The on-board USB ports seem to have failed on my laptop . Rather than going for expensive repairs, I'm looking at getting a PCMCIA/Cardbus USB2 controller, but don't know which ones work with Linux. Some cards also include FireWire which may be useful in future, but is not essential. Can anyone offer any advice as to which cards are good and work on Linux? Preferably not anything hugely expensive!

Two I've found for under £30 are:
- Novatech USB2 2 Port PCMCIA Controller Cardbus Adapter (NLUSB2-502)
- Adaptec USB2connect for Notebooks (1950000EU)
but I can't find any information about whether they work on Linux.

Another 2 for which manufacturer info doesn't seem to be listed are:
- http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...20usb&doy=23m5
- http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...20usb&doy=23m5

This last one looks promising as it says it can take extra power from an existing USB port. Although my ports don't work, they still supply power, so this would avoid the need for an external power supply. Assuming it works with Linux...

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I think all usb controlers have to support either the ohci, uhci or ehci standard.

So regardless of who makes it it should work with linux. ohci and uhci work with usb 1.1 devices. Ohci is the usb 2 standard. So assuming your linux distro has pcmcia support and the ohci uhci or ehci modules it should work a treat.

oh and the same applies to the firewire ports on the 2nd card I like firewire better