PCMCIA problems, 32-bit cardbus

Hey all!

I've been having a lot of problems recently with my PCMCIA port. I'm running an Inspiron 5100 with Gentoo, althought I've used a lot of different distributions in the past... I'm pretty sure I didn't always have this problem, but I can't be sure.

I have an internal wireless card (TrueMobile 1350/BCM4306 b/g), which works fine, but it's sort of old and crappy, so it gives me horrible internet strength at my end of the house (the speed is alright, but a lot of packets are dropped: depending on the day I get 0kbps, 5kbps, or about 400kbps). I checked out fast linux-compatible PCMCIA cards online, and found that Netgear's WG511 (prism54 driver) worked extremely well for a lot of people.

When I plug the WG511 in, nothing happens (literally, nothing. even dmesg is silent). PCMCIA is on, I have 16-bit and 32-bit cardbus support in the kernel, and I'm using the yenta cardbus driver (which works for my bridge). I borrowed a friend's Cisco Aironet (16-bit... I think), and it plugs in, dmesg + the card light up, and everything works alright.

The system doesn't even acknowledge that my WG511 is plugged in! It doesn't light up, it gets no power from the system. If I check the settings using xcardinfo, plugging it in makes IRQ: change from nothing to IRQ:11, but otherwise nothing happens (still no voltage to the card). The memory and ioport ranges are fine for the card, and it IS working for old cards (again, 16-bit I think), but it doesn't work for this card, or other new ones I've tried!

X_X help please!

some /etc/pcmcia/config.opts info:
include port 0x100-0x4ff, port 0x800-0x8ff, port 0xc00-0xcff
include memory 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff, memory 0x60000000-0x60ffffff
include port 0xa00-0xaff
exclude irq 4
#/proc/interrupts shows that yenta is loading on IRQ 11
exclude irq 7

some /proc/ioports info:
0cf8-0cff : PCI conf1
4000-40ff : PCI CardBus #03
4400-44ff : PCI CardBus #03

some /proc/iomem info:
20000000-200003ff : 0000:00:1f.1
20001000-20001fff : 0000:02:04.0
20001000-20001fff : yenta_socket
20400000-207fffff : PCI CardBus #03
20800000-20bfffff : PCI CardBus #03

dmesg excerpts:
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:04.0 [1028:0149]
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0478, PCI irq 11
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
...
cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x800-0x8ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x4ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.

Check your /etc/pcmcia/config file and make sure that it binds the correct driver for your card. I've run into this problem in the past when a manufacturer changes chipsets and the config file still binds to the older one.

Worst case, try using ndiswrapper with the windoze driver and see if it works then. That would possibly eliminate a pcmcia related problem.

Unfortunately that has nothing to do with it... quite frankly, the activation of the card doesn't even progress far enough to have anything to do with that configuration file. dmesg doesn't even acknowledge that the card is placed into the PCMCIA slot, and if I pull up xcardinfo, the only thing that's detected when I put the card in is the Irq.

cardctl ident still thinks the slot is absolutely empty. No power is applied to the slot, there is no beep, there is nothing. Since it's almost as if the card weren't plugged in at all, I can only assume that there's some kind of resource problem I can't find... memory or ports. It would be nice if someone who knew a lot about resource allocation could point me in the right direction X_X.

Originally posted by greenbishop Unfortunately that has nothing to do with it... quite frankly, the activation of the card doesn't even progress far enough to have anything to do with that configuration file. dmesg doesn't even acknowledge that the card is placed into the PCMCIA slot, and if I pull up xcardinfo, the only thing that's detected when I put the card in is the Irq. cardctl ident still thinks the slot is absolutely empty. No power is applied to the slot, there is no beep, there is nothing. Since it's almost as if the card weren't plugged in at all, I can only assume that there's some kind of resource problem I can't find... memory or ports. It would be nice if someone who knew a lot about resource allocation could point me in the right direction X_X.

Unfortunately, a "me too" instead of help. I have the same card and I'm seeing the same thing on a HP Pavilion zv6015. Have you had any luck getting an answer? In my case the WG511 just came via UPS yesterday so I can only assume that there isn't anything wrong with the card.

What cardbus does the laptop have? Post the output of lspci

Here comes lspci, but I should warn y'all that this doesn't seem to be a bridge-wide problem (other people who have the inspiron 5100 haven't reported a problem). It MIGHT be a kernel-2.6 drivers (yenta) issue with this bridge, because (on an old 3.0r6 debian install), the 2.4 kernel (using the pcmcia-cs drivers, and not the kernel drivers) actually detects this card fine (however, it was an experimental install, and i didn't have prism54 compiled in to actually use it).

Begin shameless posting of lspci -vv...
gnux-pirate mkdirroot # lspci -vv
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Capabilities: [e4] #09 [6105]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ AGP+ GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=x4

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE Host-to-AGP Bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: fc000000-fdffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e8000000-efffffff
Expansion ROM at 0000c000 [disabled] [size=4K]
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 24c0
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 24c0
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf40 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 24c0
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 11
Region 4: I/O ports at bf20 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 24c0
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at f4fffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [58] #0a [2080]

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR+
Latency: 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: f6000000-fbffffff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 24c0
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 1: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 2: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 3: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 4: I/O ports at bfa0 [size=16]
Region 5: Memory at 20000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0149
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 7
Region 0: I/O ports at b800
Region 1: I/O ports at bc40 [size=64]
Region 2: Memory at f4fff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Region 3: Memory at f4fff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Conexant: Unknown device 5422
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 7
Region 0: I/O ports at b400
Region 1: I/O ports at b080 [size=128]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0149
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop+ ParErr- Stepping+ SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32 (2000ns min), cache line size 08
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Region 1: I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at fcff0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
Status: RQ=48 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
Command: RQ=32 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ AGP+ GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=x4
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
Subsystem: Unknown device 4401:1028
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 7
Region 0: Memory at faffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-

0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at faffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-

0000:02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4510 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0149
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 168, cache line size 20
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at 20001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=06, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 20400000-207ff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 20800000-20bff000
I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- ISA- VGA- MAbort- >Reset+ 16bInt+ PostWrite+
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

0000:02:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0149
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 32 (500ns min, 1000ns max), cache line size 08
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: Memory at faffb800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Region 1: Memory at faff4000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+

A quick google search found that your cardbus does work in linux. I have the Texas Inst. AC 54 in mine and ended up chmod -x rc.pcmcia because it just wouldn't work. I have a netgear MA111 usb wifi that works pretty well.

My guess is that you need to install some drivers for your card because it is not supported by any of the built in kernel modules. However it should have been detected by cardctl

However it should have been detected by cardctl

That seems to be the real question. I put my WG511 in the cardbus slot, I go to a command prompt and type "cardctl info 0" and it telss me the slot is empty. lspci shows the bus, "kudzu -p -b pcmcia" returns nothing, and lsmod shows the appropriate modules loaded.

Even without the right modules to use the card, cardctl should say which card is in the slot.

I found a rather long and involved discussion thread regarding getting PCMCIA sockets working with the 2.6 kernel. The bottom line is that support in the 2.6 kernel is at best problematic although some systems work "out of the box." There is an excellent discussion of how to get the socket working for a Compaq Presario at http://www1.pacific.edu/~khughes/presario-r3120us/ that I will hopefully be able to work through on my HP Pavilion.

Read this post of mine. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=295200
Read real close and make sure you have the version of the 511 that works with the prism54g module. If it is the other then either take it back and find one or use the ndiswrapper for it.

Brian1

edit Last I checked Staples had the correct version.

Originally posted by Brian1 Read this post of mine. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=295200 Read real close and make sure you have the version of the 511 that works with the prism54g module. If it is the other then either take it back and find one or use the ndiswrapper for it. Brian1 edit Last I checked Staples had the correct version.

Not the problem. I put the card in the PCMCIA slot and *nothing* happens. cardctl status says the slot is empty, cardctl ident or info says that there is no identifying information. cardctl insert/reset etc. also has no effect.

See http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/ke...ia/pcmcia.html for the official discussion.

Cheers,
Dave