.2.5.

Thanks

After reading the thread similar to mine, I realized that it won't work. That one isn't dealing with a dock.

Guess I still need help.............

Are you comfortable with compiling and installing kernel modules?

As said, I could send you a patch for the module to get it to register its device under a unique name, but it will require some under the hood work on your machine

The best way to learn is to do it yourself.......I'd like to try it myself but will need some hand-holding to get through it.

I want to learn as much as i can about linux.

I won't be online again until later this afternoon, I'll check back then

Thanks

Ok, maybe it would be better to get the patch and go from there. I have no idea how to modify the driver.

OK. Do you prefer a patch or the compiled module? I have just rolled a pohldu_cs.o (the module) which should register it's device as pol0 here. I have no means of testing it (other than compiling and insmodding it), so no guarantees. If you wish, I can send you the compiled module (it's the latest version: 0.2.13). One limitation it has is that the pol0 name is hardcoded (hey, it's a quick hack ), so if you ever want to use *two* of these cards concurrently, you'll have problems.

The compiled module would be great

I don't plan on using more that one wireless, so I'll take the chance.

Thanks a million in advance

OK, email or ICQ me your email address (use the buttons below) and I'll send you the module.

When your card is inserted, remove the module that is loaded for it (rmmod pohldu_cs), then insmod -f (-f because your kernel is most likely not 2.4.22-bv2) the new module, and hope your kernel does not panic . If this works, you should hopefully have a pol0 ethernet interface (ifconfig -a). You can then put the module in the place of the old one in /lib/modules/`uname -r` and copy the ifcfg-eth1 scripts in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts to ifcfg-pol0.

I ran through all the steps you gave me and here is what it came up with:
I did the rmmod poldhu_cs then the following:

[root@localhost src]# insmod -f /usr/src/poldhu_cs.o
Warning: kernel-module version mismatch
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.22-bv3
while this kernel is version 2.4.20-8
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol alloc_skb_R21d02520
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol remove_proc_entry_Rcfb64375
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol irq_stat_R37e39351
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol proc_root_driver_Rae4f985d
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol proc_mkdir_Rdc2cfcc9
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol ether_setup_R8e5b2f0e
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol __kfree_skb_R34609c7b
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol netif_rx_R70ad1f7c
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol softnet_data_Rdb4ba142
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol register_netdev_R9585ad35
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol eth_type_trans_Rd7269ed5
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol __netdev_watchdog_up_Rf194ebbb
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol create_proc_entry_Rb8356423
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol skb_over_panic_Rf78dfb8b
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol unregister_netdev_R21395204
/usr/src/poldhu_cs.o: unresolved symbol dev_queue_xmit_Rfe523273
[root@localhost src]# ifconfig -a

I installed version 0.2.11 of the driver, 0.2.13 wouldn't let me do make config. The card works as long as I ifdown eth0 or it locks up the computer.

ifconfig -a only shows eth0 there is no pol0.

Did I follow your directions correctly??

Yes, you did. Unfortunately, what I was afraid of is true: your kernel is too different from mine to just drop in the binary module (my kernel is based on a stock 2.4.22, yours is a RedHat-bastardised 2.4.20 ). Your kernel does not have a number of symbols the module needs (although the missing register_netdev is *scary* ).

We'll have to go the patch route (I send you a patch - it's really simple: just two lines, and one is commentary - and you apply it and compile the module). Which version of the driver did you get to compile correctly and working? I'll send you a diff against that.

I'm using version poldhu 0.2.11 right now, it seems to working ok.

Just a thought:

I also have Mandrake versions 8.0, 8.1, 9.1 would Mandrake be a better choice ?

I wish I could tell you how this turned out but, my laptop died this weekend

The MoBo went up in smoke. When I get a new one, I'll give all of this a try again.

It is running again

I tried the patch but when i typed in patch -p1 /usr/src/poldhu.diff, nothing happened. The terminal window just sat there with a blinking cursor.

I did try to boot the laptop out of the dock and the wireless set up at eth0 and worked fine this time. I booted with it docked and it set everything up correctly and worked fine.

As long as i dock and undock with the system shutdown, it seems to work OK switching the wireless card from eth1 docked to eth0 undocked and back again. I don't know what I did different, but it is working now.

robertes - Thanks for all the help and work it is appreciated.