Cardbus network problem with Slack 10.2, 2.6 kernel
 

I have an old Toshiba laptop (Satelitte 4010CDS, 266 MHz pentium II, 160 MB RAM), with the stock Slack 10.2, 2.4.31 kernel installed. With that kernel, my RealTek 8139 based cardbus ehternet card (Dynex 10/100) worked fine. When I upgraded the kernel to the 2.6.13 kernel that came with Slack 10.2, the card inserts with no errors (modules load and ifconfig show the card as eth0 with the static address I assigned), and I get lights on the card and the hub for my local network (other desktop computers also running Slack 10.2 with 2.6 kernel), but I get "destination unreachable" when I try to ping another computer on that network. A (16 bit) pcmcia Linksys card does work with this kernel in the Toshiba. A google search indicated that I should load the yenta_socket module with "disable_clkrun=1". I did this but still have the problem (also tried "acpi=noirq" at boot). Since the Linksys 16 bit card worked, I assumed that a 32 bit Linksys card (both use the tulip module) would also work, but I still have the same problem- "destination unreachable" with the Linksys 32 bit card also. The card itself is OK as I can use it in Win 98.

Apparently there is some other problem. I did find some mention of the pcmcia-cardbus packages changing (to another set of names I can't remember at the moment) "around" the 2.6.13 kernel. Those new packages are not on the 10.2 CD, but I think I saw them in the 11 distribution on the net.

Has anybody had a similar problem, and if so how did you fix it? Thanks,

Kevin

Did You examine the otput of:
route -n
and after ping <some_local_ip> the output of:
arp -n
Also for the card itself try to plug it en-vivo and check:
dmesg
?

cardbus problem
 

route -n shows the loopback interface and the network card. The destination for the card is the static IP address type I am using (1.2.3.0), gatewayy 0.0.0.0, Flags (U), Metric 0, Ref 0, and Iface eth0.

For arp -n -v (typed from the Toshiba console after trying to ping a desktop computer on the network), I get the IP address of the computer I am trying to ping, 'incomplete' for the HWaddress and nothing for the HWtype. When working, I should get ether for the type and the MAC of the network card on the computer I am pinging.

However, I did try something else. I have another more recent laptop (Compaq Armada, 900 MHz pentium III) with the SAME software (2.6.13 kernel and Slack 10.2). I put the Dynex network cardbus card in it, and was able to ping the desktop computer with no problem (the Armada has a built in ether card which I normally use). arp -n -v gave ether for the HWtype and the MAC of the desktop ether card.

So I think this is more of a timing problem, since the Toshiba has a much slower CPU. Also, the pci-to-cardbus chips are different, Intel on one and a Toshiba (?) on the other.

perhaps it's a blacklisted module issue?
may be you try to:
modinfo <card_driver_module>
and gues the module parameters?
or is the module just blacklisted?
post the dmesg regarding module-insertion of your network-card?

Cardbus problem
 

I have a problem in posting the output of long messages, since the computer I use to connect to the internet is not the laptop, and I cannot use the local network to transfer info from the laptop, since its NIC isn't working.

However, I don't think this is a blacklist problem. The 8139too module inserts fine (no errors or warnings) in dmesg or messages or syslog. They state that a Realtek 8139 device has been found, with irq and address, etc. I left the 2.4 kernel, modules, and headers on the disk so I can run a simple script to relink to them, run lilo and reboot with the 2.4.31 kernel. I get the same messages there as with the 2.6 kernel, but the 32 bit NIC works in 2.4 and not in 2.6, I have tried using mii-tool options to force 10 or 100 HD or FD; but this makes no difference. The modinfo info about module parameters for the 8139too doesn't appear to be useful- not much info about what they are for. Anyway, since I have the same problem with the 32 bit linksys NIC (tulip module), I would have to go through the same procedure with that. No module parameters are used with the 2.4 kernel, either. The problem seems to be a 32 bit issue with the 2.6 kernel, since 32 bits works with 2.4, and a 16 bit NIC works with 2.6.