Belkin F5D5020 16 bit PCMCIA network adapter not working under DSL4.4.10, any ideas?
 

Hello fellow DSL users!

I have just put DSL 4.4.10 on an old laptop.
Twinhead SL9T:-
P1 133MHz 128MB RAM 2GB HDD

Installed without hitch, working desktop Linux environment. Hurray!

Network adapter not working though. Booo!

Has anyone got any ideas how I can get the Belkin F5D5020 16 bit PCMCIA network adapter working under DSL 4.4.10 ?

In dmesg log there are some entries from 'pcnet_nc' reporting errors relating to this card and suggesting I try 'axnet_nc'. I went to quite a bit of trouble to get this driver used instead of 'pcnet_nc' and that hasn't helped. The card is still not working.

As a side issue, I joined up to the official DSL forum to get help on this but cannot post new topic due to lack of permission. I followed all the joining up instructions but cannot seem to get fully registered. I can log in with my user name and password OK but then can't post. Anyone got any thoughts on that?

Thanks,
Daniel.

what version of card, maybe this driver will work
orinoco_cs driver Belkin F5D6020 [only Version 1] the only other thing I've found are a few post about editing the pcmicia config files in /etc

Thanks for the reply colorpurple.

I tried

modprobe -r pcnet_cs

ok

modprobe orinoco_cs

then

lsmod

pcnet unloaded and orinoco loaded but when I

ifconfig eth0

Device eth0 does not exist.

Am I missing something or is there better way to load/unload drivers?

Cheers,
Daniel.

have you tried editing the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts file according to this http://tuxmobil.org/pcmcia_ci10403.html and then modprobe pcnet_cs

Hi colorpurple,

If I try to edit /etc/pcmcia/config.opts, with root access, I have a problem saving it as nano give the following error:-

[Error writing /etc/pcmcia/config.opts: Read-only file system ]

Thanks again for the replies :)

Any more ideas?

colourpurple,

Again, thanks for trying. I am thinking that I would be better to ditch DSL having read that it's core developers have split and that the DSL site/forum is practically a graveyard now.

Cheers,
Daniel.

have work around to edit config.opts file if your still interested.

Hi colorpurple,
Since I am struggling to get any other distro to run at all on the atticware, yes, I would like to know how to fix that config file please
Daniel.

copy the file to your home directory edit the file, copy the file back. then add the file to the filetool.lst from the menu then save/backup. The file is a link to /KNOPPIX/etc/pcmcia/config.opts which is a read only file system setup at boot time. if you want to try another distro try using puppy 2.15ce edition from puppy archives and use xvesa.